Baptism of Christ

Abstract

This chapel was built between 1572 and 1576. Its structure is based on Galeazzo Alessi's designs for a chapel of this subject, which are recorded in the Libro dei Misteri (1565 - 1569) and still housed in Varallo's public library. The four sculptures at ground level were made by an unknown artist around 1583 - 1584. The image of God the Father, above the group, was added by Gabriele di Cristoforo Bossi in 1584. Cattaneo gives them to Fermo Stella, but this attribution has not been accepted by other scholars. The sculptures are often assumed to be made of terracotta, as recently as 2018 the information inside the chapel attested to this, but the summary of conservation efforts conducted in 2012 - 2013 notes that they are all "stucco figures [dating] from the mid-eighteenth century to the end of twentieth." There were multiple campaigns to restore the works in this chapel. Inscriptions inside the wooden barrier record restorations by Pietro Giovanni Martissi in 1715 and by Giovanni Boccioloni and Antonio Chiara in 1821. Elena de Filippis notes another intervention in 1850, at which time Carlo Giuseppe Delzanno repainted the sculptures, and Stefania Stefani Perrone documents yet another treatment in 1944 by two brothers, Franco and Carlo Bacchetta. They removed the sculptures' beards and wigs, which were then made of horsehair, and replaced them with stucco hairstyles. The chapel was designed with small holes in each lateral wall, so that water from a nearby fountain could flow through the scene, representing the Jordan River where Christ was Baptized. Jesus stands on a small, raised platform designed to keep the sculpture out of the water's path. Alessi's design did not include this artificial river, although he did plan elaborate and seemingly miraculous water features for other chapels during the 1560s. The holes were filled in in 1628, according to Stefania Stefani Perrone, and in the late nineteenth-century Samuel Butler explained that "the water made the chapel so damp that it was turned off again," to protect the artworks. The abundance of water in this chapel and the repeated interventions help explain the marked stylistic differences between these works and the other late-sixteenth century figures at Varallo. It seems very likely that some or all of the figures were entirely replaced during one of these campaigns. Both Bishop Bascapè, in 1593, and Bishop Taverna, in 1617, criticized the depiction of Christ in this chapel during pastoral visits. They said it was indecorous to show him kneeling in such a pose of supplication. The commission for the frescoes was first given to Orazio Gallinone of Treviglio in 1584, but Gabriele di Cristoforo Bossi took over the project when Gallinone died later that same year. Bossi also painted the sculptures. / 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.