Sacri monti

La terza edizione del Congresso Internazionale Santuários è ospitata in Valcamonica, la Valle dei Segni dal 9 al 13 luglio 2016.
Come pochi altri siti nel mondo, la Valcamonica racconta la storia di una radicata spiritualità: la grande fioritura di arte rupestre, che le ha valso l’iscrizione nella Word Heritage List dell’Unesco, la dominazione romana, le intricate vicende legate alla cristianizzazione delle Alpi, le numerose pievi, chiese, cappelle, luoghi di culto e santuari.
Il congresso Santuários è stato ideato da un gruppo di studiosi afferenti a varie discipline e provenienti da numerose Università europee. L’obiettivo è lo studio dei santuari dalla preistoria fino alle contemporanee forme di santità passando attraverso il mondo romano.
La continuità dei luoghi di culto durante i secoli e attraverso i cambiamenti di destinazione dei siti è uno degli argomenti che saranno svolti durante il convegno. I contributi di antropologia e storia delle religioni approfondiranno la connessione fra la scelta del luogo, l’architettura, le immagini sacre e alle vie di divulgazione dell’arte mediante i percorsi dei pellegrini. Il pellegrinaggio è, infatti, un altro dei fili conduttori che unisce i vari siti di culto, europei ed extraeuropei, indagati e presentati dai ricercatori che interverranno al congresso.

Overlooking Lago di Orta in the foothills of the Northern Italian Alps, the Renaissance-era Sacro Monte di Orta (a UNESCO World Heritage site) is spectacle and hagiography, theme park and treatise. Sacro Monte di Orta is a sacred mountain complex that extolls the life of St. Francis of Assisi through fresco, statuary, and built environment. Descending from the vision of the 16th-century Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, the design and execution of the chapels express the Catholic Church’s desire to define, or, perhaps redefine itself for a transforming Christian diaspora. And in the struggle to provide a spiritual and geographical front against the spread of Protestantism into the Italian peninsula, the Catholic Church mustered the most powerful weapon it had: the widely popular native Italian saint, Francis of Assisi.Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta examines this important pilgrimage site where Francis is embraced as a ne plus ultra saint. The book delves into a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic Church as revealed through the artistic program of the Sacro Monte’s twenty-one chapels, providing a nuanced understanding of the role the site played in the Counter-Reformation.The Sacro Monte di Orta was, in its way, a new hagiographical text vital to post-Tridentine Italy. Sacred Views provides research and analysis of this popular, yet critically neglected Franciscan devotional site. Sacred Views is the first significant scholarly work on the Sacro Monte di Orta in English and one of the very few full-length treatments in any language. It includes a catalogue of artists, over one hundred photographs, maps, short essays on each chapel, and longer essays that examine some of the most significant chapels in greater detail.

This chapter from Sacred Views of Saint Francis: the Sacro Monte di Orta contains short essays describing
each chapel and providing the raison
d’ tre for each. There are twenty chapels in
the park-like setting of the Sacro Monte di
Orta. The architecture, style, and setting are
uneven from chapel to chapel, and can vary
in emphasis and attention to ornamentation.
The essays reflect these disparities: for some
chapels, more space is devoted to a description
of the exterior than the interior; for others,
the frescos receive attention equal to or
greater than the dioramas. Photos of both the
exterior and interior accompany each essay.
Content of the Artistic Program
Despite the distinctiveness of each chapel,
the reader will find unity in the artistic program.
The chapels teach visually what the
Franciscans so adeptly preach, while simultaneously
explaining the identity of the Order
in the program. Each chapel, in its own
way, asserts: (1) the unique status of Francis,
who, according to Franciscan tradition, conformed
to Christ; (2) the distinctiveness of
the Franciscans and their special, penitential
mission in following the gospel life; (3) the
orthodoxy of the Franciscan order and its
close ties with the institutional church; (4)
the program of the Tridentine reform; and
(5) Francis’ role in revitalizing the church of
the thirteenth century and the parallel role
of the Franciscans in revitalizing the church
of the post-Tridentine era.

L'itinerarium di cappelle salienti, romanis basilicis pares, per gli abitanti di Monselice costituisce parte del patrimonio religioso e culturale da fruire e valorizzare; per il turista, un luogo da visitare 1 ; per lo studioso dei santuari, un problema di non facile decodifica 2 . Il complesso, che va sotto il titolo di "Santuario delle Sette chiese", fa un tutt'uno con Villa Duodo, "casa di campagna" di veneziani che, nella prima metà del secolo XVI, possedevano in Monselice oltre cento campi 3 .

This is the full text and map book (image document separate from and attached to the end of the text) of my undergraduate Bachelor's thesis completed and defended in May 2010. I received high honors and the Alumni Award in the History of Art for this project.

I Cappuccini e la devozione mariana europea in età controriformista alla luce della Breve relatione della vita e virtù eroiche del venerabile servo di Dio fra Girolamo da Forlì predicator cappuccino detto volgarmente l'apostolo della Madonna.

Contributo alla redazione dei testi per i percorsi tematici della app "Sacri Monti".
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sacri-monti-sito-unesco/id1607130403#?platform=iphone
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=eu.suggesto.appsacrimonti&gl=IT

"Questa App guida in un viaggio alla scoperta dei nove SACRI MONTI del Piemonte e della Lombardia, sito iscritto nel patrimonio mondiale UNESCO. Gli innumerevoli percorsi interattivi e multimediali consentono di scoprire il fascino intramontabile del patrimonio culturale, artistico e storico di Varallo, Crea, Orta, Varese, Oropa, Ossuccio, Ghiffa, Domodossola e Belmonte.
Ogni percorso svela i segreti, le storie, gli artisti, i personaggi illustri e quelli comuni che hanno creato un patrimonio artistico e culturale unico. Potrai spalancare le porte delle innumerevoli cappelle e immergerti in una visita in Realtà Virtuale. Oppure conoscere vicende pubbliche e private, ascoltando la voce dei protagonisti dell’epoca. Infine, accurati approfondimenti storici aprono scorci su di un passato che è alla base di chi siamo oggi. Puoi passeggiare liberamente da un punto di interesse all’altro, consultando le mappe dettagliate. Oppure ascoltare semplicemente l’audio guida che accompagna il visitatore lungo i percorsi che narrano una lunga storia. Scopri infine i divertenti percorsi gioco, adatti a bambini e adulti, che mettono alla prova lo spirito di osservazione e svelano dettagli inediti.
È disponibile in italiano, inglese, tedesco, francese e spagnolo."

Leaving one’s personal mark at a site of cult is an age-old practice attested in several religions, including Christianity from its earliest phases onwards. This article asks to what degree scratching graffiti into church walls was accepted behaviour in Western Europe during the
medieval and early modern period. It seeks to complicate the view that disapproval of graffiti is a predominantly modern sentiment, by examining examples of both acceptance and resistance to graffiti at sacred sites. The attempts of Counter-Reformation bishop Carlo Bascapè (1550-1615) to root out what he perceived as impious vandalism at the sacro monte of Varallo in Northern Italy, combined with an analysis of the graffiti on the glass panes of the Ecce Homo chapel postdating Bascapè’s ban, together serve to suggest new directions for the study of the pre-modern significance of, and particularly resistance to, graffiti.

This dissertation investigates the construction of the Franciscan Holy Land as an ideological construct during the late medieval and early modern period. Based on an extensive corpus of texts, defined as Franciscan Holy Land writing, and a (re-)consideration of the sacri monti of Varallo and La Verna in Italy, this dissertation outlines the development of an increasingly territorial attitude on the part of the Franciscans of the custodia Terrae Sanctae, during the period under investigation. One of the main conclusions of this dissertation is that the sacro monte and translated Franciscan Jerusalem of Varallo, founded by friar Bernardino Caimi in 1491, is not the first sanctuary of its kind. Rather, this dissertation demonstrates that the pre-existing the sacro monte of La Verna in Tuscany is vital for understanding the phenomenon of the sacro monte, its Franciscan origins and Jerusalemite connotations. This dissertation also includes an in-depth source critique and analysis of friar Paul Walther von Guglingen’s Treatise on the Holy Land. It demonstrates that from this, and other, late medieval specimens onwards, a heterogeneous but recognisably Franciscan literature of appropriation developed. This literature reinterprets the past in order buttress the position of the Franciscans and is primarily directed at other Christians, such as Greeks, Capuchins, and Jesuits, featuring prominent examples such as friar Francesco Quaresmio’s monumental Terrae Sanctae Elucidatio (1639). Building on Franciscan order memories and ideologies, the friars sought to turn the Holy Land into a Franciscan territory, as well as transport Jerusalem to Italy and make it Franciscan.

Tél. / fax : 02 54 38 74 57 www.rencontre-patrimoine-religieux.com [email protected] L'Association régionale « Rencontre avec le Patrimoine Religieux » a été fondée en 1992 pour répondre à un besoin de formation et d'information. Depuis sa création, elle bénéficie du soutien du Conseil régional du Centre et de ses services culturels, en partenariat avec d'autres collectivités locales, départements et villes. Elle assume des activités de formation au niveau régional ou local, destinées à favoriser la connaissance, la présentation au public et la mise en valeur du patrimoine religieux dont la Région Centre est particulièrement riche. Son action est dirigée non seulement vers les spécialistes, mais s'adresse aussi à un public très large de personnes soucieuses de la valorisation du patrimoine religieux, humbles églises de campagne ou édifices plus prestigieux. Son aire d'activité s'étend principalement sur la région Centre et sur les régions limitrophes. L'association définit un thème annuel de recherches et d'études : cryptes, stalles, peintures murales, vitraux, retables… et organise également un colloque annuel qui réunit au moins 250 participants, en provenance d'une vingtaine de départements et de plusieurs pays d'Europe (Italie, Allemagne, Belgique, Espagne…) ainsi que des États-Unis. Pour 2008-2009, « Rencontre avec le Patrimoine Religieux » s'interroge sur les porches et portails. L'association publie les Cahiers d'Art Sacré (2 numéros par an, dont l'un contient les Actes du Colloque de l'année antérieure) ainsi qu'une collection monographique (Tapisseries de Maurice de la Pintière, Vitraux de Jules Laurand) en vente pendant le colloque d'Auxerre.

This is the full text of my Master's thesis, which was completed as part of my dual MA/PhD program in the history of architecture and urbanism. It received the 2016 Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools Master’s Thesis Award for Best Master’s Thesis in the Association.

The article examines three engravings, depicting the Sacro Monte (Holy Mountain) at Varallo, one of the main sanctuaries of Northern Italy in the early Modern Age. Between 1606 and 1640, when the engravings were made, the Sacro Monte was the scene of continuous quarrels between the local patricians, also known as “vicini”, and the community of Franciscan friars, responsible for the religious life on the Sacro Monte. Both the “vicini” and the friars strived to control the Sacro Monte, because of its strategic position on the Western Alps, at the furthest edges of the Duchy of Milan, bordering the Duchy of Savoy and the Swiss Cantons. This article discusses three different images of the Sacro Monte in the context of these heated conflicts. As argued, the engravings were conceived as powerful means of propaganda and claim and, although ephemeral, they show the attempt to take over a religious monument and its surrounding territory, through the communicative power of images.

Le fotocopie per uso personale del lettore possono essere eff ettuate nei limiti del 15% di ciascun volume/fascicolo di periodico dietro pagamento alla SIAE del compenso previsto dall'art. 68, commi 4 e 5, della legge 22 aprile 1941 n. 633. Le fotocopie eff ettuate per fi nalità di carattere professionale, economico o commerciale o comunque per uso diverso da quello personale possono essere eff ettuate solo a seguito di specifi ca autorizzazione rilasciata dagli aventi diritto/dall'editore.

A partire dalla seconda metà del Settecento inizia la diffusione capillare, anche sul territorio veneto, dei monti di pietà, istituzioni bancarie di origine francescana dalla forte caratterizzazione sociale. Nel 1490 anche Verona approva la nascita di un banco di pegno 'cristiano', la cui esperienza, attraverso alterne vicende, raggiunge la piena maturità (gestionale, amministrativa, finanziaria) nel corso del XVIII secolo. L'autore, ricostruendo sinteticamente il contesto socio-culturale di nascita del banco atesino, entra nel dettaglio della vita del Monte nel Settecento. Lo studio evidenzia la struttura organizzativa e l'andamento economico-finanziario dell'istituzione creditizia. Tale analisi viene però inserita nel quadro della vita economico-sociale della città e poi rapportata al generale sistema dei banchi diffusi nella Repubblica veneta.

The Sanctuary of the Via Crucis of Cerveno is a devotional ensemble built from the second half of the eighteenth century onwards. The last station the XIV was only transformed and completed between 1869-1870. Various studies have been conducted on the sanctuary, but mostly are on the statues in the chapels. There is no comprehensive analysis of the decorative complex apparatus of the sanctuary. The present study tries to propose a synthesis of the historiographical issues with the intention of laying the foundation for a more specific and comprehensive analysis. This text focuses mainly on the images painted by Giuliano Volpi in the last station. Some general reflections on the Sanctuary and clarifications compared to previous studies are presented.

Overlooking Lago di Orta in the foothills of the Northern Italian Alps, the Renaissance-era Sacro Monte di Orta (a UNESCO World Heritage site) is spectacle and hagiography, theme park and treatise. Sacro Monte di Orta is a sacred mountain complex that extolls the life of St. Francis of Assisi through fresco, statuary, and built environment. Descending from the vision of the 16th-century Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, the design and execution of the chapels express the Catholic Church's desire to define, or, perhaps redefine itself for a transforming Christian diaspora. And in the struggle to provide a spiritual and geographical front against the spread of Protestantism into the Italian peninsula, the Catholic Church mustered the most powerful weapon it had: the widely popular native Italian saint, Francis of Assisi.Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta examines this important pilgrimage site where Francis is embraced as a ne plus ultra saint. The book delves into a ...

In the final decades of the sixteenth century the bishop of Novara Carlo Bascapè worked tirelessly to reconceive the Sacro Monte of Varallo as a new kind of 'luogo sacro' that the Italian art historian Pier Giorgio Longo has described in terms of “a search for solitude and reflexive and interior communication with the soul of the beholding pilgrim.” In making this claim, Longo argues that the architectural restructuring of the Passion chapels were the primary means of soliciting the individual reflection of the beholder. This paper complicates current understandings of solitude at this remote alpine pilgrimage site by turning away from Varallo's palaces and squares to the enormous sculptural representation of Mount Tabor in the Transfiguration chapel (c. 1570-1670). Renovating familiar exegetical literature on biblical mountains and ascetic retreat, the narrative of Christ’s Transfiguration offers the promise of true spiritual knowledge at its sculptural summit.

The palpable sculpture of Mount Tabor that presents Christ's miraculous Transfiguration solicits solitude in order to remake pilgrimage. Viewed from behind the screen, Varallo’s Mount Tabor creates an alternative kind of luogo sacro by way of a corporeal surrogate of a biblical mountain that is withheld from the pilgrim’s body. Thus, Bascapè’s sacred place of solitude depended on a new kind of imaginative ascetic activity, supplanting the problematic bodily performance of piety. A more complex reflexivity is produced where the viewer must travel imaginatively, and alone, to Tabor’s summit.

The Sacri Monti at Varallo and Varese in Northern Italy are two of Europe’s best-known “holy mountains.”  Featuring series of chapels combining architecture, highly realistic polychrome wood, terra cotta and mixed-media figures, and illusionistic fresco painting, these mountains reproduce sacred narrative scenes from the life of Christ and the Passion; and in the case of Varese, the mysteries of the rosary.  The chapels are arranged and placed within their topographical settings to produce a dynamic experience of image, space, architecture, and landscape.  Apart from the striking emotive quality, visual effects and overall artistic merit of these multimedia works—historically problematic for art historians to evaluate or categorize—how were they meant to be read and experienced, individually and as a whole, within their ritual and devotional contexts?  In this paper I shall present these sites as places of pilgrimage and as sacred theatres, where the visitor-as-performer completes the “total work of art” through an immersive, empathic and active experience involving contemplation, sensory engagement, prayer and movement.

In this article, I present the main outlines and conclusions of my doctoral dissertation (Custodians of Sacred Space: Constructing the Franciscan Holy Land through Texts and Sacri Monti (ca. 1480-1650), University of Amsterdam, 2017). Moreover, I suggest directions for additional research and point forward to the publications that will appear, based on the dissertation.

Overlooking Lago di Orta in the foothills of the Northern Italian Alps, the Renaissance-era Sacro Monte di Orta (a UNESCO World Heritage site) is spectacle and hagiography, theme park and treatise. Sacro Monte di Orta is a sacred mountain complex that extolls the life of St. Francis of Assisi through fresco, statuary, and built environment. Descending from the vision of the 16th-century Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, the design and execution of the chapels express the Catholic Church’s desire to define, or, perhaps redefine itself for a transforming Christian diaspora. And in the struggle to provide a spiritual and geographical front against the spread of Protestantism into the Italian peninsula, the Catholic Church mustered the most powerful weapon it had: the widely popular native Italian saint, Francis of Assisi.Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta examines this important pilgrimage site where Francis is embraced as a ne plus ultra saint. The book delves into a pivotal moment in the life of the Catholic Church as revealed through the artistic program of the Sacro Monte’s twenty-one chapels, providing a nuanced understanding of the role the site played in the Counter-Reformation.The Sacro Monte di Orta was, in its way, a new hagiographical text vital to post-Tridentine Italy. Sacred Views provides research and analysis of this popular, yet critically neglected Franciscan devotional site. Sacred Views is the first significant scholarly work on the Sacro Monte di Orta in English and one of the very few full-length treatments in any language. It includes a catalogue of artists, over one hundred photographs, maps, short essays on each chapel, and longer essays that examine some of the most significant chapels in greater detail.

This is an excerpt from the book Sacred Views of Saint Francis: The Sacro Monte di Orta.  In this excerpt, I discuss the importance of sight/vision as a mode of both communion with and knowing the divine.  I also introduce the  ways in which the pilgrim's gaze was controlled, by design of the artistic program, to shape the devotional experience.

Traffici e mercatura in vicini e lontani paesi senza dimenticare la patria e
la salute dell’anima. Qualche esempio.

Alcuni esempi di mercanti emigrati che, come Antonio Francesco Branca di Brissago, fondatore del S. Monte, hanno fatto fortuna lontano dalla patria, per poi beneficiarla con la creazione di chiese, cappelle o con la donazione di quadri, arredi, ecc.

Tra conservazione e riforma. Realtà, consistenza e mutamento dei monti di pietà della Terraferma veneta al tramonto dell'antico regime I monti di pietà della Terraferma veneta nel Settecento: un'analisi quantitativa  Scopo del presente saggio è di indagare due ordini di fenomeni. Anzitutto "mappare" la realtà dei monti di pietà sparsi all'interno dei domìni veneziani di Terraferma nella seconda metà del XVIII secolo  , al fine di analizzarne la consistenza quantitativa.

This paper discusses Observant Franciscan sacri monti which are also New Jerusalems, based on my ongoing book project on the same topic. Sacri monti are typically seen as a Northern Italian, Alpine phenomenon of the Counter Reformation. The chapels of these sanctuaries, together mark out a devotional topography for parcours and were designed to promote visual/kinetic contemplation of a variety of religious themes: the Virgin Mary, the Rosary, St Carlo Borromeo, etc. These sanctuaries were founded by a variety of religious orders and local groups. Only Varallo, the earliest of the Northern sacri monti, therefore falls within the scope of this paper. It was founded by the Observant Franciscan Bernardino Caimi in 1491 and intended to recreate Jerusalem for those who could not travel overseas. Although Caimi's affiliation is often mentioned, the Franciscan aspects of his sacro monte have received relatively little attention. Analysis of Observant Franciscan influences can, however, significantly complicate the existing literature on sacri monti. By approaching sacri monti from the angle of Observant Franciscanism, it becomes possible to reorient how we understand sacri monti as a phenomenon, including ideological origins, as well as (the development of) material and devotional aspects. Based on this approach, I argue that the history of sacri monti starts much earlier, and transcends the current regional focus on the Alpine North. I will present the main outlines of my book project on this topic, which focusses on three sacri monti: Varallo in the Alpine North, and San Vivaldo and La Verna in Tuscany. These three sacri monti are ideologically closely interrelated, Observant Franciscan sanctuaries, which represent Jerusalem in Italy. A combined consideration of these three sanctuaries can shed new light on how sacri monti first developed.

Archbishops Carlo and Federico Borromeo sponsored or influenced numerous architectural and urban projects in Milan on either side of the year 1600.  This paper examines the commonalities of these works and their impact on the experience of the city, while ultimately drawing important distinctions between the more episodic nature of the interventions during Carlo's time and the conceptually more connected, "stational" experience of Federico's.  The plague crosses and the sacri monti provide important evidence for this conceptual and formal shift.

Con il presente contributo intendo esaminare un progetto per l'istituzione di un monte di pietà a Venezia, maturato nel dibattito politico della Serenissima tra il 1778 ed il 1779. Considerato che l'evoluzione dello scenario politico in merito è già stata trattata 1 , vi accennerò appena, soffermandomi, invece, sui dettagli tecnici della proposta.

Early modern Catholic religious culture is known for a widely popularized method of prayer which involves employing the inner senses to recall scenes from Christ’s life in the most vivid possible terms, in order to enter the sacred narrative and imagine oneself present as a participant.  This method of prayer, often associated with the Spiritual Exercises (1548) of St Ignatius of Loyola, is based on a centuries-old tradition evidenced in late medieval Franciscan, Carthusian and Benedictine texts.  At the centre of such narratives, and at the centre of Christian belief, is the body of Christ: one is called to adore his divinity as represented in his bodily perfection, but also to identify with his humanity as represented in his bodily suffering.  In this paper I propose a kind of mysticism not divorced from or seeking to transcend the body or the physical senses, but in fact centring on them, as one engages in an embodied, performed response to both relics and works of art representing or associated with the Passion and Christ’s suffering.  This process, guided by relevant devotional texts, is meant to lead the believer to identification with Christ’s experience as well as greater understanding of the meaning of his sacrifice.  As I consider the relics of the Passion in Carlo Borromeo’s Milan and the rituals and devotions associated with them, paintings of the tortured and dead Christ by artists including Caravaggio and Zurbarán, and the striking multimedia Passion scenes of the Sacro Monte of Varallo, I will argue that the physical senses and bodily experience--including movement, gesture, and penitential practice—function together with the inner senses and the imagination to achieve the ultimate goal of union with Christ.