Pudicizia Corradini

The pink snake is lying on his belly, leaving

a bush enclosed between two fingers of his

right hand, crouched horizontally on the

womb until he reaches the other arm.

The left hand leans on the inverted corner of

a broken stone.

Alongside the foot of the statue is placed a

firewood jar.

In a bas-relief, under the sculpture, the Latin

Evangelical Epistle of "Noli me tangere" is

reproduced. Jesus is depicted there, through

the symbol of a spade holding in his hand,

as an ortholar who is traded by Mary

Magdalene in the Gospel of John. Behind

Maria di Magdala there is a young

oak.Finally, the monument is adorned with

large oak shrubs. An Initiatic Reading

The most acclaimed reading of “The Pudicizia Velata”

is probably originated in a monograph, by Rosanna

Cioffi, which has the foundation in the Masonic's

militancy of Raimondo di Sangro.

The Pudicizia Velata , as it happens in esoteric

interpretations when it is in the presence of a veil, is

considered as a whole an allusion to the veiled

wisdom. The same oak shrubs are supposed to be

references to the “prisca sapientia”, since oak is

considered representative of the Tree of knowledge of

Good and Evil.

Corradinian bas-relief depicting the episode of "Noli

me tangere" is based on the theme of "the old veiled

and intangible wisdom for those who have not begun

to its mysteries" and is also considered a metaphor for

a journey of initiation, in which the neophyte on the

way, he has to symbolically die to reborn.

Esoteric reading suggests that the censer at the foot of the sculpture

reinforces the initiatory character of the representation, which may

result in the fumigations with which the Masons purify their rites.

To the collapsed and overturned stone represents the premature

death of Raimondo di Sangro's mother.

Finally, in the no less-esoteric interpretation of another author, L.

Sansone Vagni, it is learned that it could allude to the Templar

tradition of "Mystic Rose."

The reading now exposed is dominant today. But it is, and remains,

a reading. Most likely the statue is also an allegory to wisdom, with

a reference to the veiled Isis, the Egyptian goddes of fertility and

initiatory science; This association is fortified by the fact that

according to a tradition in ancient times in the same location where

Pudicizia was located, there was a statue dedicated to the goddess

Isis.

A proposal for classical interpretation

In the Pudicizia Velata there is the dominant symbol of the oak. The

monument to Raimondo of Sangro's dead mother is decorated with

dense oak vegetation. The leaves of oak were also carved by Antonio

Corradini in the bas-relief of the "Noli me tangere", which describes

the episode that took place in the garden of the Resurrection.In the

universal image of “Amor di Fama" by Cesare Ripa, it is explained:

"The Civic Crown was of Oak and the ancients crowned almost all

jupiter’s statues of oak, almost as if it were a sign of life and the

Romans gave Oak garland to those who had been in the war to defend

a Roman citizen from death, wanting to give life lessons to those who

are the other cause of life. " It is pure in the Christian tradition, as it is

supposed that the Cross of Christ was made with oak wood, oak

symbolizing the Tree of Life rather than that of science. In support of

these references, bringing oak to the tree of life rather than the

knowledge of the good and the evil of the Masonic thesis, it seems

reasonable since Raimondo di Sangro in his greatest work has

dedicated forty pages to the discussion of The Tautica Figure, the Tau's

letter, the ancient cross of Paleojewish language , is absolutely logical,

in any case, that a tree whose leaves are carved in a bas-relief

representing the encounter between the risen Christ and Maddalena can

only represent Tree of Life.

The tattered and overturned stone in the monument of

Pudicizia, which is exactly crushed and overturned in a

corner, from a logical point of view, can not allude to the

premature death of Don Raimondo's mother and near the

evangelical garden of the Resurrection, sculptured The

Bas-relief of Corradini is told to have an inverted stone.

The collapsed and overturned lap of the Pudicizia means

therefore the resurrection.In the burning fire burns

incense and incense increases as prayer, but it is also a

reference to eternal life. The censer also burns myrrh,

which, being an aroma for embalming the bodies, is a

symbol of immortality. A vessel containing myrrh,

referring once again to the event reported in the bas-

relief of the "Noli me tangere", was accompanied by

Maria Maddalena, which is therefore called

"mirrophora", ie “myrrh carrier”; Even the vessel burns

the perfume, so, in a traditional interpretation of art,

refers to the concept of eternal life.

The rose bud belt on the abdomen of Pudicizia, in the most universal and natural metaphor of this world, can only refer

to life that breaks again. “Tanti volti, che Morte e ‘l Tempo ha guasti, / torneranno al suo più fiorito stato” wrote

Francesco Petrarca in the “Trionfo dell’Eternità”. Life, resurrection, immortality, rebirth: these concepts, obsessively

reiterated by the impetus of a chisel, emerge bright and clear in the light of traditional iconology. The veil remains to be

investigated. What can the diaphanus veil cover the naked body in a more conventional interpretation?