Birth of Saint Francis
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Authors
Cristoforo Prestinari
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
St. Francis , Nativity , Birth , Stable ,
Alternative Title
Abstract
This chapel was built between 1594 and 1604 based on designs by Cleto da Castelletto Ticino. The frescoes were painted in 1615 by Giacomo Filippo Monti (dates unknown), a local artist, perhaps with the help of his brother Bernardo Monti. Cristoforo Prestinari (1573 - 1623), who was known for his work on Milan's Duomo, installed the terracotta sculptures in 1617. Another painting by Camillo Procaccini (c. 1555 - 1629) was added above the sculptural group sometime before 1618. This work, which has since been lost, highlighted the connection between Saint Francis and Christ by depicting Jesus' Nativity. Both scenes are set in a stable and Prestinarti sculpted a number of animals for the chapel, including a horse, donkey, and sheep. The painted background seems to suggest the kind of stable that might be found in a fine house in Italy during the seventeenth century, rather than something more typical of either Francis' or Christ's lifetime. The inside of the stable is faced with large rectangular stone blocks with a wooden roof and a three-dimensional manger built into the wall. Apart from two figures on the left, most of the women also seemed to be dressed in modern clothes. These women, Francis' mother and her older companion, are dressed in loose tunics and veils, similar to those usually worn by the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth. The chapel was built by the citizens of Orta. Their contribution is reflected in the depiction of San Giulio, the region's patron saint, inside the chapel and a fresco of the local landscape on an exterior wall. The façade was completed by Paolo Rivolta in 1848. / 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), 13 - 15; 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), 55 - 58, 125 - 131; 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), 76 - 79 & 146 - 151; Father Angelo Maria Manzini, Sacro Monte di Orta. (Milan: Tipolito Testori, 2006), 22 - 23; 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.