The panel was originally placed on the high altar of the Church of Maria SS. dell’Arco and Saints John the Baptist and Nicolò, adjoining the Church of Our Lady of Grace, inside the castle walls. When the church was decommissioned, the work was moved to St. Peter’s Church where at the end of the 19th century it was still possible to admire two parts now lost: the upper lunette with the Trinity and a lower panel with episodes from the lives of the saints.
On the base of the throne on which the Virgin sits it is possible to read an interesting inscription that informs about the commission, date and place of execution:
“Questa cona è stata facta in Napoli per li maistri et governatori della confrataria de Santo Nicola della fedelissima città de Lipari per mano de Marino Maiorca maestro de detta confrataria agiutata della elemosine per mano de Angelo Vitigliano nell’anno 1565 nel primo de aprile.”
This work can, therefore, be considered as one of the many testimonies to the will to recover and the rapidity in reorganizing religious and social structures on the part of the Liparians after the terrible sack of 1544.
Next to the Virgin, in addition to the two Saints – well detailed – who gave their names to the two main seafaring areas of Lipari (Marina di San Giovanni and Marina di San Nicolò, today Marina corta and Marina lunga), it is possible to notice – in an attitude of veneration and portrayed in smaller size – the commissioner, “master” of the Confraternity of San Nicola.
