Portrait of Msgr. Lodovico Ideo

(Bishop of Lipari from 1858 to 1880)

The bishop, originally from Pietraperzia (Enna), portrayed seated almost frontally, is the work of a mediocre local painter.

Due to the decreasing attendance in the Upper Town and the establishment there of a forced settlement colony for delinquents and dissidents, Bishop Ideo instituted a bequest for the construction of a new cathedral in the centre of the lower town. His successor, however, did not consider the money sufficient and thought it more useful to alter Monsignor Ideo’s testamentary dispositions by building a new access road to the Upper Town (today’s staircase), which was not built until 1913. Not of robust physical constitution, as well as finding it difficult to travel to the more distant islands, he had to suffer the institutional changes that exacerbated the clash between State and Church. In 1864, animosity against the bishopric even led to the image of St Bartholomew being removed from the civic coat of arms, which was later reassembled in 1934.

Detail
Detail
Unknown, 19th century
Portrait of Msgr. Lodovico Ideo
(Bishop of Lipari from 1858 to 1880)
oil on canvas - from the sacristy of Lipari Cathedral