The use of ex-voto for thanksgiving or to invoke a grace dates back to time immemorial. In ancient times, and not only then, even the erection of a sanctuary or a temple was often a result of a grace received; the Basilica of St. John the Evangelist in Ravenna, for example, was built by Galla Placidia as a thanksgiving for having escaped with her son the storm that hit the ship on which she was traveling during a trip between Ravenna and Byzantium.
Ex-voto in terracotta or wood, addressed also to minor deities, such as the goddess Mefitis, are often found during archaeological site excavations. In Roman times, as testified by the greatest writers of that era – Virgil, Cicero, Horace, or Tibullus – it was customary for sailors to hang painted votive tablets around their necks, dedicated to Isis, the goddess who protected against storms, or to Neptune, Castor, and Pollux, protective deities of sailors. The tablets depicted the scene that they had been protagonists of during a danger or a storm; there was also another reason that encouraged people to go around and show the ex-voto: they begged to try to recover at least part of the value of the goods lost during the storm. Very common on the shores of the Mediterranean and the Near East, the ex-voto is nevertheless a phenomenon known also elsewhere, for example in areas bordering Italy, such as Switzerland, the former Yugoslavia, Austria.
It is curious that the craftsmanship of the votive tablets produced in Italy is quite uniform, whether made in the north, center, or south, as if they were produced by a single workshop. The canons for the production of votive tablets are applied following quite precise rules, even though this form of expression falls into what is very broadly defined as “folk art.” The votive tablet is a true treasure trove of information, and through it, it is possible, for example, to follow the evolution of our naval history; in drawings from the 16th century onwards, we see dramatic events represented such as tornadoes or huge waves breaking on the coasts, or even pirate attacks involving boats and crews of all kinds. Trabaccolos, galleys and galleasses, seventeenth-century saettias, tartanes, Sorrentine polaccas, and feluccas are the vessels featured in the drawings; the boats are depicted with various shapes and different types of masts and sails, following the progress of naval architecture up to the depiction of steamboats colliding with sailing ships, almost to emphasize the definitive transition from traditional navigation to “automated” navigation.
The technique used for making votive tablets is generally oil painting on wooden board; sometimes a watercolor on paper was seen, subsequently glued onto a board. In the 18th century, canvas was widely used, while from the last century other materials such as zinc, cardboard, masonite, glass have been introduced. The requested or received grace is represented in two or three successive scenes, on the same drawing, and the position of the interceding deity – usually the Madonna – is always at the top, sometimes in the center but more frequently at one of the two corners of the board; in the 16th and 17th centuries the formulas V.F.G.A or V.F.G.R., “Votum fecit et Gratiam Accepit or Recepit” were used, usually drawn at the bottom left and repeated as many times as the graces. In subsequent centuries the abbreviations P:G:R: or P.G.O., “per grazia ricevuta o ottenuta” were used. Rarely dated and never signed, ex-votos are cataloged precisely based on the depicted scenes: the type of clothing, architecture, customs in vogue during a given period, the iconography of the Madonna are the elements studied for correct dating.
Undoubtedly, ex-votos are the “thermometer” of devotion to one saint rather than another: the more votive tablets are collected in a church or sanctuary, the greater the popular devotion to the divinity to whom the place is dedicated; for example, the Sanctuary of Madonna dell’Arco houses thousands of ex-votos from the 1500s onwards, dealing with the most varied subjects, from volcanic eruptions to road accidents, from episodes of exorcism to simple falls. The sanctuary also contains a significant number of maritime votive tablets that are often gathered in chapels near the sea. In the beautiful little church of Albori, a village on the Amalfi Coast, there is a wealth of ex-votos relating to the navy. Among the people who use ex-votos most frequently and constantly we certainly find the members of ship crews, united in danger and isolation by a constant sense of anguish and religiosity; often resolvable with the help of magic, the saint, the miracle.
