Conception of the Virgin
Loading...
Authors
Jean de Wespin (il Tabachetti)
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
Virgin Mary , Conception , Immaculate , St. Anne , St. Joachim , Donor Portrait
Alternative Title
Abstract
This scene is unusual for the Sacri Monti because the biblical narrative is depicted in raised niches on the side walls and behind the altar, rather than in the open space at the center of the chapel. At the right and left, respectively, angels appear to Mary's parents Joachim and Anna to announce her birth. Above the altar, Jean de Wespin (c. 1567 - 1615) illustrated the couple's joyful reunion after their individual visions. Designing the chapel to resemble a church and using architectural devices to frame these two- and three- dimensional narrative scenes creates emotional distance between the viewer and the figures, which was increasingly important during the Counter Reformation. It is also rare for chapels at the Sacro Monte to include donor portraits, but they have a remarkably prominent place in this chapel. The woman on the left is the Countess of Sartirana Margherita Beccaria, who paid for the chapel to be built in the late 1590s, likely around 1598. Her hands are clasped in prayer, which draws attention to the wedding ring on her right hand. On the right we see her husband, Onofrio Arborio di Gattinara, and young son, Carlo Francesco. Onofrio wears a suit of armor with prominent ruffs at his neck and wrists, which portrays him both as a soldier and a gentleman. / The hill at Crea has used as a pilgrimage site since the Middle Ages, when locals began to honor a miraculous image of the Black Madonna that was said to have been brought there by Saint Eusebius (c. 283 - 371). A community of Augustinians occupied the monastery at Crea beginning in 1176, but they were succeeded by the Lateran Canons Regular, who cared for the sanctuary between 1482 and 1798. Since the Sacro Monte was founded in 1589, local rulers had a direct hand in supporting it, including the Paleologue and Gonzaga dukes of Monferrato. Most of the scenes have since been redesigned or replaced; only six of the twenty-three extant sculpture groups date to the site's original program, which illustrated the life of the Virgin Mary.
Description
Sacro Monte di Crea, Serralunga di Crea
Citation
Amilcare Barbero and Carlenrica Spantigati, Sacro Monte di Crea (Novi Ligure: SO.G.ED. Edizioni, 1998), 157; Attilio Castelli and Dionigi Roggero, Un Santuario mariano: il Sacro Monte di Crea (Casale Monferrato: Fondazione Sant'Evasio, 2000), 46 - 51; Francesco Maccono, Storia del santuario di Crea (Casale Monferrato: Tipografia Operaia Artigiana, 1981), 49; Francesco Negri, Santuario di Crea: Arte e storia nel Monferrato (Alessandria: Accademia degli Immobili, 1902), 41 - 44.