, painted limewood,
Bode Museum, Berlin. Probably the oldest version known is a small panel by
Duccio of c. 1280, with three
Franciscan friars under the cloak, in the Pinacoteca in
Siena. Here the Virgin sits, only one side of the cloak is extended, and the Virgin holds her child on her knee with her other hand. A miniature of c. 1274 from the
Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia also shows a variant of the motif, as do 13th century paintings in
Cyprus, such as an icon in the Byzantine Museum in the
Archbishop's Palace, Nicosia. The common factor between all these is the influence and presence of Western
mendicant orders, especially the Franciscans, who appear to have been important in spreading this form of
iconography. The immediate inspiration of the iconography comes from a vision reported in the
Dialogus Miraculorum of the
Cistercian Caesarius of Heisterbach which circulated widely from about 1230. Beyond that, the origins of the image may relate to rituals and a vision or miracle connected with a famous icon in the
Blachernae Church in
Constantinople. This gave rise in the
Byzantine Rite (
Eastern Orthodox and
Eastern Catholic Churches) to the
Pokrov icons, although the image is not found in
Byzantine art. In the Pokrov icons the thought is similar, but the image is usually less literal – the veil with which the Virgin protects mankind is small and held either in her hands or by two angels, though the Western version with a larger cloak is found in some Eastern Orthodox icons, one of a number of Western iconographic features that influenced Orthodox art, whether in
Cyprus under the
Crusaders or 16th-century Eastern Europe. The image also fits well with the words of the ancient hymn
Sub tuum praesidium, probably composed in the 3rd century, and used in most pre-Reformation churches of both the Western and Eastern churches. Usually the image, whether in sculpture or painting, stands by itself. Nevertheless, in the most famous example, the
Madonna della Misericordia altarpiece (1445–1462) in
Sansepolcro by
Piero della Francesca, the subject is the central panel of a large
altarpiece, with a smaller Crucifixion above it, and many other panels. The image came in for special derision from
Martin Luther, who compared it to "a hen with her chicks". In the Spanish
The Virgin of the Navigators of the 1530s, where those sheltered are a group connected with the Spanish voyages to the
New World, including American indigenous peoples, the group is shown over a panorama of ships at rest in a harbour. In Germany during the Middle Ages, an almost identical image was used featuring
Saint Ursula, usually holding her
attribute of an arrow to avoid confusion. In this pictorial tradition, also the iconography of the
Works of mercy alludes sometimes to the Virgin of Mercy, such as
Caravaggio in his huge
painting in Naples, because in 1606/07 it was commissioned for the church of the Confraternita del Pio Monte della Misericordia. == Veneration ==