Fetta del frutto Niceffo che rappresenta l’imagini di N.S. con i raggi internalli anco la Concettioní della B.V.1

Slice of the Niceffo that shows the image of Our Lord [Jesus Christ] with the radius inside also the [Immaculate] Conception of the Holy Virgin.

• 1. The appearance of a crucifix in bananas is a long-lived Franciscan trope, often repeated in the Capuchin central African corpus. See Fromont, Images on a Mission, 75, 83, 85-86. For other mentions of the crucifix see Cadornega and Delgado, História geral das guerras angolanas, 1680[-1681], 3:372; Mattheus Cardoso in Brásio, Costa, and Correia, História do Reino do Congo, 37; Dionigi da Piacenza and Michel Angelo da Reggio, Viaggio, 48-49. Here, the author adds a reference to the Immaculate Conception, a devotion that Capuchins championed at the time.