Alone at the Summit: Solitude and the Ascetic Imagination at the Sacro Monte of Varallo

Abstract

Knowledge of the divine requires that vision be tested. At the Sacro Monte of VaralloChrist's miraculous transformation from incarnate flesh to immaterial light takes place high above the pilgrim who kneels at a wooden viewing screen [Fig.1].The screen frames and controls the revelation at the same time as it withholds its image from the viewer.This difficulty is augmented by an enormous representation of Mount Tabor that confronts the visitor from behind the screen.Christ is presented at the highest point of the stucco mountainside on the upper rear wall of the vast chapel interior: rather than facilitating access to divine presence, Mount Tabor complicates visual apprehension of the miracle and even undermines efforts to verify its proof [Fig.2].Traditional associations of the mountain as a liminal place between heaven and earth are emphasised in the Transfiguration at Varallo while, paradoxically, contact and communion with the divine are made increasingly difficult.In fact, Christ's retreat from vision in the Transfiguration only serves to heighten the sense of withdrawal already raised by the narrative recounted in the Synoptic Gospels. 1 The Transfiguration begins when Christ takes Peter, John, and James up a mountain to pray.Departing from the crowds and 1 If not otherwise indicated all translations are my own.Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-9; Luke 9: 28-36.My analysis is indebted to a recent discussion of visibility and epistemology put forth by Pierre Antoine Fabre: Fabre P.A., "Sleep of the Flesh: The Agony of the Visible at the Limits of the Frame in the Iconography of the Prayer of Christ in the Garden of Gesthemane", in Falkenberg R.L. -Melion W.S. -Richardson T.

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