Christ at the Tribunal of Caiaphas

Abstract

This chapel was built between 1617 and 1628, by which time all of the terracotta figures were also installed. Galeazzo Alessi designed a two-storied chapel to house this scene, which is recorded in the Libro dei Misteri (1565 - 1569). The current structure is loosely based on the central portion of Alessi's plan and was designed by Giovanni d'Enrico and Bartolomeo Ravelli. According to Elena de Filippis, the project was funded by Claudio Iacobino da Forbello, who made a large contribution to the Fabbrica in 1613, and the citizens of Varallo. There are thirty-three life-sized figures inside the chapel. They were modeled by Giovanni d'Enrico and Giacomo Ferro between 1625 and 1628. In the late nineteenth century Giuseppe Antonini (1833 - 1889), a professor of sculpture at the local Scuola Barolo, replaced some of the real hair in the scene with new coiffures and beards modeled in stucco. The applied hair that survived Antonini's intervention was restored and replenished in 1992. Cristoforo Martinolio (c. 1599 - c. 1662) painted the figures between 1639 and 1644. He was known as "il Rocca" because he was born in the neighboring town of Roccapietra. Martinolio also painted the background frescoes, signing and dating his work in 1642. Marchesa Severina San Martino Parella funded the restoration of these frescoes in 1826, which is probably why they were still "among the best preserved on the Sacro Monte" when Samuel Butler visited Varallo around fifty years later. The paintings on the ground level illustrate other scenes from Christ's Passion in the spaces between twisting trompe l'oeil columns. From left to right, these walls depict The Capture of Christ, Christ before Annas, and the Mocking of Christ. The upper register of il Rocca's architectural illusion includes images of Old Testament narratives. They are identified by Stefania Stefani Perrone as the Worship of the Golden Calf (Exodus 32), the Prophet Micaiah before Kings Ahab and Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 18), and Sampson blinded by the Philistines (Judges 16). Each of these stories includes a religious leader who allowed sin to corrupt his faith and therefore betrayed God, just as Caiaphas does in this scene, when he sends Jesus to be tried by Pontius Pilate. The sculptures were restored by Giovanni Albertone and repainted by Giacomo Boccioloni in 1831. They were treated again in 1993. The chapel's roof was raised to its present height in 1884 and has been repaired multiple times since, including in 1988 and 1992. / Varallo was the first Sacro Monte in Northern Italy. The collection of chapels on the hilltop overlooking Varallo was established by Bernardino Caimi (before 1450 - 1499 or 1500) as a way of recreating the sights and experiences of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. He organized the chapels according to their Holy Land geography and incorporated architectural details from the pilgrimage churches corresponding to each scene. Caimi chose Varallo to be the site of his New Jerusalem in 1481, he received papal permission to begin collecting donations in 1486, and he is believed to have overseen the project from 1491, when the first chapel was finished, until his death. Different writers have counted each of these dates as the year of the Sacro Monte founding. Many of the early chapels were decorated by Gaudenzio Ferrari (c. 1480 - 1546), who was born nearby and gained a reputation during his lifetime as one of the leading painters in Lombardy. Saint Carlo Borromeo (1538 - 1584) visited the Sacro Monte multiple times while he was Archbishop of Milan (1564 - 1584). Carlo and his contemporaries implemented new policies to clarify Catholic doctrine and structure spiritual practices in Milan after the Council of Trent (1545 - 1563). Carlo Bascapè (1550 - 1615), Saint Carlo's close friend and the Bishop of Novara, personally oversaw a building campaign to reorganize the chapels at Varallo and restructure the pilgrimage experience according to the ideals of the Counter-Reformation. These changes were largely based on designs by Galeazzo Alessi (1512 - 1572), which are collected and preserved in a manuscript called the Libro dei Misteri (1565 - 1569) in Varallo's Biblioteca Civica. Construction continued throughout the first half of the seventeenth-century, led primarily by Giovanni d'Enrico the Younger (c. 1559 - 1644) and his family workshop. Beginning in 1609, d'Enrico also supervised the construction of the new Basilica, which is dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin. The Basilica was consecrated in 1649 and the old church, or Chiesa Vecchia, was demolished in 1773, but the Chiesa Nuova was not finished until the façade was added in 1891 - 1896.