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 chapel is given as completed in the 1586 edition of Caccia, so that
Bordiga and Cusa are wrong in dating it 1598. In the poetical part of
Caccia it is described as recently made and “_ben ritratto_.” The woman
of Samaria is a fine buxom figure, but the paint has peeled off so badly
both from her and from the Christ that it is hardly fair to judge the
work at all. I should think it was very possibly an early work by
Tabachetti, but should be sorry to hazard a decided opinion. The
frescoes are without interest. The graces at this chapel were chiefly
for women who wanted to abandon some evil practice, and for rain when the
country was suffering from long drought. This last is because Christ
said to the woman of Samaria “Give me to drink.”
CHAPEL NO. 15. THE PARALYTIC.
The chapel alone was completed by 1586 and 1590, so that we may be
certain Tabachetti had no hand in it. The statues are said to be by
D’Enrico, whom we meet here for the first time. Bordiga praises them
very highly, but neither Jones nor I liked the composition as much as we
should have wished to have done. Some of the individual figures are
good, especially a man with his arm in a sling, and two men conversing on
the left of the composition, but there is too little concerted and united
action, and too much attempt to show off every figure to the best
advantage, to the sacrifice of more important considerations. They
probably date from 1620–1624, in which last year Bordiga says that the
frescoes were completed. These are chiefly, if not entirely, by
Cristoforo Martinolo, a Valsesian artist and pupil of Morazzone, who,
according to Bordiga, though little known, has here shown himself no
common artist. Again neither Jones nor I admired them as much as we
should have been glad to do. “All infirmities of fever, and paralysis,”
says Fassola, “if recommended to the Great Saviour at this place will be
dissipated, as may be gathered from the many _voti_ here exhibited.”
CHAPEL NO. 16. THE WIDOW’S SON AT NAIN.
Of this chapel the walls are alone mentioned as completed in 1590. So
that Bordiga and Cusa are again wrong in saying that the frescoes were
painted about 1580. It is not good. The walls were probably raised soon
after 1580. Donna Mathilde di Savoia, Marchesa di Pianezza, a natural
daughter of Carlo Emmanuele I., was among the principal contributors.
The graces were “for those who had had bad falls or any accidents whereby
they had been rendered speechless, stupid, senseless, and apparently
dead.”
It will be observed on referring to the plan facing p. 68, that this
chapel is given as on the ground now occupied by Christ taken before
Annas, and faces the Herod chapel on the Piazza dei Tribunali. This may
be a mere error in the plan, but the plan is generally accurate, and it
is very likely that a change was made in the middle of the last century
when the Annas chapel was built.
CHAPEL NO. 17. THE TRANSFIGURATION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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