Essays on Life 



7. The Flagellation. Tabachetti has a chapel 

 with this subject at Varallo, and the Saas 

 group is obviously a descent with modification 

 from his work there. The figure of Christ is 

 so like the one at Varallo that I think it must 

 have been carved by Tabachetti himself. The 

 man with the hooked nose, who at Varallo is 

 stooping to bind his rods, is here upright : it 

 was probably the intention to emphasise him 

 in the succeeding scenes as well as this, in the 

 same way as he has been emphasised at Varallo, 

 but his nose got pared down in the cutting of 

 later scenes, and could not easily be added to. 

 The man binding Christ to the column at 

 Varallo is repeated (longo intervallo) here, and 

 the whole work is one inspired by that at 

 Varallo, though no single figure except that 

 of the Christ is adhered to with any very great 

 closeness. I think the nearer malefactor, with 

 a goitre, and wearing a large black hat, is 

 either an addition of the year 1709, or was 

 done by the journeyman of the local sculptor 

 who carved the greater number of the figures. 

 The man stooping down to bind his rods can 



hardly be by the same hand as either of the 



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