Movement and Interaction at Santa Maria in Binda

Abstract

The fresco cycle at the church of Santa Maria in Binda, in Nosate, Italy, is remarkable for several reasons. Executed in the early 1500s by Giovani Maria De Lione della Castellanza, the cycle includes a Dance of Death mural practically unknown to scholars and notable not only for its un-usual iconography but also for being one of the very few painted in medieval Italy. The frescoes also feature an extraordinary set of seven images of the Virgin and Child arranged in a row directly above the Dance of Death. Perhaps most intriguingly, the overall iconographic program