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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2019
Bramante's illusionistic apse for Santa Maria presso San Satiro in Milan has long been understood as a triumph of Renaissance rationality. This essay shifts attention to the votive and cult contexts of the space and the miraculous image it enshrines. The coro finto efficaciously enhanced the authority of the Madonna and her sponsors—the Sforza dynasty and a confraternity dedicated to the Virgin—by dramatically framing and amplifying the image's potency. Santa Maria presso San Satiro thus flourished as one of Milan's most intensely contested ecclesiastical arenas, in which devotees and institutions maneuvered for access to the potent cult image.
I extend sincere thanks to John Gagné, Liz Horodowich, Areli Marina, Christopher Nygren, Diana Presciutti, Sean Roberts, and Pat Simons, for vital feedback and assistance. I thank RQ’s anonymous reviewers for productive suggestions and criticism. I am particularly grateful to Megan Holmes and Jill Pederson, who over many years encouraged this study, which I dedicate to John Tim and the McCall family's other gamblers.