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The Church of Our Lady of the Graces (Santa Maria delle Grazie) is a Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church in Varallo Sesia. The church was built, together with the adjacent Franciscan convent between 1486 and 1493.
The interior is subdivided into spaces for the general public and for the friars, separated by a partition wall (tramezzo), supported by three round arches. The central arch opens to a hall reserved for friars, while the two lateral arches lead to two chapels. The fresco cycle scheme of the wall is traditionally attributed to Bernardino of Siena, and painted in 1531 by Gaudenzio Ferrari.
Similar decorative structures, with a partition wall entirely decorated with frescoes of the life of Jesus, were typical of the religious and artistic culture of the Friars Minor in Piedmont and Lombardy between the 15th and 16th centuries.
Common for Franciscan churches, the bare façade does not hint at the rich fresco decoration inside. In the cosy atmosphere of the church, with the gothic arches sustaining the ceiling trusses, the wall of frescos by Gaudenzio Ferrari are one of the masterpieces of Renaissance painting in Piedmont and Lombardy. They depict the life and passion of Jesus Christ on a surface of 82 m2: twenty equal frames narrate the main facts told by the gospels from the Annunciation to the Resurrection, working as Biblia pauperum. The Crucifixion, as the most important narrative scene, occupies the center with four frames.
Despite the focus on Ferrari's wall, there are other important artworks in the church as well. The two chapels under the partition wall preserve other frescos by Ferrari, who painted here before the wall. These frescos are important to understand his artistic development. The Saint Margaret chapel was painted in 1507 with two evangelical scenes and the grotesque.
On the right is the Graces chapel with frescos, dating back to 1491, from the studio of the Milanese painter Giovanni Scotto, where Ferrari was an apprentice. The paintings represent the birth of Virgin Mary, the marriage of Virgin Mary and the adoration of the Magi. The chapel also preserve the wooden statue of the Virgin with baby Jesus standing on her knees, very dear to the local devotees.
In the aisle is a fresco on the left wall, near the pulpit, by Fermo Stella, Ferrari's apprentice, who worked with his maestro at the Sacro Monte. The painting represents a rare scene, Jesus bidding his Mother farewell, inspired by a homily by John Chrysostom.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.