This article is focused on a new narrative form of the Planctus Mariae: the prayer to the glorious Mary in order to obtain the tale of the pain she felt during the death of her Son. Through the analysis of some textual examples – in particular of the Planctus written by the Cistercian monk Oglerio from Lucedio at the end of the 12th century – this paper aims to underline a different dramatic device of the representation of the Passion of Christ which is characterized by a very specific ‘affective gaze’, capable to see and to feel the likeness to God at the same time...

This paper aims to analyse how, from the second to the fifth centuries AD, Christian thought redefined the dynamics of the human gaze through a dramatic device that put forward a profound argument about the individual’s identity in the context of their relationship with other individuals. Through the writings of the Church Fathers set against the spectacular system of the ancient world – especially as expressed, for example, by Tertullian and Augustine – this paper will highlight how the unity of the Christian “dramatic” has proposed a revolution in sight...