

Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David
Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

                          [Picture: Book cover]

                [Picture: “Il Vecchietto.”  By Tabachetti]





                                 EX VOTO:


                              AN ACCOUNT OF

                    _The Sacro Monte or New Jerusalem_
                            _at Varallo-Sesia_

                           WITH SOME NOTICE OF

                    TABACHETTI’S REMAINING WORK AT THE
                            SANCTUARY OF CREA.

                                    BY

                              SAMUEL BUTLER,
            AUTHOR OF “ALPS AND SANCTUARIES,” “EREWHON,” ETC.

    “Il n’a a que deux ennemis de la religion—le trop peu, et le trop; et
    des deux
    le trop est mille fois le plus dangereux.”—L’ABBÉ MABILLON, 1698.

                                  OP. 9.

                                  LONDON
                         LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
                    AND NEW YORK: 15 EAST 16th STREET.
                                  1890.

                          _All rights reserved_.

                                * * * * *

                        AI VARALLESI E VALSESIANI

                                 L’AUTORE

                              RICONOSCENTE.

                                * * * * *




PREFACE.


THE illustrations to this book are mainly collotype photographs by
Messrs. Maclure, Macdonald & Co., of Glasgow.  Notwithstanding all their
care, it cannot be pretended that the result is equal to what would have
been obtained from photogravure; I found, however, that to give anything
like an adequate number of photogravures would have made the book so
expensive that I was reluctantly compelled to abandon the idea.

As these sheets leave my hands, my attention is called to a pleasant
article by Miss Alice Greene about Varallo, that appeared in _The Queen_
for Saturday, April 21, 1888.  The article is very nicely illustrated,
and gives a good idea of the place.  Of the Sacro Monte Miss Greene
says:—“On the Sacro Monte the tableaux are produced in perpetuity, only
the figures are not living, they are terra-cotta statues painted and
moulded in so life-like a way that you feel that, were a man of flesh and
blood to get mixed up with the crowd behind the grating, you would have
hard work to distinguish him from the figures that have never had life.”

I should wish to modify in some respects the conclusion arrived at on pp.
148, 149, about Michael Angelo Rossetti’s having been the principal
sculptor of the Massacre of the Innocents chapel.  There can be no doubt
that Rossetti did the figure which he has signed, and several others in
the chapel.  One of those which are probably by him (the soldier with
outstretched arm to the left of the composition) appears in the view of
the chapel that I have given to face page 144, but on consideration I
incline against the supposition of my text, _i.e._, that the signature
should be taken as governing the whole work, or at any rate the greater
part of it, and lean towards accepting the external authority, which,
_quantum valeat_, is all in favour of Paracca.  I have changed my mind
through an increasing inability to resist the opinion of those who hold
that the figures fall into two main groups, one by the man who did the
signed figure, _i.e._, Michael Angelo Rossetti; and another, comprising
all the most vigorous, interesting, and best placed figures, that
certainly appears to be by a much more powerful hand.  Probably, then,
Rossetti finished Paracca’s work and signed one figure as he did, without
any idea of claiming the whole, and believing that Paracca’s predominant
share was too well known to make mistake about the authorship of the work
possible.  I have therefore in the title to the illustration given the
work to Paracca, but it must be admitted that the question is one of
great difficulty, and I can only hope that some other work of Paracca’s
may be found which will tend to settle it.  I will thankfully receive
information about any other such work.

_May_ 1, 1888.




CONTENTS.

    CHAP.                                                         PAGE
       I.  INTRODUCTION                                              1
      II.  THE REV. S. W. KING—LANZI AND LOMAZZO                    10
     III.  VARALLO, PAST AND PRESENT                                24
      IV.  BERNARDINO CAIMI, AND FASSOLA                            38
       V.  EARLY HISTORY OF THE SACRO MONTE                         49
      VI.  PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS                               69
     VII.  AIM AND SCOPE OF THE SACRO MONTE                         80
    VIII.  GAUDENZIO FERRARI, TABACHETTI, AND GIOVANNI              90
           D’ENRICO
      IX.  THE ASCENT OF THE SACRO MONTRE, AND CHAPEL NO.          114
           1, ADAM AND EVE; NO. 2, THE ANNUNCIATION; NO. 3,
           THE SALUTATION OF MARY BY ELIZABETH; NO. 4,
           FIRST VISION OF ST. JOSEPH
       X.  CHAPEL NO. 5, VISIT OF THE MAGI; NO. 6, IL              132
           PRESEPIO; NO. 7, VISIT OF THE SHEPHERDS; NO. 8,
           CIRCUMCISION; NO. 9, JOSEPH WARNED TO FLY; NO.
           10, FLIGHT INTO EGYPT; NO. 11, MASSACRE OF THE
           INNOCENTS
      XI.  CHAPEL NO. 12, BAPTISM; NO. 13, TEMPTATION; NO.         153
           14, WOMAN OF SAMARIA; NO. 15, THE PARALYTIC; NO.
           16, WIDOW’S SON AT NAIN; NO. 17,
           TRANSFIGURATION; NO. 18, RAISING OF LAZARUS; NO.
           19, ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM; NO. 20, LAST SUPPER;
           NO. 21, AGONY IN THE GARDEN; NO. 22, SLEEPING
           APOSTLES
     XII.  THE PALACE OF PILATE; CHAPEL NO. 23, THE CAPTURE        166
           OF CHRIST; NO. 24, CHRIST TAKEN TO ANNAS; NO.
           25, CHRIST BEFORE CAIAPHAS; NO. 26, REPENTANCE
           OF ST. PETER; NO. 27, CHRIST BEFORE PILATE; NO.
           28, CHRIST BEFORE HEROD; NO. 29, CHRIST TAKEN
           BACK TO PILATE; NO. 30, FLAGELLATION; NO. 31,
           CROWNING WITH THORNS; NO. 32, CHRIST AT THE
           STEPS OF THE PRETORIUM; NO. 33, ECCE <DW25>; NO.
           34, PILATE WASHING HIS HANDS; NO. 35, CHRIST
           CONDEMNED TO DEATH
    XIII.  MYSTERIES OF THE PASSION AND DEATH; CHAPEL NO.          195
           36, THE JOURNEY TO CALVARY; NO. 37, NAILING OF
           CHRIST TO THE CROSS; NO. 38, THE CRUCIFIXION
     XIV.  CHAPEL NO. 39, THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS               214
      XV.  THE PIETÀ AND REMAINING CHAPELS. CHAPEL NO. 40,         225
           THE PIETÀ; NO. 41, THE ENTOMBMENT; REMAINING
           CHAPELS AND CHIESA MAGGIORE
     XVI.  TABACHETTI’S WORK AT CREA                               239
    XVII.  CONCLUSION                                              259




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.


_For explanation of the Asterisk see Advertisement of Photographs at the
end of the book_.

“II VECCHIETTO,” FROM THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS      _Frontispiece_
(CHAPEL NO. 39)
PLATE
        I.  PLAN OF THE SACRO MONTE IN 1671                         68
       II.  THE OLD ADAM AND EVE                                   121
      III.  TABACHETTI’S ADAM AND EVE                              122
       IV.  FIRST VISION OF ST. JOSEPH                             130
        V.  THE MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS                          144
       VI.  THE TEMPTATION IN THE WILDERNESS                       154
      VII.  CAIAPHAS                                               170
     VIII.  HEROD                                                  176
       IX.  TWO LAUGHING BOYS                                      177
        X.  MAN IN BACKGROUND OF THE FLAGELLATION                  182
            CHAPEL
       XI.  STEFANO SCOTTO, AND MR. S. BUTLER                      189
      XII.  TABACHETTI’S JOURNEY TO CALVARY                        195

            GENERAL VIEW TO THE RIGHT.
     XIII.  TABACHETTI’S JOURNEY TO CALVARY                        196

            ST. JOHN AND THE MADONNA WITH THE OTHER
            MARIES.
      XIV.  TABACHETTI’S JOURNEY TO CALVARY                        198

            STA. VERONICA AND MAN WITH GOITRE.
       XV.  TABACHETTI’S JOURNEY TO CALVARY                        200

            THE TWO THIEVES AND THEIR DRIVER.
      XVI.  GAUDENZIO FERRARI’S CRUCIFIXION                        203

            GENERAL VIEW LOOKING TOWARDS THE BAD
            THIEF.
     XVII.  GAUDENZIO FERRARI’S CRUCIFIXION                        204

            GENERAL VIEW LOOKING TOWARDS THE GOOD
            THIEF.
    XVIII.  GAUDENZIO FERRARI’S PORTRAITS OF                       206
            STEFANO SCOTTO AND LEONARDO DA VINCI
      XIX.  BERNARDINO DE CONTI’S DRAWING OF                       207
            STEFANO SCOTTO, AND PROFILE OF LEONARDO
            DA VINCI BY HIMSELF (REVERSED)
       XX.  GAUDENZIO FERRARI’S CRUCIFIXION                        210
            THE BAD THIEF.




ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS.


UNABLE to go to Dinant before I published “Ex Voto,” I have since been
there, and have found out a good deal about Tabachetti’s family.  His
real name was de Wespin, and he tame of a family who had been
Copper-beaters, and hence sculptors—for the Flemish copper-beaters made
their own models—for many generations.  The family seems to have been the
most numerous and important in Dinant.

The sculptor’s grandfather, Perpète de Wespin, was the first to take the
sobriquet of Tabaguet, and though in the deeds which I have seen at Namur
the name is always given as “de Wespin,” yet the addition of “dit
Tabaguet” shows that this last was the name in current use.  His father
and mother, and a sister Jacquelinne, under age, appear to have all died
in 1587.  Jean de Wespin, the sculptor, is mentioned in a deed of that
date as “expatrié,” and he has a “gardien” or “tuteur,” who is to take
charge of his inheritance, appointed by the Court, as though he were for
some reason unable to appoint one for himself.  This lends colour to
Fassola’s and Torrotti’s statement that he lost his reason about 1586 or
1587.  I think it more likely, however, considering that he was alive and
doing admirable work some fifty years after 1590, that he was the victim
of some intrigue than that he was ever really mad.  At any rate, about
1587 he appears to have been unable to act for himself.

If his sister Jacquelinne died under age in 1587, Jean is not likely to
have been then much more than thirty, so we may conclude that he was born
about 1560.  There is some six or eight years’ work by him remaining at
Varallo, and described as finished in the 1586 edition of Caccia.
Tabachetti, therefore, must have left home very young, and probably went
straight to Varallo.  In 1586 or 1587 we lose sight of him till 1590 or
1591, when he went to Crea, where he did about forty chapels—almost all
of which have perished.

On again visiting Milan I found in the Biblioteca Nazionale a guide-book
to the Sacro Monte, which was not in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and of
whose existence I had never heard.  This guide-book was published in 1606
and reissued in 1610; it mentions all changes since 1590, and even
describes chapels not yet in existence, but it says nothing about
Tabachetti’s First Vision of St. Joseph chapel—the only one of his
chapels not given as completed in the 1590 edition of Caccia.  I had
assumed too hastily that this chapel was done just after the 1590 edition
of Caccia had been published, and just before Tabachetti left for Crea in
1590 or 1591, whereas it now appears that it was done about 1610, during
a short visit paid by the sculptor to Varallo some twenty years after he
had left it.

Finding that Tabachetti returned to Varallo about 1610, I was able to
understand two or three figures in the Ecce <DW25> chapel which I had long
thought must be by Tabachetti, but had not ventured to ascribe to him,
inasmuch as I believed him to have finally left Varallo some twenty years
before the Ecce <DW25> chapel was made.  I have now no doubt that he lent a
hand to Giovanni D’Enrico with this chapel, in which he has happily left
us his portrait signed with a V (doubtless standing for W, a letter which
the Italians have not got), cut on the hat before baking, and invisible
from outside the chapel.

[Picture: Seal] Signor Arienta had told me there was a seal on the back
of a figure in the Journey to Calvary chapel; on examining this I found
it to show a W, with some kind of armorial bearings underneath.  I have
not been able to find anything like these arms, of which I give a sketch
herewith: they have no affinity with those of the de Wespin family,
unless the cups with crosses under them are taken as modifications of the
three-footed caldrons which were never absent from the arms of Dinant
copper-beaters.  Tabachetti (for I shall assume that the seal was placed
by him) perhaps sealed this figure as an afterthought in 1610, being