Mary, Queen of Families Chapel
Commissioned by the influential Italian artist Mimmo Paladino (b.1948), the Chapel includes a ceiling mosaic, stained-glass window, and incised wall frescoes replete with rich symbolic references to the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, the Catholic liturgy, the Congregation of the Holy Cross, the natural terrain, and indigenous peoples of our region. For the commission, Paladino studied the history of Marian imagery, the University of Notre Dame, and the local landscape to prepare for the project. His goal was to connect the present and past around the imagery of the Virgin Mary, thus animating the collections in the Museum in an authentic way. The Chapel brings together significant paintings from the thirteenth and early-sixteenth centuries into dialogue with Paladino’s art to celebrate millennia of tradition that link the history of the Catholic Church and the history of art.
