A journey along the works of art in the Basilica of San Giuseppe al Trionfale. In the frescoes by Silvio Consadori a heritage of faith and beauty.
by Don Lorenzo Cappelletti
Starting from this issue of The Holy Crusade in honor of Saint Joseph we will begin to comment on the decoration of the two chapels located on the side of the side naves of the Roman basilica of San Giuseppe al Trionfale and which form, so to speak, the transept. This element was not originally part of the structure of the basilica. The structure of the 1912 basilica, in fact, in addition to not having the current deep semi-cylindrical apse until the mid-XNUMXs (ending with a simple square presbytery), was not even equipped with the two arms of the transept until the early XNUMXs, that is, it did not have the characteristic Latin cross shape that it now has.
The only original elements that have been preserved inside the two arms, or the two chapels if you prefer, are the altars, which were located at the head of the two side naves on the right and left respectively and which now give the title to the chapels: the altar of the Mother of Divine Providence and the altar of the Sacred Heart. During the works of the early seventies, these altars were moved, for orientation, and placed at the bottom of the two arms of the transept; while, at the end of the naves, the chapels dedicated to Saint Luigi Guanella (currently in use for Eucharistic adoration) and Saint Pius X (with the passage towards the sacristy) were opened, preceded by a small staircase. We will also deal with these two chapels during the next issues The Holy Crusade.
Now let's start talking about the decoration of the right arm of the transept, i.e. the chapel of the Mother of Divine Providence. On the back wall of it is the altar we were talking about, which dates back to 1937, as can be seen from The Holy Crusade of that year (page 181), and in which the writing ECCE MATER TUA stands out (Mk 3,32). An epigraph in Latin, which is no longer on site and is considered lost - despite the editor of The Holy Crusadeof the time he wrote incautiously "which will remain in perpetual memory" - he warned that it was erected by the members of the Pious Union of the Transit of Saint Joseph in the twenty-fifth anniversary of the erection of the association. The altarpiece (115 x 235 cm) is an oil on canvas signed by the painter and sculptor Achille Tamburlini (1873-1958). Trieste by birth, but trained between Milan and Munich, from 1925 he lived and worked in Rome, where he remained until his death, dedicating himself mainly to sacred art (in Acilia, in an area reminiscent of contemporary Italian painters, is currently dedicated to him one way).
In classic neo-Renaissance style - which makes one think of Crivelli or Bellini rather than Scipione Pulzone, author of the late sixteenth-century painting which is preserved in Rome in San Carlo a' Catinari and which is at the origin of the Marian invocation to the Madonna of Providence - the altarpiece shows, on a raised throne flanked by the holy apostles Peter and Paul, the Virgin, who holds the baby Jesus to her chest with her right hand and at the same time tenderly offers him her left hand. The acronym MP, under the festoon between Peter and Paul, presents it to us as Mater Providentiae.
Above the altar is a monochrome fresco created immediately after the construction of the chapel. Here, among the clouds of the sky, two adoring angels flank a lunette, surmounted by the M for "Mary", where the adolescent Jesus stands between Saint Joseph and the Holy Virgin, who, kneeling, seem to listen devotedly to his words. It is a work that, due to its style and the way it is presented The Holy Crusade of December 1971 (page 3), it would seem to belong to Silvio Consadori, who was responsible - with absolute certainty, in this case - for the six polychrome frescoes dedicated to the Virgin on the side walls of the chapel (3+3), signed by him and dated 1971.
Before dedicating ourselves to them in detail in the next issues of The Holy Crusade, we must briefly give an account of the last work, in chronological order, which decorates the chapel. These are the two stained glass windows commissioned by the Pia Unione del Transito Saint Joseph in 2012 at the GIBO artistic glass factory in Verona, which show the Marian aspect of the spiritual experience of Saint Luigi Guanella intertwined with the Eucharistic one. Thus acting as a perfect connection between this Chapel of the Mother of Divine Providence and the adjacent chapel dedicated to him and today reserved for Eucharistic adoration. Based on his own writings (published and unpublished works by Luigi Guanella, edited by B. Capparoni – F. Fabrizi, Rome 1988-2015, vol. I, page 1326; vol. III, page 925; vol. IV, page 1291s; vol. VI, page 711. 964. 977s), it can be said with some certainty that the two windows illustrate, on the one hand, the vision of the Virgin Mary seen by the Saint in the solitude of Gualdera first communion and, on the other, its perception, expressed several times regarding the Holy Eucharist as the "sun of this earth".