Pope Innocent III confirms the Franciscan Order
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Authors
Giovanni d'Enrico, Melchiorre d'Enrico, and Dionigi Bussola
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Keyword
St. Francis , Pope , Franciscan Order , Obedience , Humility , Vision
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Abstract
This chapel shows the pope confirming the legitimacy of the newly established Franciscan Order. Although he was originally reluctant to do so, Pope Innocent III approved of the order after seeing a vision of Francis holding up the Lateran Basilica. A handwritten guidebook (c. 1686) to the Sacro Monte preserved in the archives of the convent at Orta provides the scene with some historical context: "At this time the Holy Church was disturbed by various schisms, rumblings, factions, and heresies [brought on] by innovators that greatly preoccupied the pope." The chapel was built between 1619 and 1625. During that period, and throughout the Counter Reformation, the church faced similar challenges, so the messages of papal authority and the value of humble obedience as depicted in this scene, would have been particularly pointed to its original audience. In the first few decades of the seventeenth century there was a great boom in Sacro Monte construction across northern Italy. This chapel looks more like its contemporaries at the other Sacri Monti than its predecessors at Orta do, because the frescoes create the impression of a single unified space, without the floating vignettes that were common in the other chapels at Orta. The walls were painted by Antonio Maria Crespi (c. 1580 - 1630), il Bustino, in 1629. Although the frescoes do include scenes from other moments in Francis' life, they are relegated to the side walls and Crespi used the majority of the space to create an illusionistic background for the sculpted figures. Nine of the sculptures, including the figures of the pope, cardinals, and kneeling friars, were installed in 1634. These figures were modeled by Giovanni d'Enrico (1559 - 1644) and his brother Melchiorre d'Enrico (c. 1573 - 1642). They added six more sculptures a few years later, but it is not precisely clear which sculptures were part of the original group. The iron grille was also added in 1634. Dionigi Bussola (1615 - 1687) added a number of sculptures to the d'Enrico brothers' fifteen figures around 1662. These works line the sides of the chapel and are stylistically distinct. Each of these sculptors was already well-known for his work on other prominent Counter-Reformation projects within Lombardy; the d'Enrico brothers were active at Varallo and Bussola made sculptures for Varese and Domodossola. / 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), 24 - 27; 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), 72 - 75; 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), 86 - 89 & 170 - 173; Father Angelo Maria Manzini, Sacro Monte di Orta. (Milan: Tipolito Testori, 2006), 34 - 35; 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.