Madonna and Child
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Authors
Domenico Mezagora, attr. to
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Madonna , Mary , Virgin , Jesus
Alternative Title
Abstract
This wood sculpture is all that remains of what was an elaborate architectural and figural altarpiece on the high altar of the Chiesa dell'Assunta, also known as the Madonna del Sasso, in Orselina (Locarno), the site of a Sacro Monte. The sculpture was made in around 1485, when the complex was under the control of Fra Bartolomeo da Ivrea. The work has been attributed to the sculptor called the "Maestro di Santa Maria Maggiore" on the basis of style -- probably a man named Domenico Merzagora. This sculpture is the focus of local devotion and so the figures wear later crowns, and a ring has been added to the Madonna's finger. The late, heavy repaint (likely multiple layers) could also be seen as a form of devotion over the centuries. A Lamentation group by the same artist made for San Francesco in Orselina is now housed also in the Madonna del Sasso. / Today, the Sacro Monte at the Santuario della Madonna del Sasso in Orselina is found in the Swiss Canton of Ticino. During the period in which the Sacro Monte was built, however, the region belonged to the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Milan. The Bishop of Como and the Archbishop of Milan continued to oversee the spiritual governance of Ticino until the mid-nineteenth century. According to local legend, the Sacro Monte was established in 1480 after Brother Bartolomeo d’Ivrea (d. 1511 – 1514), a resident of the Franciscan Convent in nearby Locarno, had a miraculous vision of the Virgin Mary and vowed to build a sanctuary in her honor on the rocky precipice overlooking the city. The Church of the Assumption at the top of the hill, now the Madonna del Sasso, was consecrated in 1487 and the Church of the Annunciation, at the bottom of the hill, was consecrated in 1502. The existence of additional chapels was first mentioned in 1578. Giovanni Battista Banfi, the archpriest of Locarno, wrote in 1596 that there were “little chapels [on the mountain] which, if they were decorated would resemble those at Varallo, but [now] are left undefended and not [decorated] with much diligence.” The Descrittione della devotissima chiesa di S. Maria del Sasso records that there were seven narrative chapels on the mountain by 1625, but only three of them were decorated. Giacomo Stoffio mentions the presence of sculptures inside the chapels of the Nativity, Crucifixion, and Deposition or Pieta, assuring his reader that the Adoration of the Magi, Last Super, Saint Veronica, and Pentecost Chapels would be decorated shortly. Four more chapels had been added by the time the second edition of the Descrittione was published in 1677: The Visitation, Crowning with Thorns, Resurrection, and Ascension. Only four groups of figures seem to survive from this period and Orselina’s original chapels. The sculptures in the Nativity, Adoration of the Magi, and Resurrection Chapels were replaced with new works in the late nineteenth-century and the remaining chapels have been destroyed. Members of the Franciscan Order lived in the convent at Orselina and cared for the sanctuary until the suppression of the religious order in 1848. When the Swiss Confederation allowed religious organizations to reform a few years later the convent was entrusted to a community of Capuchin brothers who have cared for the site since 1852. Orselina’s Sacro Monte is sometimes described as the Sacro Monte of Locarno, because of its proximity to that city. This and the example at Brissago, the Sacri Monti Ticinesi, were recently put forward as potential UNESCO World Heritage sites. They did not advance beyond the national competition in 2017, but their candidacy may still be revisited in future. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Madonna del Sasso, Orsellina (Locarno)
Citation
Raffaele Casciaro, La scultura lignea lombarda del Rinascimento (Milan: Skira, 2000), 96, cat. 62, pp. 288-9.