4. The Purification. I can hardly say why this chapel should remind me,
as it does, of the Circumcision chapel at Varallo, for there are more
figures here than space at Varallo will allow. It cannot be pretended
that any single figure is of extraordinary merit, but amongst them they
tell their story with excellent effect. Two, those of St. Joseph and St.
Anna (?), that doubtless were once more important factors in the drama,
are now so much in corners near the window that they can hardly be seen.
5. The Dispute in the Temple. This subject is not treated at Varallo.
Here at Saas there are only six doctors now; whether or no there were
originally more cannot be determined.
6. The Agony in the Garden. Tabachetti had no chapel with this subject
at Varallo, and there is no resemblance between the Saas chapel and that
by D'Enrico. The figures are no doubt approximately in their original
positions, but I have no confidence that I have rearranged them
correctly. They were in such confusion when I first saw them that the
Rev. E. J. Selwyn and myself determined to rearrange them. They have
doubtless been shifted more than once since Tabachetti left them. The
sleeping figures are all good. St. James is perhaps a little prosaic.
One Roman soldier who is coming into the garden with a lantern, and
motioning silence with his hand, does duty for the others that are to
follow him. I should think more than one of these figures is actually
carved in wood by Tabachetti, allowance being made for the fact that he
was working in a material with which he was not familiar, and which no
sculptor of the highest rank has ever found congenial.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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