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 suoi panni, e condotto sopra il Monte Calvario, ch' e
fatto di bellissimo e ben inteso relievo."


"The frescoes on the wall," he continues, "are particularly
interesting, as having been painted by him at the early age of
nineteen"--[Mr. King supposes Gaudenzio Ferrari to have been born in
1484]--"when his ambition to share in the glory and renown of the
great work was gratified by this chapel being intrusted to him; a
proof of his early talent and the just appreciation of it. The
frescoes are much injured, but of the chief one there is enough to
show its excellence. On one side is St. John, with clasped hands
gazing upwards in grief, and the two Marys sorrowing, as a soldier in
the centre seems to forbid their following further; his helmet is
embossed and gilt as in the instances in the Franciscan church, while
the two thieves are led bound by a figure on horseback."