Deposition

Abstract

This chapel was added onto the existing Crucifixion Chapel (Thirty-Eight) in the early sixteen-thirties, around the same time that Chapel Thirty-Seven was added on the other end of the building (c. 1632 - 1641). Carlo Bascapè, the Bishop of Novara, had instructed the Fabbrica to add a Deposition chapel in 1603 and Giovanni d'Enrico and Bartolomeo Ravelli made designs for the present structure in 1614, but construction did not begin until sometime later. The chapel was built between 1633 and 1639. The fourteen terracotta figures inside were modeled by Giovanni d'Enrico and Giacomo Ferro between 1637 or 1639 and c. 1640. Ferro often worked closely with d'Enrico. It seems likely that he belonged to the family's workshop or studied under Giovanni. Many writers describe the figure of the old man lifting the brim of his hat on the left side of the chapel as one of the best works on the entire Sacro Monte. Samuel Butler said that "The Vecchietto is the work of one to whom modeling in clay was like breathing or walking, or eating and drinking," and so for him it could only be the work of Il Tabachetti, Jean de Wespin. The remaining experts universally acknowledge that the figure was made by Giovanni d'Enrico or in his style. Il Vecchietto is the only person in the scene wearing seventeenth-century clothing in the local style. This figure is believed to be a portrait of the man who funded the chapel or donated the land on this part of the Sacro Monte. Michele Cusa said that he was from Rimella, a city in the mountains north-west of Varallo, and Stefania Stefani Perrone has proposed that he belonged to a family from Rasco, which is south-east of Valduggia. Like the frescoes in Chapel Thirty-Seven (1637 - 1639), these were painted by Melchiorre Gherardini (1607 - 1668), an artist from Milan who trained in the Accademia Ambrosiana. He was also known as il Ceranino because the style of his paintings recalled that of Giovanni Battista Crespi (c. 1576 - 1632), who was called Il Cerano. Gherardini surrounded the figures with a lively crowd and a distant view of a castle with round towers, like the one that appears in Chapels Thirty-Seven and Thirty-Six. Three of the figures on the right-hand wall are reported to be portraits of the painter and sculptors, according to Perrone. The frescoes were painted around 1641 - 1642. Above the sculpted figures, three groups of angels carry floating picture frames with images of The Flight of Cain (Genesis 4: 13 - 16), Aaron's Blessing over Israel (Leviticus 9:22 - 23), and Moses breaking the Stone Tablets (Exodus 32:19). This chapel is unusual because the central panel is largely hidden behind the figures of Jesus, Nicodemus, and Joseph of Arimathea. Cusa points out that this is the final chapel in the narrative to feature such "symbolic episodes" form the Old Testament. The inset scenes first appeared at the beginning of the Passion, in the Capture of Christ Chapel (Twenty-Three). Emilio Contini restored the paintings and sculpture inside this chapel in 1954. The roof was repaired in 1986/87 and the artworks were restored again in 1993. / 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.