Iconography of a holy educator. Don Bosco in Liebig cards
Roberto Alessandrini
Shortly after World War II, Liebig, the factory that more than others promoted the production of advertising trading cards between the Eighteenth and the Twentieth Century, issued a card set dedicated to Don Bosco, the only one to be realized in a century’s time. The six images the set is composed of focus on the educational profile of the Piedmontese Saint (1815-1888). The figurative epic that is employed in telling his story in these cards represents the «fragments of a theology for simple people» and the salient episodes of an exemplary life, with modalities proper of a «visual encyclopaedia»: the iconic representations of sainthood are transferred from a high and artistic level down to a level where people’s fruition is made possible. The six Liebig cards are not sacred or devotional icons, but «cartoons» (so they are defined in the «explanation on the back»). With admiration and respect they narrate the life of an industrious Saint — a central personality in the history of popular Catholic culture — and his concrete and social «miracles», «to make honest and helpful citizens». Within sober and almost non-existent white frames we find images of festive oratories, evening professional and agricultural schools, boarding-schools and Salesian missions; these all gave an original contribution to the Piedmontese Saint’s iconography.
Keywords
Don Bosco, Liebig, Trading cards, Iconography, Education