Art and Science 



the anniversary of her own Nativity. Taba- 

 chetti, arriving at this juncture, may have 

 offered to undertake them if the Saas people 

 would give him an asylum. Here, at any 

 rate, I suppose him to have stayed till some 

 time in 1590, probably the second half of it ; 

 his design of eventually returning home, if he 

 ever entertained it, being then interrupted by 

 a summons to Crea near Casale, where I believe 

 him to have worked with a few brief interrup- 

 tions thenceforward for little if at all short of 

 half a century, or until about the year 1640. 

 I admit, however, that the evidence for assign- 

 ing him so long a life rests solely on the sup- 

 posed identity of the figure known as " II 

 Vecchietto," in the Varallo Descent from the 

 Cross chapel, with the portrait of Tabachetti 

 himself in the Ecce Homo chapel, also at 

 Varallo. 



I find additional reason for thinking the 

 chapels owe their origin to the inundation of 

 September 9, 1589, in the fact that the 8th 

 of September is made a day of pilgrimage to 

 the Saas-F^e chapels throughout the whole 

 valley of Saas. It is true the 8th of September 



'57 



