In
Some Cases - As At Orta, Whose Sacro Monte Is Perhaps The Most
Beautiful Of All As Regards The Site
Itself - the failure is
complete, but in some of the chapels at Varese and in many of those
at Varallo,
Great works have been produced which have not yet
attracted as much attention as they deserve. It may be doubted,
indeed, whether there is a more remarkable work of art in North
Italy than the Crucifixion chapel at Varallo, where the twenty-five
statues, as well as the frescoes behind them, are (with the
exception of the figure of Christ, which has been removed) by
Gaudenzio Ferrari. It is to be wished that some one of these
chapels - both chapel and sculptures - were reproduced at South
Kensington.
Varallo, which is undoubtedly the most interesting sanctuary in
North Italy, has forty-four of these illustrative chapels; Varese,
fifteen; Orta, eighteen; and Oropa, seventeen. No one is allowed
to enter them, except when repairs are needed; but when these are
going on, as is constantly the case, it is curious to look through
the grating into the somewhat darkened interior, and to see a
living figure or two among the statues; a little motion on the part
of a single figure seems to communicate itself to the rest and make
them all more animated. If the living figure does not move much,
it is easy at first to mistake it for a terra-cotta one. At Orta,
some years since, looking one evening into a chapel when the light
was fading, I was surprised to see a saint whom I had not seen
before; he had no glory except what shone from a very red nose; he
was smoking a short pipe, and was painting the Virgin Mary's face.
The touch was a finishing one, put on with deliberation, slowly, so
that it was two or three seconds before I discovered that the
interloper was no saint.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 152 of 279
Words from 40476 to 40800
of 75076
