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
Cusa says that this chapel, which again is not in the Palazzo di Pilato
block, adheres very closely to the design of Pellegrino Tibaldi. The
figures, thirty-three in number, are by Giovanni D’Enrico and Giacomo
Ferro, and the frescoes being dated 1642, we may think the terra-cotta
work to be among the last done by D’Enrico on the Sacro Monte. The
figure of Caiaphas must be given to him, and it is hard to see how it
could have been more dramatically treated. Caiaphas has stepped down
from his throne, which is left vacant behind him, and is adjuring Jesus
to say whether he is the Christ the Son of God. If it were not for the
cobweb between the arm and the body, the photograph which is here given
might almost pass as having been taken from life, and the character is so
priest-like that it is hard to understand how priests could have
tolerated it as they did. Indeed, the figure is so far finer than the
general run of Giovanni D’Enrico’s work, and so infinitely superior to
the four figures of Pilate in the four Pilate chapels, that we should be
tempted to give it to some other sculptor if, happily, the Herod did not
also show how great D’Enrico could be when he was doing his best, and if
the evidence for its having been by him were not so strong.
To the left of Caiaphas’s empty throne are two standing figures, which
look as if they had been begun for figures of Christ, but were condemned
as not good enough. They may perhaps be intended for Joseph and
Nicodemus. Some few of the other figures, which in all number
thirty-three, are also full of character, but the greater part of them do
not rise above the level of Giacomo Ferro’s supers, and suffer from
having lost much paint; nevertheless the chapel is effective, chiefly,
doubtless, through the excellence of the Caiaphas himself, and if we
could see the work as it was when D’Enrico left it we should doubtless
find it more effective still.
The frescoes are by Cristoforo Martinolo, also named Rocca. They are not
of remarkable excellence, but form an efficient background, and are among
the best preserved on the Sacro Monte. They have also the great merit of
being legibly signed and dated.
CHAPEL NO. 26. THE REPENTANCE OF ST. PETER.
Hard by under a portico there is a statue of St. Peter, repentant, and
over him there is a cock still crowing. The figure of St. Peter, and
presumably that of the cock also, are by D’Enrico. I can find nothing
about the date in any author.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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