Archdiocese defends ‘androgynous’ Virgin Mary on historic festival banner

SIENA, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — A centuries-old Marian tradition at the heart of Siena’s Palio horse race has become the center of controversy after the city’s official devotional banner depicted the Virgin Mary with “androgynous” features.

The local archdiocese came out in defense of the image against widespread criticism among the faithful.

On August 10, the Municipality of Siena unveiled the painted silk banner, or “Drappelone,” of the Virgin Mary to be awarded to the winning district, or “contrada,” of the August race. Commissioned by the city and created by Romanian artist Teodora Axente, the banner shows the city and its districts in its lower section, topped by a large image of the Virgin Mary with markedly masculine features.

A few days later, on August 14, the banner was taken to Siena Cathedral to be blessed by the archbishop ahead of the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the patron of the city of Siena.

#Palio di #Siena, come è stata raffigurata la Madonna: polemica sul drappellonehttps://t.co/G11LobTOPr

— IL TEMPO (@tempoweb) August 16, 2026

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Axente defended the image as her personal vision of the Blessed Virgin. “This is the Madonna that I dream of, this is my vision of the Madonna,” she said. The artist’s work draws on her interest in surrealism and metamorphosis.

During an interview with Siena News, the journalist noted that, for the first time in the history of the Palio, “many women” are depicted in the banner. Axente replied that “the characters don’t refer to being a woman or a man; they are more androgynous, so they are universal characters.”

“With all due reverence to the Most Holy Mary, the Drappellone of the Palio di Siena for the Assumption looks like a man – almost … a ‘cross‑dresser,’ even in the hands,” Italian blog Messainlatino commented on August 14.

However, the Archdiocese of Siena issued a defense of the image through Father Enrico Grassini, director of the archdiocesan Cultural Heritage Office. The priest rejected the idea that Axente intended to produce a profane image while arguing that the artist should have been informed beforehand about the religious significance of the work.

“Considering the cultural and educational context in which the artist works – one of the most renowned art schools in Eastern Europe, the Cluj school in Romania, where contemporary art often engages with Christian spiritual themes and traditional forms – the language of provocation seems absent from the piece,” Grassini wrote.

“The artist, moreover, comes from a Christian formation rooted in the Orthodox tradition, with the resulting limitation of not fully entering into the Western developments of Marian spirituality over the last five centuries, which the Palio’s iconography instead draws upon,” the official statement continues.

However, Byzantine iconography is notably among the most rigid and codified forms of sacred representation. Its visual grammar was fixed by theological and artistic canons between the 11th and 14th centuries and has remained remarkably stable ever since. The so-called neo-Byzantine school does not innovate freely but rather revives those medieval models in order to preserve doctrinal clarity through stylistic continuity.

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The Palio di Siena is one of Italy’s oldest and most spectacular civic traditions: a horse race held twice a year in the medieval city. Each race takes place in the city’s central square, where ten of Siena’s historic districts compete for victory. The event is not merely a sporting competition but a centuries-old ritual of civic pride and religious devotion to the Virgin Mary, who is the city’s patron.

The “Drappellone,” namely, the Palio banner, is a painted silk standard awarded to the winning “contrada.” The August Drappelone is commissioned each year from a different artist and serves as both a prize and a devotional image, traditionally depicting Our Lady and symbols of Siena. The banner becomes a cherished relic for the victorious district.