ABSTRACT
In this chapter the author delineate an evolving iconography of female venerables and beatae popular in Mantua, beginning with the completion of Sant Andrea up to the early sixteenth century. The objective is to locate the Beata Osanna altarpiece within the evolving genre of beata images in this period. Before its suppression in the eighteenth century, San Vincenzo housed the relics of two important local saints: the Margherita Torchi, a nun who entered the monastery when it was founded in 1260, and the Maddalena Coppini, who was also a nun at San Vincenzo. The author also make a connection between the evolving iconography of the beata altarpieces and the simultaneous reinvention of the iconography of female saints whose cults rose to prominence during the Great Schism of the church after 1378. Bonsignoris altarpiece of the Beata Osanna Andreasi can therefore be seen in the context of contemporary Lombard and Mantuan trends in the depiction of local beatae.
