Christ among the Doctors (or The Dispute in the Temple)
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Authors
Agostino Silva and Gianfrancesco Silva
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Jesus , Virgin Mary , St. Joseph , Temple , Doctors , Dispute
Alternative Title
Abstract
Chapel Five was built in 1683 along the devotional path designed by Brother Timothy Snider. This section of the path is parallel to the steep carriage road that leads to the sanctuary. Although the road generally follows the curves of the Via Sacra, it is only visible and directly parallel on this portion of the mountain. Chapel Five is also the first at Ossuccio that was originally built with a porch. The previous four chapels have full-sized central doors that can be opened to provide access or offer pilgrims a better view of the interior. This chapel, and most of those that follow, do not have large doors, and caretakers must enter through a small crawlspace underneath the grate-covered windows. Agostino Silva modeled the terracotta figures inside in 1688, perhaps with the help of his son Gianfranco Silva (1660 - unknown). Papavassiliou records that this date is inscribed three times on the sides of chairs and the pages of books that are not visible from outside the chapel. This late date makes Chapel Five the artist's final work at Ossuccio. The figures inside are also the largest on the mountain, they are noticeably larger than life-sized. Agostino references his father's composition of the same subject at Varese multiple times in this group (Varese, Chapel Five, c. 1630 - 1640). The second man from the viewer's left is a good example; in both chapels he turns to the neighbor on his right and throws up his hands with a wide-eyed expression as if shocked by Christ's words. Both scenes also feature a man who leans forward to peer at the young boy through a magnifying glass. At Varese, this figure is on the left side of the group. The object he holds is small and delicate, almost like a monocle. It seems to be made of wire and it is empty. At Ossuccio, the frame is much larger and still holds a pane of circular glass, like the glass in Venetian windows from this period. The most obvious difference between the two chapels is the young boy who sits on the step in the foreground at Ossuccio and his two dogs that seem free to roam around the scene. He wears the clothes of a seventeenth century peasant and his toothy grin led locals to call him "the sneerer" (il ghignarello). The chapel was funded by Giovanni Mainoni of Volesio, a village near Tramezzina. Efforts to conserve and restore the chapel were carried out between 1998 and 1999. / 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; Luigi Mario Belloni, "L'ignorata opara di 'Intelvesi' nelle cappelle del 'Soccorso' quale apporto alla conoscenza della etnografia e del costume del XVII secolo," Arte Lombarda, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1966), 231 - 234; Piera Gatta Papavassiliou, Il Sacro Monte di Ossuccio: Guida alle Cappelle (Carlazzo: Attilio Sampietro Editore, 2013), 58 - 69; 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.