All travelers in Tuscany will have noticed the tabernacles, small niches housing the statue of a Saint or the Virgin Mary in the countryside along small roads and paths, as well as in the cities. And there are many such tabernacles around Villa le Barone!
All travelers and hikers in Tuscany have certainly noted, whether in cities or in the countryside, these small tabernacles, niches along small roads or streets, containing the image or the statue of the Virgin or of a saint. Reflecting the popular devotion of the past centuries, they were also offering a sense of security and assurance to travelers and pilgrims.
Villa Barone in Panzano in Chianti is proud to host at its entrance the tabernacle of San Gerardo di Majella, patron of mothers and children. And, on the small road that goes from Villa to the Romanesque church “Pieve di San Leolino”, lies the tabernacle of San Isidoro, dated 1648, and built about 25 years after the canonization of the Spanish Saint as the Patron of farmers. The image that has been recently painted by Massimo Buccioni when the tabernacle was restored, represent San Isidoro and San Eufrosino on each side of the Virgin, following one of the most classic of sacred art rules: on the right, is San Isidoro whose prayers would have brought forth a spring at a time of great drought, and on the left is San Eufrosino who evangelized Chianti and is its Patron. He too would have brought out a spring,that can be seen near the chapel that bears his name in Panzano. Massimo Buccioni has represented these springs in a typical Tuscan summer countryside with ripe wheat and poppies, Chianina oxen, and in the background, Chianti landscape.
It is difficult to describe all the tabernacles that can be discovered in Chianti and Tuscany. Witnesses of popular devotion, they form a network of works of art that are not enough known.