I Savoia e la Sindone di Cristo: aspetti politici e propagandistici

With the purchase of the Shroud in 1453, the House of Savoy acquired an instrument of symbolic power, which they put at the service of propaganda and legitimation of their own dynasty in a Christological key. This took place in a historical moment in which the family was increasing its political importance and, as a way to support it, was creating its very own and specific religious and devotional horizon. The organization and the creation of spaces for the exhibition and devotion of the Shroud, the way to show off the relic and the intertwined relations with other political and religious leaders - through the use of the Shroud or by sending painted copies - clearly pursued a specific aim. The historical, laudatory and religious literature dedicated to the Shroud in the modern age is an example of political propaganda merged with religious inspiration.