Conversion of Saint Francis
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Authors
Cristoforo Prestinari and Dionigi Bussola
Date
Type
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Language
Keyword
St. Francis , Conversion , Miracle , Vision , Crucifix , Angels
Alternative Title
Abstract
The first group of six sculptures made for this chapel were installed by Cristoforo Prestinari (1573 - 1623) in 1607. Fifty years later, Dionigi Bussola (1615 - 1687) redesigned the chapel and altered the original group. The five figures currently visible on the wall seem consistent with Prestinari's style, which suggests that only one sculpture depicting Saint Francis may have occupied the floor before Bussola's intervention. In addition to his new statue of Francis, Bussola added another man, a horse, and a group of small dogs chasing hares. The scene seems to combine elements from a few different narratives recounted by Francis' early biographers, Tommaso de Celano (c. 1190 - c. 1265) and Saint Bonaventure (c. 1217 - 1274). Both authors recount how Francis' piety led him to give his own mount and rich clothes to a knight in need. This act of kindness was rewarded with a miraculous vision that predates the apparition of the speaking crucifix at the church of San Damiano. A manuscript from the second half of the sixteenth century survives at Orta and is believed to have been used to train the local priests to describe the scenes for visiting pilgrims. The anonymous author writes that immediately after Francis' act of generosity to the soldier "...Christ himself appeared to him at the moment of his crucifixion on Cavalry when he was still nailed [to the cross]. The Crucifix spoke tenderly to him and carved into his soul an indelible invitation to imitate him: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me (Matthew 16:24).'" The stylistic difference between the two groups of figures may have been used as a narrative device. Bussola's figures wear loud, stylish, clothes that seem to reflect seventeenth century trends, while Prestinari's sculptures seem more static and their garments are not related to styles that contemporary visitors might wear. This contrast reinforces the distinction between the eternal celestial and mortal terrestrial beings. The chapel itself was built between 1606 and 1609 thanks to donations to the Fabbriceria. It was designed by Cleto da Castelletto Ticino. The frescoes were painted in 1608 by Giovanni Mauro della Rovere (1575 - 1640) and Giovanni Battista della Rovere (1561 - c. 1633), who were Milanese but called i Fiammenghini because of the style of their work. / Orta is the second oldest Sacro Monte. Construction began on the chapels there in 1591, just over a hundred years after the first Sacro Monte site was established at nearby Varallo. A community of Capuchin friars lived on the mountain, oversaw construction, and guided visitors on their pilgrimages once the chapels were finished. One of the brothers, Cleto da Castelletto Ticino (1556 - 1619) designed a series of thirty-six mysteries for the site, although only twenty chapels were ever completed. Before joining the Capuchin Order, Cleto had trained as an architect and engineer. After construction began at Orta, he also worked alongside Pellegrino Tibaldi (1527 - 1596), one of Carlo Borromeo's favorite architects. Amico Canobio (1532 - 1592), a Benedictine Abbot and Commissioner of the secular lands within the diocese of Novara, oversaw Cleto's work and was the first major patron of the chapels at Orta. Carlo Bascapè (1550 - 1615) took charge of directing the progress at Orta as soon he was named Bishop of Novara in 1593, the year after Canobio's death.
Description
Sacro Monte, Orta
Citation
Elena De Filippis and Fiorella Mattioli Carcano, Guida al Sacro di Orta (Omegna & Novara: Litotipografica Editoriale Gianni Fovana & Ente gestione riserve naturali speciali del Sacro Monte di Orta del Monte Mesma e del Colle della Torredi Buccione, 2001), 15 - 17; Guido Gentile, Sacri Monti (Torino: Einaudi, 2019), 271 - 290; Cynthia Ho, Kathleen Peters, and John McClain, Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta (Santa Barbara: Punctum Books, 2020), 58 - 62, 133 - 138; Santino Langé, Sacri Monti Piemontsi e Lombardi (Milano: Tamburini Editore, 1967), 20 - 25; Pier Giorgio Longo, Antiche guide del Sacro Monte di Orta (tra XVII e XVIII secolo) (Novara: Italgrafica slr & Ente gestione riserve naturali speciali del Sacro Monte di Orta del Monte Mesma e del Colle della Torredi Buccione, 2008), 78 - 81 & 152 - 155; Father Angelo Maria Manzini, Sacro Monte di Orta. (Milan: Tipolito Testori, 2006), 24 - 25; Enrico Massone Ed., Sacri Monte in Piemonte: Itinerari nelle aree protete di Belmonte, Crea, Domodossola, Ghiffa, Orta, Varallo (Torino: Kosmos, 1994), 105 - 127; Geoffrey Symcox, Jerusalem in the Alps: The Sacro Monte of Varallo and the Sanctuaries of North-Western Italy (Turnhout: Brepolis, 2019), 207 - 218; Luigi Zanzi and Paolo Zanzi Eds., Atlante dei Sacri Monti prealpini (Milan: Skira, 2002), 94 - 95.