Climb to Calvary
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Authors
Agostino Silva
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Jesus , Cavalry , Passion , St. Veronica , Soldiers , Mary
Alternative Title
Abstract
This chapel was built between 1663 and 1667. It was funded by Andrea Cetti of Lenno, a community in Tremezzina just north of Ossuccio along the lakeshore. Cetti had worked in Germany for a time and earned his fortune serving the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I at the Imperial Mint. Cetti was also the patron of Chapels Ten and Twelve at Ossuccio. His family's coat of arms is crowned by a plumed helmet, a symbol used to indicate his service to and close connection with the emperor. This marble crest was carved by Giovanni Battista Bianchi in 1665. By that time Agostino Silva had already been paid 3,309 Lire and 9 Soldi for his work on the sculptures for this and the following chapel, as is documented by a receipt of payment from 1665 preserved in the Sanctuary's archives. This is one of the more populous scenes at Ossuccio, but Silva was probably able to finish the group within a few years with the help of his assistants. There are nineteen figures, two horses, and a dog in Chapel Nine. Some of the sculptures hold real objects made of wood or cloth. The wooden halberds and cross may be original, but the fibrous materials, such as Veronica's Veil, the horses' reigns, and the ropes binding Jesus and the other condemned men have likely been replaced multiple times since the chapel was finished. The frescoes seem to be original and must therefore be roughly contemporary with the sculptures, although their author and precise date remain unknown. Because the chapel is built into the upward sloping hillside, the high horizon-line in the frescoes creates the sense that the painted landscape is a continuation of the real landscape outside. The crowd of painted figures likewise acts as a continuation of the sculpted crowd inside the scene. As at Varese, the figures seem to follow the devotional path uphill, but the ground inside the chapel at Ossuccio is not drastically sloped or raised as it is at Varese. The fact that so many of the characters inside the chapel seem to move uphill alongside the pilgrim strengthens the impression that the viewer is part of the scene, rather than just an onlooker. This rhetorical device would be especially significant and powerful as pilgrims approached the narrative climax depicted in the next chapel. Agostino largely based the group on his father's composition of the same subject at Varese, with two major exceptions: he moved Veronica and the group of women with Saint John the Evangelist from the left side of the chapel to the right. This clarifies the narrative somewhat, as Christ's face should only be visible on Veronica's veil after their encounter, and it creates a stronger connection between this scene and the coming Crucifixion. / The Sacro Monte of Ossuccio is dedicated to the fifteen mysteries of the rosary, and many of its chapels closely resemble those at the Sacro Monte of Varese (built 1605 - 1699), which is dedicated to the same subject. Agostino Silva (1628 - 1706), an artist from nearby Ticino, designed most of the scenes at Ossuccio. He was also active at the Sacro Monte sopra Varese, where the majority of chapels had been decorated by his father, Francesco Silva (1568 - 1641). The early history of this Sacro Monte remains unclear: some sources suggest that work began as early as 1623, but it is clear from the records of pastoral visits discovered by Daniele Pescamora that none of the chapels were built before July of 1644. Traditionally, many modern scholars have followed Santino Langé, who believed that Francesco had modeled the sculptures in the first three chapels at Ossuccio and Agostino had only taken charge of the project after his father's death in 1641. However, the pastoral records cited above preclude Francesco's involvement entirely and suggest that most of the scenes were decorated from the sixteen-sixties onward, when Agostino was active on the mountain (he was first documented at Ossuccio in 1663). The end of the devotional path is marked by the sanctuary of the Madonna del Soccorso, which was built in the first quarter of the sixteenth century and houses the final scene in the rosary sequence. Modern scholars date the miraculous image of the Madonna and Child for which the Sanctuary is named to the 14th century. Most of the statues of the Virgin that are venerated in the sanctuaries at the Italian Sacri Monti are made of wood, but Ossuccio's titular image is carved in white marble and embellished with gold accents. The existing sanctuary is believed to occupy the site of a pre-Christian temple to the Roman goddess Ceres. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the religious complex was overseen by Third Order Franciscans. Just as Bernardino Caimi had directed the construction of the Sacro Monte at Varallo, the project at Ossuccio was led by Brother Timothy Snider from c. 1643 until his death in 1682. Unlike Caimi, however, Snider seems to have designed the chapels and arranged the devotional path himself. All the chapels have likely been cleaned and restored multiple times since they were finished. Silvestro Marmori's conservation efforts in 1935 were particularly extensive and are well-documented by Pescamora (2004).
Description
Sacro Monte, Ossuccio
Citation
Cappuchin Fathers of the Santuario della Beata Vergine del Soccorso, Santuario Madonna del Soccorso - Ossuccio (Menaggio: Attilio Sampietro Editore, 1998), 4 - 8; Piera Gatta Papavassiliou, Il Sacro Monte di Ossuccio: Guida alle Cappelle (Carlazzo: Attilio Sampietro Editore, 2013), 96 - 105; Santino Langé, Sacri Monti Piemontsi e Lombardi (Milano: Tamburini Editore, 1967), 40 - 41; Daniele Pescamora, "Precisazioni storiche sul SM di Ossuccio (Avvio della ricerca)," Altri Sacri Monti (Atti del Convegno: Sacro Monte di San Francesco d'Orta, 30 November - 1 December 2001) (Gravellona Toce, Press Grafica slr, 2008), 97 - 107; Daniele Pescamora et al, "Il restauro della prima cappella del Sacro Monte di Ossuccio," Quaderni Fondazione Carlo Leone et Mariena Montadon, Vol. 1 (Como: NodoLibri, 2004), 25 - 26; Luigi Zanzi and Paolo Zanzi Eds., Atlante dei Sacri Monti prealpini (Milan: Skira, 2002), 96.