DIONISO MONTORSELLI (1653-1690)

The painting placed to the left of the main portal enables the viewer to experience one of the most noted mystical visions of Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, one of the main Carmelite Saints, here with Jesus who is placing a crown of thorns on her head. On May 4th 1585, in one of her moments of meditation and prayer, Mary Magdalene said to God: “My Jesus, why can’t it be me that suffers so much pain, [...] why can’t I remove that thorny crown that afflicts you so from your head and put it on mine, because you bear it for me and for me you suffer this pain and torment?” One of the important writings that gather the accounts of her ecstasies (The Forty Days, ch. XXIX), testifies that Mary Magdalene, honoured by Christ’s apparition, invoked the presence of the Blessed Virgin, of Saint Augustine, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Angelus Carmelite, her spiritual guides, asking them to assist her in this painful gift. So Jesus placed the crown of thorns on Saint Mary Magdalene’s head to share the suffering with her, predicting the affliction that she, in actual fact, suffered throughout her entire life, in particular on her head and on Fridays in memory of this grace she had received . In the painting, the moment of ecstasy is surrounded by a blaze of angelic cherubs who offer lilies to Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Catherine of Siena, thus . . .