ABSTRACT
Miraculous images appear to raise the issue of the agency of things in an acute form. They are man-made objects which are treated in ways analogous to human agents and are apparently credited with a capacity to enact change in the world either by acting on something else, such as a sick human body, or by transforming themselves. Take the case of the wall painting venerated as Santa Maria delle Carceri - Saint Mary of the Prison - in Prato which began to be associated with miraculous activity in 1484 and was enshrined in the celebrated church designed by Giuliano da Sangallo and begun in 1485. The writer's nephew was healed when the boy's father visited the shrine and vowed him to the Madonna of the Carceri. Guizzelmi frames the healing story in a wholly orthodox way. When the miracle is recognised, he has the boy's parents thank God and the Virgin Mary.
