Ex Voto | Page 9

writer says -
"No situation could have been more happily chosen for the purpose
intended than the little mountain rising on the north of Varallo to a
height of about 270 feet"--[this is an error; the floor of the church on
the Sacro Monte is just 500 feet above the bridge over the
Mastallone]--"on which the chapels, oratories, and convents of that
extraordinary creation the New Jerusalem are grouped together.
Besides the beauty of the site and its convenient proximity to a town
like Varallo of some 3000 inhabitants, the character of the mountain is
exactly adapted for the effective disposition of the various 'stations' of
which it consists"--[it does not consist of "stations"]--"and on this
account chiefly it was selected by the founder, the 'Blessed Bernardino
Caimo.' A Milanese of noble family, and Vicar of the Convent of the
Minorites in Milan, and also in connection with that of Varallo, he was
specially commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV. to visit the Sepulchre and
other holy places in Palestine, and while there took the opportunity of
making copies and drawings, with the intention of erecting a facsimile
of them in his native country. On his return to Italy in 1491, after
examining all the likely sites within reasonable distance of Milan, he
found the conical hills of the Val Sesia the best adapted for his design,
and fixed upon Varallo as the spot; being probably specially attracted

to it from the fact of the convent and church of Sta. Maria delle Grazie,
already described, having been conveyed through him to the 'Minori
Osservanti,' as appears from a brief of Innocent VIII., dated December
21, 1486."
Mr. King does not give the source from which he derived his
knowledge of the existence of this act, and I have not come across a
notice of it elsewhere, except a brief one in Signor Galloni's work (p.
71), and a reference to it in the conveyance of April 14, 1493. But
Signor Arienta of Varallo, whose industry in collecting materials for a
history of the Sacro Monte cannot be surpassed, showed me a transcript
from an old plan of the church of S. Maria delle Grazie, in which the
inscription on Bernardino Caimi's grave was given--an inscription
which (so at least I understood Signor Arienta to say) is now covered
by an altar which had been erected on the site of the grave. The
inscription ran:-
"Hic quiescunt ossa B. Bernardini Caimis Mediolan. S. Montis Varalli
Fundatoris An. 1486. Pontif. Dipl sub die 21 Xbris. Mortuus est autem
in hoc coenobio An. Vulg. AErae 1499."
It would thus appear that the Sacro Monte was founded four years
earlier than the received date. The formal deed of conveyance of the
site on the mountain from the town to Bernardino Caimi was not signed
till the 14th of April 1493; but the work had been already commenced,
as is shown by the inscription still remaining over the reproduction of
the Holy Sepulchre, which is dated the 17th of October 1491. Probably
the work was contemplated in 1486, and interrupted by B. Caimi's
return to Jerusalem in 1487, not to be actively resumed till 1490.
"The first stone," says Mr. King, "was laid by Scarognini, a Milanese
'magnifico,' who cordially entered into the scheme; and at his expense
the Holy Sepulchre was completed, and a hospice attached, where the
founder and a number of Franciscan brothers came to reside in 1493.
Caimo had planned a vast extension of this commencement, but died
within three years, leaving his designs to be carried out by his
successors."

. . .
"Each oratory contains a group--in some very numerous--of figures
modelled in terra-cotta the size of life or larger; many of them of great
merit as works of art, others very inferior and mere rubbish. The figures
are coloured and occasionally draped with appropriate clothing, the
resemblance to life being heightened by the addition of human
hair"--[which, by the way, is always horse-hair]--"and the effect is
often very startling. Each chapel represents a different 'mystery,' and,
beside the modelled figures, the walls are decorated with frescoes. The
front of each is open to the air, all but a wire grating, through apertures
in which the subject may be perfectly seen in the position intended by
the designer" (pp. 510-512).
Mr. King says, correctly, that Gaudenzio's earliest remaining work on
the Sacro Monte is the Chapel of the Pieta, that originally contained the
figures of Christ bearing the cross, but from which the modelled figures
were removed, others being substituted that had no connection with the
background. I do not know, however, that Christ was actually carrying
the cross in the chapel as it originally stood. The words of the 1587
edition of Caccia (?) stand, "Come il N.S. fu spogliato de