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 The aisle of the Sanctuary leading to the apse. |
A hidden God watches over the skies above the Grazie. Incredibly, right in the Sanctuary so loved and visited by the faithful there something that has been missed by most. On the triumphal arch almost hidden from view by the wooden arched structure that completes the walled part of the structure and practically invisible from within the church, is an unpublished version of the Eternal Father. The angels surround him and from the ground, from the sides of the triumphant arch, just above the small statues of second order, are painted structures that descend along the sides in a linear geometrical pattern in red and green. The walls of the arch probably descended to a lower level compared to their present limit and the original structure no longer exists as it was obliterated during the reconstruction in the renaissance period of the apse.
The central part of the painting, including the wooden arching and the painted faces, is crowned by a full ribbon decorated with marigolds, the leitmotiv of the sanctuary which can be seen on the other walls of the sanctuary, and always acts a frame or a symbol on the vaults of the ceiling.
Under the frame that look to the heavens populated with angels and the wings and faces are outlined in white. This detail is almost invisible to the naked eye, and on closer inspection is rather crudely drawn.
Many faces appear to have been drawn in a hurried and imprecise manner, others such as the first on the left, are drawn more deftly with the lines of the face and the colouring of the skin carefully drawn, so much so that they may be caricature-portraits. To the sides of the groups of angles appear highly coloured garlands of flowers with the violat celeste.
In the centre is God the Father. It is an imposing figure and of a much higher quality than the rest of the composition. The head is visible only from above the cheekbones.
Under the huge halo, possibly in plaster, decorated with golden leaves and outlined by a clear dark line is the head of God the Father. His white hair falls fully about the shoulders and locks of hair are clearly visible. Unfortunately the left side (to the onlooker) of the face is faded, and cannot be clearly seen. The face of Our Father is regular and the forehead is deeply lined.
 Holy Father and Angels, painting on the triumphal arch of the sanctuary. |
The eyebrows are candid and the cheekbones stand out, emphasised by the shading under the eyes and the nose. This decoration was hidden by parts of the joists until they were removed in the 1930's during the restoration work of dubious worth.
The memory remains in the painting by Marco Moro of the inside of the Sanctuary and in some photographs taken at the beginning of the last century.
It is likely that the painting was pre-existent to the joists and to the relic of antique decorations, of which only a few traces have survived (on the triumphal arch and the two figures depicted in the Nativity and Our Lady of Mercy at the end of the aisle). More probably it did not cover a noticeable part of the walls, hence the successive "yes" for the construction of the joists, which do not appear to have been covered by any later decorative elements.
Paolo Bertelli
