We Are Now On A Level With S. Maria Itself, And
Turning Sharply To The Left Come In A Few Minutes Right Upon The
Massive Keep And The Campanile, Which Are So Striking When Seen
From Down Below.
They are much more striking when seen from close
at hand.
The sketch I give does not convey the notion - as what
sketch can convey it? - that one is at a great elevation, and it is
this which gives its especial charm to S. Maria in Calanca.
The approach to the church is beautiful, and the church itself full
of interest. The village was evidently at one time a place of some
importance, though it is not easy to understand how it came to be
built in such a situation. Even now it is unaccountably large.
There is no accommodation for sleeping, but an artist who could
rough it would, I think, find a good deal that he would like. On
p. 226 is a sketch of the church and tower as seen from the
opposite side to that from which the sketch on p. 224 was taken.
The church seems to have been very much altered, if indeed the body
of it was not entirely rebuilt, in 1618 - a date which is found on a
pillar inside the church. On going up into the gallery at the west
end of the church, there is found a Nativity painted in fresco by a
local artist, one Agostino Duso of Roveredo, in the year 1727, and
better by a good deal than one would anticipate from the epoch and
habitat of the painter. On the other side of the same gallery
there is a Death of the Virgin, also by the same painter, but not
so good. On the left-hand side of the nave going towards the altar
there is a remarkable picture of the battle of Lepanto, signed
"Georgius Wilhelmus Groesner Constantiensis fecit A.D. 1649," and
with an inscription to the effect that it was painted for the
confraternity of the most holy Rosary, and by them set up "in this
church of St. Mary commonly called of Calancha." The picture
displays very little respect for academic principles, but is full
of spirit and sensible painting.
Above this picture there hang two others - also very interesting,
from being examples of, as it were, the last groans of true art
while being stifled by academicism - or it may be the attempt at a
new birth, which was nevertheless doomed to extinction by
academicians while yet in its infancy. Such pictures are to be
found all over Italy. Sometimes, as in the case of the work of
Dedomenici, they have absolute merit - more commonly they have the
relative merit of showing that the painter was trying to look and
feel for himself, and a picture does much when it conveys this
impression. It is a small still voice, which, however small, can
be heard through and above the roar of cant which tries to drown
it.
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