Crucifixion (or Jesus Raised on the Cross)
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Authors
Gaudenzio Ferrari
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Crucifixion , Jesus , Passion , Mary , Soldiers , Cross
Alternative Title
Abstract
The original Crucifixion chapel at Varallo was already finished by the time the first guidebook Questi sono li Misteri che sono sopra el Monte de Varalle (1514) was written. At that time the scene only contained a few figures: Jesus and the two thieves on their crosses and Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross. It is clear that current chapel was finished by 21 August 1521, since Guido Gentile has found graffiti in the frescoes bearing that date. Pietro Ravelli and Bernardino Baldi led the Fabbrica and supervised construction efforts beginning in 1517. The chapel was likely designed by Gaudenzio Ferrari, who, along with his workshop, also made all the interior decorations apart from the statue of Christ, which is believed to predate the current structure (c. 1490). The three figures on the crosses are made of wood, and the remaining sculptures are modeled in terracotta. They are all life-sized. For much of the chapel's history, pilgrims entered the chapel from the door on the right of the sculptural group and departed on the opposite side. Around 1570, a wooden barrier and a large glass vitrine were installed to ensure that visitors did not get too close to the sculptures. The glass was replaced by an iron railing in 1835. When Giacomo Geniani added two staircases and a porch to facilitate pilgrims' movement between the three chapels of the Monte Calvario, in 1852, he also cut the two portals in the rear wall. Stefania Stefani Perrone records that two painted roundels depicting monochrome scenes of Original Sin and The Expuslion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden were lost in the process. In 2009, the wood and iron barrier were removed, and glass enclosures were built inside each of the doorways. Many of the figures in this chapel are known to be portraits. The two sculptures on the viewer's far left depict Stefano Scotto, who is believed to have been Gaudenzio's teacher, and Leonardo da Vinci. Samuel Butler remarks that this is likely "the most characteristic likeness of Leonardo that has come down to us" because it is rendered in three-dimensions and presents the artist "as others saw him" rather than as he wanted to be seen. Behind these figures, Gaudenzio also painted himself and a friend, Pellegrino Monari (d. 1525), dressed as pilgrims. Closer to the viewer, along the same wall, the fresco includes portraits of Count Filippo Tornielli of Novara, one of the Chapel's patrons, and King Carlo V of Spain, whom he served. Fabbricieri, including Pietro Ravelli and Bernardino Baldi are pictured on the opposite wall. Their predecessor, Emiliano Scarognini (d. 1517), is also shown above the doorway here with his son Francesco. Early guidebooks by Torrotti (1686) and Fassola (1671) asserted that the original statue of Jesus had been solen and moved to the Church of Sant'Andrea in Vercelli, but later writers, beginning with Bordiga (1830) and Butler (1888), do not seem to give this theory and credence. Torrotti and Cattaneo (1826) also write that a number of relics were displayed or housed in the chapel including pieces of the true cross, the column of the flagellation, the manger, and the vases from the Wedding at Cana. It is not clear when the relics were removed or to where they were moved. The frescoes were restored by Francsco Burlazzi around 1892. All the decorations were treated in 1952/53 by Emilio Contini and again between 1994 - 2002 by the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro. / 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
Giovanni Agosti and Jacopo Stoppa, Il Rinascimento di Gaudenzio Ferrari (Milan: Officina Libraria, 2018), 291 - 315; Samuel Butler, Ex Voto: An Account of The Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem at Varallo-Sesia (London: Tübner & Co., 1888), 203 - 213; Gaudenzio Bordiga, Storia e guida del Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Francesco Caligaris, 1830), 82 - 85; Girolamo Cattaneo, Guida per ben vistare la nuova Gerusalemme nel Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Francesco Calligaris, 1826), 84 - 86; Elena De Filippis, Guida del Sacro Monte di Varallo (Borgosesia: Tipolitografia di Borgosesia, 2009), 122 - 123; Guido Gentile, Sacri Monti (Torino: Einaudi, 2019), 69 - 85; Guido Gentile, "Sulle trace degli antiche visitatori: precorsi e graffiti" in Gaudenzio Ferrari: la Crocifissione del Sacro Monte di Varallo, Elena de Filippis ed., 65 - 74 (Turin: Allemandi, 2006), 69 - 73; 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, ed., Questi sono li Misteri che sono sopra el Monte de Varalle (in una 'Guida' poetica del 1514) (Borgosesia: Valsesia Editrice, 1987), 29 & 57; Stefania Stefani Perrone, Guida al Sacro Monte di Varallo (Torino: Kosmos Edizioni, 1995), 74 - 77; Francesco Torrotti, Historia della Nuova Gierusalemme: Il Sacro Monte di Varallo (Varallo: Unknown, 1686), 87 - 88.