Flagellation (or Christ at the Column)
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Authors
Giovanni Battista da Corbetta and Giovanni d'Enrico
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Flagellation , Jesus , Column , Soldiers , Passion , Trial
Alternative Title
Abstract
Chapels Thirty through Thirty-Two line a long hallway inside the ground floor of the Palazzo di Pilato. The building was constructed between 1595 and 1610 to house the scenes of Jesus' trial and condemnation by the Roman governor. This was among the last chapels in Pilate's Palace to be completed because of the layers of bedrock on this portion of the mountain, which had to be removed before construction could proceed. It was built between 1605 and 1610. The fist chapels that showed Jesus being beaten and crowned with thorns were probably planned by Caimi and located near the modern site of the Temptation of Christ in the Desert (Chapel Thirteen), according to Stefania Stefani Perrone. That first Flagellation Chapel was destroyed in 1898. A number of the wooden figures from the original sculptural group survive, including the statue of Christ (c. 1548 - 1559), which was donated to the Pinacoteca di Varallo by Cristoforo Bussi in 1889 (inv. 626) and is attributed to Giovanni Battista da Corbetta (c. 1501 - 1589). The frescoes from the old chapel were also removed to the Pinacoteca and are attributed to Bernardino Lanino around 1540. Two of the existing sculptures were transferred to the new chapel and placed along the back wall when it was finished in 1610, at the request of Bishop Carlo Bascapè. These guards and the original figure of Christ are clearly identified in the images of this scene that were printed in the first two illustrated guidebooks to Varallo: Giovanni Giacomo Ferrari's Brevi considerazioni (1611) and Tomasso Nanni's Dialogo sopra i misteri del Sacro Monte (1616). Another figure from the original group was moved to the scene of Christ's Capture (now in Chapel Twenty-Three), perhaps around the same time. Giovanni Battista da Corbetta had carved all of these figures around 1548 - 1560. In 1606, Giovanni d'Enrico made four new figures for the chapel in terracotta. He modeled his image of Jesus on the original sculpture, which it replaced and was believed to be a divinely inspired portrait of Christ, according to Butler and Torrotti. All of the statues are roughly life-sized. The frescoes were painted by Cristoforo Martinoli, who was known as il Rocca because he was from the neighboring town of Roccapietra. He signed and dated his work in 1620. The figure closest to the viewer on the left-hand side of the chapel is also believed to be a self-portrait of the artist. A false wall had been added around the inside of the chapel in 1616 to provide insulation and protect the frescoes from the ambient humidity, but the paintings still suffered major losses along the lower portion of the walls, which are below ground-level, and are essentially illegible. Elena de Filippis records that the statues were restored by Giovanni Albertone, a stucco artist, and repainted by Carlo Boccioloni in 1830-31. They were treated again by conservators in 1993. / Varallo was the first Sacro Monte in Northern Italy. The collection of chapels on the hilltop overlooking Varallo was established by Bernardino Caimi (before 1450 - 1499 or 1500) as a way of recreating the sights and experiences of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He organized the chapels according to their Holy Land geography and incorporated architectural details from the pilgrimage churches corresponding to each scene. Caimi chose Varallo to be the site of his New Jerusalem in 1481, he received papal permission to begin collecting donations in 1486, and he is believed to have overseen the project from 1491, when the first chapel was finished, until his death. Different writers have counted each of these dates as the year of the Sacro Monte founding. Many of the early chapels were decorated by Gaudenzio Ferrari (c. 1480 - 1546), who was born nearby and gained a reputation during his lifetime as one of the leading painters in Lombardy. Saint Carlo Borromeo (1538 - 1584) visited the Sacro Monte multiple times while he was Archbishop of Milan (1564 - 1584). Carlo and his contemporaries implemented new policies to clarify Catholic doctrine and structure spiritual practices in Milan after the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563). Carlo Bascapè (1550 - 1615), Saint Carlo's close friend and the Bishop of Novara, personally oversaw a building campaign to reorganize the chapels at Varallo and restructure the pilgrimage experience according to the ideals of the Counter-Reformation. These changes were largely based on designs by Galeazzo Alessi (1512 - 1572), which are collected and preserved in a manuscript called the Libro dei Misteri (1565 - 1569) in Varallo's Biblioteca Civica. Construction continued throughout the first half of the seventeenth-century, led primarily by Giovanni d'Enrico the Younger (c. 1559 - 1644) and his family workshop. Beginning in 1609, d'Enrico also supervised the construction of the new Basilica, which is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. The Basilica was consecrated in 1649 and the old church, or Chiesa Vecchia, was demolished in 1773, but the Chiesa Nuova was not finished until the façade was added in 1891 - 1896.
Description
Sacro Monte, Varallo
Citation
Galeazzo Alessi, Libro dei misteri: Progetto di pianificazione urbanistica, architettonica e figurativa del Sacro Monte di Varallo (1565 - 1569). Stefania Stefani Perrone ed., (Bologna: Fracesco de Franceschi, 1974), Vol. I, 63 and Plan 1, Vol. II, Folio 196/202; Samuel Butler, Ex Voto: An Account of The Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at Varallo-Sesia (London: Tübner & Co., 1888), 179 - 183; Gaudenzio Bordiga, Storia e guida del Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Francesco Caligaris, 1830), 69 - 70; Girolamo Cattaneo, Guida per ben vistare la nuova Gerusalemme nel Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Francesco Calligaris, 1826), 66 - 67; Elena De Filippis, Guida del Sacro Monte di Varallo (Borgosesia: Tipolitografia di Borgosesia, 2009), 104 - 105; Giovanni Giacomo Ferrari. Brevi considerazioni Sopra i Misteri del Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Pietro Revelli, 1611), unpaginated; Tomasso Nanni. Dialogo sopra i Misteri del Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Pietro Revelli, 1616), unpaginated; Stefania Stefani Perrone, Guida al Sacro Monte di Varallo (Torino: Kosmos Edizioni, 1995), 64 - 65; Francesco Torrotti, Historia della Nuova Gierusalemme: Il Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Unknown, 1686), 80 - 83.