This previously unrecorded work, an important addition to the corpus of drawings by Morazzone, is a rare study for the figure of a prophet in the artist’s fresco representing Ecce Homo, in one of the chapels of the sanctuary of the Sacro Monte of Varallo (fig. 1). The monumental figure appears in the background of the frescoed scene, to the right of the archway under the elaborate balcony of Pilate’s Palace where Christ is presented to the crowd.

The grand project of the Sacro Monte was conceived to bring to life the Passion of Christ, vividly reconstructing these illustrations of Christ's life and death in various chapels on top of the hill above Varallo. The sensational and theatrical scenes that make up this cycle are seen through gates, and are achieved not only with trompe-l'oeil frescoes but with full size polychromed terracotta figures, realistically sculpted with glass eyes and horse hair.

The sacred complex was first conceived as early as 1488 by the Beato Bernardino Caimi (c. 1425-1499/1500), a prior of the Minorites and a member of a noble Milanese family who wanted to create a place of pilgrimage and a new spiritual fortress between Lombardy and Piedmont. By the middle of the 16^th century some twenty chapels had been completed, and concerns regarding the threat to the area from Protestant influences from the north led San Carlo Borromeo (1538-1584), with the help of the Bishop Carlo Novara Bascapè (1593-1615), to lend further support to the scheme of the Sacro Monte - the 'New Jerusalem.'

The climax of the Sacro Monte, on an upper level above the Sancta Scala (Holy Steps), consists of three very large chapels representing the Passion sequence, including the Ecce Homo. This scene was frescoed by Morazzone between 1609 and 1613¹ and the actual size terracotta figures were executed by Giovanni d’Errico (c. 1560-1646), the brother of Tanzio da Varallo (1575-1633), who also worked at the Sacro Monte.

As scholars have observed, the collaboration between Morazzone and Giovanni d’Errico introduces a new element into the important relationship between sculpted figures and their architectural setting during this period.² The two figures frescoed right and left of the archway, inserted in the elaborate illusionistic architectural frame, recall the monumentality of the sculpted ones just below. Morazzone clearly developed a much more sophisticated approach in combining the frescoes and the sculptures with a remarkable continuity in the narrative.

Jacopo Stoppa observed, in his monograph on the artist, that the idea of these two figures inserted in architectural niches with similar foreshortening could derive from Morazzone’s Roman training. In fact, there are similarities with the two Saints (St. Andrew and St. Bernard) frescoed by Cavaliere d’Arpino in the Olgiati Chapel in Santa Prassede, Rome.³ Moreover, Stoppa has noted that the representation of the Palace of Pilate with the balcony with Christ at the Loggia, could have been inspired by the illustrations from the Devotissimo viaggio di Gerusalemme by Giovanni Zuallardo, a book published in Rome in 1587.⁴

Elegantly executed in pen and ink over an extensive preliminary study in black chalk, Morazzone's drawing uses wash to contrast with the white of the paper, and white heightening is only employed in a very few places. The space of the niche is indicated with a masterly, though delicate, use of wash and the monumental figure, seen da sotto in su, occupies the length of the entire page in the same way that its frescoed counterpart dominates the space of the niche.

Very few drawings like this by Morazzone seem to have survived.

^1.A commission he received after the cancellation of the contract with the painter Antonio Gandino of Brescia (1560-1631) in 1604

^2.See Jacopo Stoppa, Il Morazzone, Milan 2003, p. 53

^3.Ibid.

^4.Ibid.