Ex Voto

Great and fascinating as Gaudenzio was, I have already said that I find Tabachetti a still more interesting figure.  He had all Gaudenzio’s love of beauty, coupled with a robustness, and freedom from mannerism and self-repetition, that are not always observable in Gaudenzio’s work.  If Gaudenzio has never received anything approaching to his due meed of praise, Tabachetti may be almost said never to have been praised at all.  In Varallo, indeed, and its neighbourhood he is justly regarded as a giant, but the art world generally knows not so much as his name.  Cicognara, Lubke, and Perkins know not of his existence, nor of that of Varallo itself, nor of any Valsesian school of sculpture.  I have shown that so admirable a writer as Mr. King never even alludes to him, while the most recent authority of any reputed eminence on Italian art thinks that the Titan of terra-cotta was a painter and a pupil of Gaudenzio Ferrari.

Zani, indeed, in his “Enciclopedia Metodica,” {8} and Nagler in his “Kunstler Lexicon,” {9} to which works my attention was directed by Mr. Donoghue of the British Museum, both mention Tabachetti.  The first calls him “bravissimo,” but makes him a Novarese, and calls him “Scultore, plasticalore, Pittore,” and “Incisore di stampe a bulino.”  The second says that Bartoli (Opp. mor.  I. 2), calls him a Flemish sculptor; that he made forty small chapels and several hermitages at Crea in the Monferrato district; and that he also worked much at Varallo.  I have in vain tried to find the passage in Bartoli to which Nagler refers, and should be much obliged to any one who is more fortunate if he will give me a fuller reference.  The “Opp. mor.” referred to appears to be a translation of the “Opuscoli morali” of L. B. Alberti, published at Venice in 1568, which is too early for Tabachetti.  I have had Bartoli’s translation before me, but could discover nothing.  Nagler’s words run:-

“Tabachetti Johann Baptist, nennt Bartoli (Opp. mor.  I. 2), einen Niederlaindischen Bildhauer, ohne seine Lebenzeit zu bestimmen.  In der Kirche U.L.F.  Tu Creo (sic) (Montferrat) stellte er in vierzig kleinen capellen die Geschichte der heil.  Jungfrau, des Heilandes und einiger Einsidler dar.  Auch in Varallo arbeitete er vieles.”

If little is known about Gaudenzio we know still less about Tabachetti.  I do not believe that more is yet ascertained than I can give in the next few pages.  His name was Jean Baptiste Tabaquet, and he came from Dinant in Belgium.  This fact has only come to my knowledge within the last few weeks, and I have been unable to go to Dinant and see whether anything can be there made out about him.  I will thankfully receive any information which any one is good enough to send me upon this subject.  It is not known when he came to Varallo, but by the year 1586 his great Calvary chapel was undoubtedly finished, as also, I imagine, the Adam and Eve, and Temptation chapels, all three of which are mentioned in the 1586 edition of Caccia.  In the 1590 edition, the abbreviated word “bellissi.” has been added to the description of the Calvary chapel, as though it were an oversight in the earlier edition to take no note of the remarkable excellence of the work:  there can be no doubt, therefore, that Bordiga and the other principal authorities are wrong in dating this chapel 1606.  How much earlier it may be than 1586 I cannot determine till the missing editions of Caccia are found, but there is not enough other work of Tabachetti’s on the Sacro Monte to let us suppose that he had worked there for very many years.

Both Fassola and Torrotti say that he began the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, but went mad, leaving the work to be completed by another artist.  It was generally supposed that this was the end of him, but there can be no doubt that, if ever he went mad at all, it was only for a short time, as a consequence of over-fatigue, and perhaps worry, over his gigantic work, the Journey to Calvary chapel.  That he was either absent from Varallo, or at Varallo but unable to work, between the years 1586 and 1590, is certain, for, in the first place, there is no work on the Sacro Monte that can possibly be given to him during these years, and in the second, if he had been available, considering the brilliant success of his Calvary chapel, the Massacre of the Innocents, which dates from 1586-1590, would surely have been entrusted to him, instead of to Rossetti or Bargnola—­whichever of these two is the rightful sculptor.  Nevertheless it is certain that after the end of 1589, to which date the edition of Caccia appears by its preface to belong, Tabachetti reappeared in full force, did one chapel of extreme beauty—­the first Vision of St. Joseph—­and nothing more—­unless indeed the Vecchietto be assigned to this date.  We know this, inasmuch as the First Vision of St. Joseph chapel is not mentioned at all in either the 1586 or 1590 editions of Caccia, and was evidently not yet even contemplated, whereas the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth, over which he is supposed to have gone mad, is given in both as completed.

Tabachetti was summoned to Crea in 1591, and was buying land and other property in 1600, 1602, 1604, 1605, 1606, and 1608, at Serralunga, close to Crea, where deeds which still exist say that he resided.  There are many families named Tabachetti still living in the immediate neighbourhood of Serralunga, who are doubtless descended from the sculptor.  After 1608 nothing more is known of him.  At Varallo, over and above his work on the Sacro Monte, there is an exceedingly beautiful Madonna by him, in the parish church of S. Gaudenzio, and one head of a man with a ruff—­a mere fragment—­ which Cav.  Prof.  Antonini showed me in the Museum, and assured me was by Tabachetti.  I know of no other work by him except what remains at Crea, about which I will presently write more fully.  I am not, however, without hope that search about Liege and Dinant may lead to the discovery of some work at present overlooked, and, as I have said, will thankfully receive information.

I will conclude with a note taken from p. 47 of Part I. of Cav.  Alessandro Godio’s admirable “Cronaca di Crea.” {10}

The note runs:-

“The present writer found himself involved in a long dispute, through having entered the lists against the Valsesian writers, who reckon Tabachetti among the distinguished sons of the Val Sesia, and for having said that he was born in Flanders.  After a more successful search in the above-named [Vercelli?] archive, under the letter B No. 6, over and above the deeds of 1600 and 1606, already referred to in the ‘Vesillo della liberta,’ No. 39, Sept. 5, 1863, I found, under numbers 308, 417, 498, 622, of the unarranged papers of Notary Teodoro Caligaris, four more deeds dated 1602, 1604, 1605, 1608, in which the Sculptor Gio.  Battista Tabachetti is not only described as a Fleming, but his birthplace is given as follows:  “Vendidit, tradidit nobili Joanni Tabacheta filio quondam nobili Gulielmi de Dinante de Liesa [Liege] nunc incola Serralungae.”  Since, then, he was buying considerable property at Serralunga during the above-named year, it is plain that he did not work continuously at Varallo from 1590 to 1606, as contended by the Valsesian writers quoted by An.  Cav.  Carlo Dionisotti, the distinguished author of the Valle Sesia.  Moreover, from the year 1590 and onward the chapels of Crea were begun, and of these, by advice of Monsignor Tullio del Carretto, Bishop of Casale, at the bidding of Michel Angelo da Liverno, who was Vicar of Crea, Tabachetti designed not fifteen but forty, and found himself at the head of the direction of the great work that was then engaging the attention of the foremost Italian artists of the day.”