LIGURIAN AND TUSCAN ARTISTS, EPISODES OF THE LIFE OF PIOUS VII (FIRST QUARTER OF XIX CENTURY) | from CUNEO, CATHEDRAL OF SAINT MARY OF THE WOODS

Despite the Napoleonic prohibition of the circulation of images and writings regarding the Pope, during the rare and fleeting encounters, several Savonese artists painted “clandestine” portraits of Pious VII, initiating a widespread iconography. Effigies of the Pope reproduced on every sort of support circulate as well as engravings and postcards with episodes of his life. Most of the prints, from which those exhibited derive, are widespread throughout the entire peninsula. The engravings, also spread widely throughout the peninsula, are mainly by Tuscan artists. Evidently commissioned to satisfy the demand of the devotees of Pious VII and emphasize the extraordinariness of his image; the events narrated regard many episodes full of pathos and exceptional occurrences of his sequence of events (such as the Pontiff’s ecstasy during the prayer or the apparition of an angel). It is a sort of a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) in which the suffering image of the Holy Father is the protagonist. The veneration of the people toward him and Pious VII’s most remarkable qualities are always underlined in the scenes, such as his determination, the rigor in which he acts and the dignity and pardon which distinguishes him during his long and difficult imprisonment. All the images provide the names of the artist and the engraver as well as a brief and poetic description of the episode represented.  

IGNAZIO RAVIZZA, CHALICE (SECOND HALF XVIII CENTURY) | EMBOSSED, CHISELED, GOLD-PLATED SILVER

The chalice arrived at the Cathedral of Cuneo via an unusual path that can be partly reconstructed thanks to the inscription on the base: “CANONICUS COELESTINUS DE ASTE AD USUM SUMMI PONTIFICIS PII PAPAE SEPTIMI TAURINI DIE 25 ET 26 APRILIS 1805 DEDIT”. In April of 1805, Pious VII passed through Turin on his return journey from Paris where – on December 2 of the previous year – he had attended the coronation of Emperor Napoleon. On that occasion, the canon Celestino De Aste gifted him the precious chalice made by the Turinese silversmith Ignazio Ravizza in the last quarter of the XVIII century. When the imprisoned pontiff passed through Cuneo in 1809, he gifted the chalice to the canons of the Collegiate Church of Holy Mary of the Woods who (as the chronicles recount) “... wished to have the honor to supply what was needed for the Papal Mass, but impeded in everything, offered the Holy Father a chalice who wished it to be the chalice of comfort and exultation. The expressed a centuries-old wish to the Pontiff, that Cuneo might have a bishop like the other cities, even smaller cities in Piedmont. Pious VII received the chalice with much affection and since he could not have two with him during his journey, he gifted His chalice in exchange; he had even used it that morning. It is now safeguarded with care by the canons; that chalice, memory of the great Pontiff, it served for the pontificals of all our Bishoprics and is therefore a precious keepsake for the Diocese….” (from RAM – Repertorio di Antiche Memorie – Tome II – The Processional Banner, 19 September 1919).

Who is like God? This can be the tradition of the name Michael. Protagonist of the book of the Apocalypse, he is the Archangel whom God entrusts to combat the Devil. In the Hebrew Christian vision, in fact, evil is personified and does not have the same weight as God, there is no contrast between good and evil as two equal and contrary forces. God is the one, highest and total Good. In creation, freedom is also open to evil, the refusal of good. Yet the Devil (= he who divides) is subjugated by to God, an angel who did not trust God and whom Saint Michael combats, indicating God as the sole reference and sole Lord. When the new Bishop arrived in Cuneo in 1817, the memory of other local saints (starting with Saint Dalmatius) seemed too weak to identify a patron saint. Rereading the oldest chronicles of the foundation of the city, it is underlined that the first act was written in the chapel of the Church of Our Lady of the Woods, at the altar of Saint Michael and therefore the decision was made to entrust the Archangel with the protection of the new diocese. 

CUNEESE PAINTER, PORTRAIT OF MONSIGNOR AMEDEO BRUNO DI SAMONE, SECOND QUARTER XIX CENTURY | OIL ON CANVAS

Born in Cuneo on 6 January 1754 in the historical Samone Palace in via Amedeo Rossi to Count Francesco Bernardino and Cristina Ricci d’Andonno, he was baptized in the Parish Church of Saint Mary by his paternal uncle, canon Giovanni Giacomo Bruno. He received his degree in theology in Turin, where he was then ordained as a priest on 19 December 1785. He then becomes canonic cantor of the Metropolitan Church after which he was nominated dean of the Faculty of Theology after which he is nominated as the first bishop of Cuneo on 1 October 1817, ordained on October 5 in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome by Cardinal Morozzo. At 2 PM on the afternoon of December 28, he arrived in Cuneo to take possession of the diocese, announcing the first diocesan synod and erecting six new parishes, among which Our Lady of the Elms. He dies on 21 December 1838.

The Greek word ‘episkopos’, from which we obtain the word ‘bishop’, literally means “he who looks down from above”, which is to say a person who has an overview, a wisdom which goes beyond particularity and subjectivity. The image of the Good Shepherd is the one which is most commonly associated to those who are responsible for Christian communities, which are not simply “commanders”, but rather a service of faith for the believers. In the Gospel, in fact, Jesus “calls” many people to follow him and several of his closets collaborators (the apostles or “the dispatched”) to whom he entrusts the preaching and signs of endurance throughout history (the Word and the Sacraments). These, in turn, support other persons who hand down the same services connected to community, which little by little are structured and organized (the dioceses). The mandate is granted from the beginning by an apostle to his “successor” (bishop) through the Chrism unction and the gift of the Spirit, and so forth (thus the talk of an out-and-out uninterrupted chain of apostolic successions). A bishop is thus the greatest expression of service and can therefore organize the local church and ably order the persons in charge of the various territorial communities (the parishes) in three main levels: deacons, priests and bishops. Whenever this does not occur in communion with the other bishops (and for the Catholics with the Pope) a schism occurs (a “breach”, even without being able to judge the validity of the acts a bishop had already rightly ordained). The Pope is the bishop of Rome and the successor to Saint Peter. Catholics recognize him as the font of unity for all the churches, whereas the other Christian denominations (Orthodox, Anglican) have other ways of maintaining the connection among them in an inter pares dialogue (synods, etc.), even though maintaining the same territorial subdivision. A bishop of a very old or very prestigious seat can add the title of archbishop or be part of the “collegiate” of cardinals (the group which elects the Pope), but basically every bishop maintains his role of apostle, whether he performs his role in a large metropolis or in a small provincial diocese. In 1817, with the creation of the diocese of Cuneo, such territory was given a specific bishop. Until now our area had been subdivided into different diocese: Asti, Turin, Fossano and Mondovì. Monsignor Giuseppe Cavallotto is the fourteenth bishop of Cuneo.