The Artistic Patronage of the Confraternities of Schiavoni and Albanians in the Marche Region. The Promotion of the “National” Saints in Pesaro

Abstract

Starting in the 15th century, groups of Schiavoni and Albanians moved from the East Adriatic coast to the Marche region for several reasons. In order to fight suspicion and prejudice, these “unwanted minorities” would frequently gather in confraternities (well documented from Pesaro to Ascoli Piceno) that fostered their members’ integration into the civic and religious life of the new country. The essay examines the artistic patronage of these confraternities, which promoted the cult of specific saints, using Pesaro as an example. Here, the confraternity of Schiavoni is documented from 1477, and its chapel was decorated with a surviving early 16thcentury fresco, which also features the patron saint of the Illyrians, St. Jerome. On the other hand, the only evidence of an Albanian collective identity in Pesaro is represented by a 15th-century fresco of St. Veneranda, preserved in the church of a village bearing the same name. St. Veneranda is a Balkan saint, highly venerated throughout the Marche by the Albanians.