The Power of Things: Magic and Religion in the Museo Pitrè Collections

Municipal Historical Archive (Via Maqueda, 157)

Tuesday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.

Sunday 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (closed on Monday)

Entrance free

The slender thread between magic and religion in objects of everyday construction in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is the theme of an intriguing and original exhibition that can be seen from 3 February to 914 May 2006 in the Almejda and Pollaci Nuccio Rooms of the Municipal Historical Archive in Via Maqueda, Palermo, directed by Eliana Calandra.

Promoted by the Municipal Secretariat of Culture and realized by Eidos, The Power of Things: Magic and Religion in the Museo Pitrè Collections – as the exhibition is called – makes it possible to admire some one hundred and fifty items and documents related to Sicilian traditions in the field of magic and religion, the fruit of a careful selection made on the basis of criteria of ethnoanthropological and aesthetic interest. The various items nearly all come from the Museo Etnografico Pitrè, some never shown before, while the documents – especially the public notices and edicts – are kept in the Historical Archive.

It is thus possible to admire alembics, charms, amulets, apotropaic masks (to ward off evil), wax “miracles”, collars, jewels, carters’ tools, and hairshirts. Among other things, we find a clay half-apple containing a wax child, a symbol of fertility; a little cloth bag full of wheat, the sign of abundance; and a little cord with “love knots”, to bind a reluctant loved one. The black magic items include an “egg and pins”, in which the symbol of life was used to strike the person one desired to harm, as well as spells, rhymes, and esoteric symbols and instruments, the majority from the Museo Pitrè Magic Room.

Other things, in contrast, have powerful religious connotations, owing to the rituals for which they were intended, as for example the ex votos and the paintings on glass, created as a token of gratitude to a Saint “for grace received”, as well as devotional prints and confraternity plaques and costumes. Some of the items kept in the museum have been restored for greater public enjoyment.

The exhibition, designed by Ignazio Buttitta and realized by an architect, Antonio Di Lorenzo, enables visitors to observe the exhibits as they proceed along the suggested route, with its mazelike twistings and turnings and evocative half-lights that set off the significance of these “mysteries”.