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
I am confirmed in this opinion by noting, as I have done for many years
past, that the figure next to that of Scotto is not unlike the portraits
of Leonardo da Vinci, of which I give the one (whether by himself or no I
do not know) that I believe to be the best. I had been reminded of
Leonardo da Vinci by this figure long before I knew of Scotto’s
existence, and had often wondered why he was not made the outside and
most prominent figure; now, then, that I see reason to think the outside
figure intended for Gaudenzio’s own master, I understand why the
preference has been given him, and have little doubt that next to his own
master Gaudenzio has placed the other great contemporary art-teacher at
Milan whose pupil he never actually was, but whose influence he must have
felt profoundly. I also derive an impression that Gaudenzio liked and
respected Scotto though he may have laughed at him, but that he did not
like Leonardo, who by the way had been dead about ten years when this
figure was placed where it now is.
I see, therefore, the two figures as those of Scotto and of Leonardo da
Vinci, and think it likely that in the one portrait we have by far the
most characteristic likeness of Leonardo that has come down to us. In
his own drawings of himself he made himself out such as he wanted others
to think him; here, if I mistake not, he has been rendered as others saw
him. The portrait of Scotto is beyond question an admirable likeness; it
is not likely that the Leonardo is less successful, and we find in the
searching, eager, harassed, and harassing unquiet of the figure here
given a more acceptable rendering of Leonardo’s character and appearance
than any among the likenesses of himself which are more or less plausibly
ascribed to him. The question is one of so much interest that I must
defer its fuller treatment for another work, in which I hope to deal with
the portraits of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini, and with Holbein’s “Danse
des Paysans.” I have, however, given above the greater part of the
information of which I am as yet possessed upon the subject. In
conclusion, I may say that I mentioned the matter to Signor Boccioloni
the Sindaco of Varallo, and to other friends with whom I have discussed
the question on the spot, and found that people generally seemed to
consider the case as rather a strong one.
As regards the portraits supposed to be found on the frescoes, they are
all so doubtful that I will refrain from discussing them, but will refer
my readers to Colombo. The only exception is a portrait of one of the
Scarrognini family which is seen on the right-hand wall above the door,
the fact of the portraiture being attested by a barbarous scrawl upon the
fresco itself.
Caccia says of the work with more enthusiasm than even I can command, but
in a style of poetry which I find it fairly easy to render, that we may
see among the spectators
“ . . . à maraviglia,
Vi son più donne con la sua famiglia;”
which means in English—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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