Ex Voto: An Account of the Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at Varallo-Sesia: With Some Notice of Tabachetti's Remaining Work at the Sanctuary of CreaButler, Samuel
Religion
Ex Voto: An Account of the Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at Varallo-Sesia: With Some Notice of Tabachetti's Remaining Work at the Sanctuary of Crea
Butler, Samuel
Art -- Italy -- Varallo-Sesia; Sacro Monte di Varallo (Sanctuary); Tabaguet, Jean Baptiste, 1568 -1615
This is one of the finest chapels, the concert between the figures being
better than in most of D’Enrico’s other work, notwithstanding the fact
that more than one, and probably several, are old figures taken from
chapels that were displaced when the Palazzo di Pilato block was made.
The figures are thirty-seven in number, and are disposed in a spacious
hall not wholly unlike the vestibule of the Reform Club, Christ and His
immediate persecutors appearing in a balustraded balcony above a spacious
portico that supports it. This must have been one of D’Enrico’s first
works on the Sacro Monte, the frescoes having been paid for on Dec. 7,
1612, as shown by Morazzone’s receipt which is still in existence, and
which is for the sum of 2400 _imperiali_. Of these frescoes it is
impossible to speak highly; they look clever at first and from a
distance, but do not bear closer attention. Morazzone took pains with
the Journey to Calvary chapel, which was his first work on the Sacro
Monte, but never did anything so good again.
[Picture: Plate XI. “Stefano Scotto and Mr. S. Butler”]
Of the terra-cotta figures, the one to the extreme left is certainly by
Gaudenzio Ferrari, being another portrait, in nearly the same attitude,
of the extreme figure to the left in the Crucifixion chapel. For reasons
into which I will enter more fully when I come to this last-named work, I
do not doubt that Stefano Scotto, Gaudenzio’s master, is the person
represented. I had to go inside the chapel to hold a sheet behind the
figure in order to detach it from the background, so had myself taken
along with it to show how it compares with a living figure. It is
generally said at Varallo to be a portrait of Giovanno D’Enrico’s brother
Tanzio, but this is obviously impossible, for not only does the same
person reappear in the Crucifixion chapel, but he is also found in
Gaudenzio’s early fresco of the Disputa in the Sta. Margherita chapel
already referred to, and elsewhere, as I will presently show. I should
be sorry to say that any other figure in the Ecce Homo chapel except this
is certainly by Gaudenzio, but am inclined to think that two or three
others are also by him, the rest being probably all of them by D’Enrico
or some assistant. Some—more especially two children, on the head of one
of whom a man has laid his hand—are of extreme beauty. The child that is
looking up is among the most beautiful in the whole range of sculpture;
the other is not so good, but has suffered in re-painting, the eyelid
being made too red; if this were remedied, as it easily might be, the
figure would gain greatly. Cav. Prof. Antonini has very successfully
substituted plaster hair for the horsehair, which had in great measure
fallen off. The motive of this incidental group is repeated, but with
less success, in Giovanni D’Enrico’s Nailing to the Cross.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account