{"id":11954,"date":"2026-05-21T01:47:53","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T23:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ceresio5valli.it\/?p=11954"},"modified":"2026-05-21T15:52:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T13:52:57","slug":"pellegrino-tibaldi-affreschi-ritrovati-claino-valle-intelvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ceresio5valli.it\/en\/pellegrino-tibaldi-affreschi-ritrovati-claino-valle-intelvi\/","title":{"rendered":"Pellegrino Tibaldi in Claino: the fresco cycle discovered in the Church of San Vincenzo Martire"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 2022. While work is in full swing on the restoration of the painted facade<\/strong>, Dr. Ilaria Bruno<\/strong>, official of the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Milan, arranges a series of investigative essays on the three mirrors of the presbytery of the Church of San Vincenzo Martire in Claino<\/strong>. For decades, those walls, behind and to the sides of the high altar, have been covered with a washable yellow tempera paint resembling a marble, applied in the 1960s. No one knows for sure what lies beneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few millimeters of removal are enough for the surprise to explode. Under the dullness a face emerges, then another figure, then a hand raised to the sky. They are 16th-century frescoes of extraordinary quality<\/strong>A Crucifixion in the center, two scenes of the martyrdom of Saint Vincent of Saragossa on the sides, figures of Michelangelo's power still charged with their original chromaticism. The first attribution hypotheses began to circulate almost immediately. Leading the delicate work of desciabo, calibrated millimeter by millimeter to avoid losing a single layer of original color, is the restorer Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2023<\/strong>, at the conference \u201c"Mannerism in the Intelvi Valley and the Artists of the Lakes between the 16th and 17th Centuries"\u201d<\/em> held in San Fedele d'Intelvi and organized by APPACuVI, the cycle is attributed to Pellegrino Pellegrini known as Tibaldi<\/a><\/strong> (Puria di Valsolda, 1527 \u2013 Milan, 1596). Two years later, in November 2025<\/strong>, the attribution is formalized in a scientific volume by Prof. Andrea Spiriti<\/strong>, Professor of Modern Art History at the University of Insubria. And with it, Claino\u2014a village of five hundred inhabitants overlooking Lake Ceresio\u2014officially enters the circuit of great Lombard Renaissance art, alongside Bologna, Lodi, and the Escorial of Philip II of Spain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the most subtle painters of sixteenth-century Europe.\u201d<\/em><\/p>Federico Zeri, on Pellegrino Tibaldi<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The figure of the young John the Evangelist with his arm raised, photographed during restoration: the Michelangelo-like twist of the body and the pale still present at the base. Photo:
Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The attribution: a Tibaldi of his maturity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The volume signed by Spirits<\/strong> \u2014 Pellegrino Tibaldi. The frescoes discovered in Claino<\/em>, published by APPACuVI with the patronage of the University of Insubria \u2014 proposes a precise dating: circa 1585<\/strong>, during a return of Tibaldi to Puria in the period following the death of Charles Borromeo<\/a> (1584) and immediately preceding his departure for Spain in 1588. A chronological placement that is based on documentary elements - Tibaldi is documented in Puria on several occasions from 1563 to 1566, and regularly returned to his native village - and on specific iconographic comparisons with two other pictorial cycles by the master: the Chapel of the Passion in the Church of San Cristoforo in Lodi<\/strong> and the frescoes of the Cloister of the Evangelists at the Royal Monastery of El Escorial<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The volume was presented on November 17, 2025, in the Great Hall of the Cloister of Sant'Abbondio in Como<\/strong>. The presentation was attended, in addition to Prof. Spirits<\/strong>, Dr. Ilaria Bruno<\/strong>, Prof. Umberto Piarulli<\/strong> (vice-rector of the University), Marco Ausenda<\/strong> (APPACuVI president), the restorer Napkin maker<\/strong> and the architects Grossi<\/strong> e Cioni Mori<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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High-resolution overall view of the presbytery with the high altar and the three panels of Tibaldi's frescoes. Photo: Ubaldo Castelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The work: three mirrors, an iconographic program<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The cycle of the presbytery occupies three large mirrors enclosed by stucco frames<\/strong>: one of 3.60 \u00d7 1.60 meters<\/strong> behind the main altar, two of 2.00 \u00d7 1.60 meters<\/strong> on the sides. Each panel is painted with a powerful Michelangelo-esque Mannerist pathos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central panel: the Crucifixion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the center stands a Crucifixion<\/strong>, of which the head with the white veil of the Praying Virgin<\/strong> \u2014 of immaculate iconography, according to the tradition of the \u201cWhite Madonna\u201d \u2014 and the lion's head of John the Evangelist<\/strong>, in addition to the trace of the sculpted Crucifix that dominated the scene. The latter could correspond to the wooden crucifix in late Michelangelo style now preserved in the right chapel of the same church, according to the hypothesis proposed by Spirits<\/strong>. Above the heads of Mary and John, two figures of angels can also be seen, still covered by very tight layers of plaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The entire central panel of the presbytery: Crucifixion with the Praying Virgin and John the Evangelist, enclosed by a stucco frame. Photo: Ubaldo Castelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Detail of the face of Christ crucified, revealed during the restoration in the central panel. Photo: Ubaldo Castelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The praying Virgin emerges during the unshaving of the twentieth-century veil: the yellow shading is still visible around the figure. Photo:
Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The visual isolation of the two figures clearly refers to the Gospel of John (19, 25-27), with the recognition of the apostle as the putative brother of Christ and the putative son of Mary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two side panels: the martyrdom of Saint Vincent<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On the sides of the Crucifixion are the two scenes of the martyrdom of Saint Vincent of Saragossa<\/strong>, the patron saint of the church. The iconography follows the tradition consolidated in the 13th century by Golden Legend<\/em> by Iacopo da Varazze: Vincenzo, archdeacon of Saragossa, subjected during the persecution of Diocletian in 304 AD to the torture decreed by the prefect Daciano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the left pane<\/strong> The saint is hanging from the bier while being flayed with iron hooks. The figure of Daciano on horseback emerges to the right; Vincenzo's gaze turns upward with the indifference to the pain that hagiography attributes to him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Entire left panel: the martyrdom of Saint Vincent at the easel with iron hooks and Dacianus on horseback. Photo: Ubaldo Castelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Cleaning test on the left panel: Daciano's horse and the two executioners re-emerge from the fog of whitewash that still covers the rest of the scene. Photo:
Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

In the right pane<\/strong> Vincenzo lies on the grill, but raises his head and right hand to the sky, surrounded by the crowd. The two executioners in the foreground on the sides are particularly noteworthy: the executioner on the left, in particular, derives directly \u2014 according to the analysis of Spirits<\/strong> - from the Crucifixion of St. Peter<\/strong> painted by Michelangelo for the Pauline Chapel<\/a> in the Vatican.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Entire right panel: the martyrdom of Saint Vincent on the gridiron, surrounded by a crowd, with the executioners in the foreground. Photo: Ubaldo Castelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Detail of the executioner in the right panel of the second martyrdom. Photo:
Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The iconographic combination - Christ crucified in the centre, the martyr his witness on the sides - builds a unitary theological programme: Vincenzo as imitator Christi<\/em>, faithful witness who in his own passion relives that of the Savior.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Tibaldi: Michelangelo's style<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The stylistic analysis of Spirits<\/strong> identifies in the Cla\u00ednese cycle the vigorous Michelangelo mannerism<\/strong> Tibaldi's mature style. The powerful torsion of the bodies, the monumental gigantism of the figures, the attention to anatomical detail, and the controlled pathos of the central Crucifixion are the stylistic hallmarks of one of the artists who best reinterpreted Buonarroti's language in the Lombard context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Detail of the bearded executioner during restoration: the pose is directly derived from Michelangelo's Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Pauline Chapel. Photo: Ubaldo Castelli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The bearded executioner after cleaning: the pose is taken directly from Michelangelo's Crucifixion of St. Peter in the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican. Photo:
Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The figures of Claino - the young John with the receding hairline, the archangel Gabriel as a compositional model, the caricatural Leonardesque quality of the profile figure in the second martyrdom - reveal memories of Perin del Vaga<\/strong> filtered through a \u201cMichelangelesque\u201d stabilization that Spirits<\/strong> It traces back to Tibaldi's long stay in Milan in the service of Pius IV Medici and Carlo Borromeo. These are the same years in which Michelangelo, mythologized by the papacy of the Milanese Pius IV (1559-1565) and later venerated by champions of the Counter-Reformation such as Ignatius of Loyola and Carlo Borromeo, became the absolute pictorial model for Figino, Lomazzo, Meda and many other artists from the lakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study of Spirits<\/strong> It also documents the\u2019influence<\/strong> of the Cla\u00ednese cycle on immediately subsequent artists: Aurelio Luini<\/strong> he created for the Milanese church of San Vincenzino alle Monache, shortly before 1587, a First<\/em> and a Second martyrdom of Saint Vincent<\/em> (today at the Pinacoteca di Brera and the Civic Art Collections at the Sforza Castle, respectively) which depend directly on the Tibaldian model. The chain continues: in 1735 Vincenzo Bellotti<\/strong> will create a canvas for the church of Saints Gusmeo and Matteo in Gravedona First martyrdom<\/em> so far thought to be derived from Luini, but which - as demonstrated Spirits<\/strong> \u2014 actually copies directly the Tibaldi of Claino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aurelio Luini, "First Martyrdom of Saint Vincent," preparatory drawing (Archbishop's Gallery \/ Brera Art Gallery): the influence of Tibaldi's Clainese cycle. Photo:
Andrea Spiriti<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Aurelio Luini, "Second Martyrdom of Saint Vincent," Civic Art Collections at the Sforza Castle in Milan: the Tibaldian legacy continues. Photo:
Andrea Spiriti<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tibaldi, Valsolda, and Val d'Intelvi: Two Centuries of Artistic Emigration<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pellegrino Tibaldi was born in Puria di Valsolda in 1527<\/strong>. He is an illustrious son of the same valley which, a century later, would give birth to Paolo Pagani (Castello Valsolda, 1655-1716) \u2014 another great name of the late Lombard Baroque, of which Ceresio5Valli has recently told the new story Andromeda tied to the rock<\/a> exhibited at the Casa Pagani Museum in Castello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Tibaldi is not an isolated case. Valsolda and the neighboring Intelvi Valley<\/strong> \u2014 where Claino stands and where the frescoes have resurfaced \u2014 are the heart of one of the most important cultural phenomena of Lombard art between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries: the\u2019artistic emigration of lake people<\/strong>. Generations of architects, painters, sculptors, plasterers, and master builders left these villages to export their art from Italy to Spain, from Central Europe to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and Sweden, organized in family businesses passed down from father to son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Valsolda<\/strong> families like the left Get along<\/strong>, i Bellotti<\/strong>, i Fountain<\/strong>, i Merlins<\/strong>, i Ceroni<\/strong>, i Puttini<\/strong>, i Well<\/strong>, i Little faces<\/strong>, i Lezzeni<\/strong>. From the Intelvi Valley<\/strong> an equally dense network of dynasties: the Quail<\/strong> of Laino (of which Giuseppe emigrated to Munich and was the founder of a family of famous Bavarian artists), the Straight<\/strong> always from Laino (with Paolo active in W\u00fcrttemberg and Leopoldo in Ansbach, today at the centre of a cultural twinning with APPACuVI), the Frisians<\/strong> they Scotti<\/strong> emigrated to Germany, the Carloni of Scaria<\/strong> \u2014four generations from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, from Pietro Francesco to Carlo Innocenzo, active in the German and Austrian courts. Castiglione d'Intelvi was the birthplace John Good<\/strong>, the first of the \u201cMagistri Intelvesi\u201d of which we have news, already active in the 12th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this panorama, Tibaldi represents a monumental figure: architect and painter, active in Bologna in the 1540s, then in Rome at the Cappella Paolina in 1550, then in Lombardy from 1564 as trusted architect of Pius IV and Charles Borromeo, finally in Spain from 1588 to 1595 to carry out the great pictorial undertaking of the Patio of the Evangelists and the Library at the Escorial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The frescoes of Claino are therefore, according to the chronology of Spirits<\/strong>, work of Tibaldi's maturity<\/strong>, created during a brief interval when the artist had returned to Valsolda, probably to organize his work in preparation for the Spanish departure. The cycle parallels the Lodi San Cristoforo cycle, following the "standard lakeside practice" of reusing cartoons, and precedes the Escurial works by just a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restoration in progress: selective whitewash removal, chemical gels and Er:YAG laser<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As of today (spring 2026) the restoration it's not finished yet<\/strong>. Under the hands of Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong> Complex, dramatic figures gradually emerge, in some places perfectly preserved and in others reduced to fragments. For the restorer, the cycle presents an exceptionally complex stratigraphy, the result of overlapping interventions between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries: in addition to the washable yellow tempera with a faux marble effect<\/strong> (laid down \u201cabout fifty-sixty years ago\u201d, millimetric thickness), the original pictorial film is covered by layers of plaster<\/strong>, from residues of window fillers<\/strong>, from mash<\/strong> nineteenth-century based on oils and waxes now degraded into oxalate crusts and lime repainting<\/strong> of blue skies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hypothesize that these highly valuable paintings of ours were simply covered up as an alternative to conservative restoration as a solution to the deterioration.\u201d<\/em><\/p>Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>, on the reasons for twentieth-century veiling<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

A technical reading that overturns the first instinctive question of every visitor \u2014 why on earth would anyone cover up a Tibaldi?<\/em> \u2014restoring it to its dimension of conservation practice: in an era in which modern scientific restoration was not yet widespread practice in smaller construction sites, covering a compromised fresco might have seemed the least traumatic solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The method applied by Napkin maker<\/strong> it is the selective whitewash removal<\/strong>, calibrated millimeter by millimeter. The removal occurs by alternating mechanical techniques (scalpels, micro-chisels), aqueous gels with controlled pH (agar, carbopol, gellan) and \u2014 in the most stubborn areas, particularly on the lime repainting of the skies \u2014 the Er:YAG laser cleaning<\/strong> at a wavelength of 2940 nm, optimized for lightening carbonate and oxalic acid crusts without adding moisture. The water infiltration that had severely damaged the wall in the left panel between 2022 and 2024 was stopped with the intervention on the roofs, gutters, and drainpipes, completed in July 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stratigraphic analysis: the layer of 20th-century yellow tempera, the layer of white plaster, and the original plaster with 16th-century painting are visible. Photo:
Eliana Tovagliaro<\/strong>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The pictorial restoration is part of a larger renovation project of the Church of San Vincenzo Martire, already partially completed thanks to the contribution of Lombardy Region<\/strong> for the facade and the Italian Episcopal Conference<\/strong> for the building's envelope. But completing the restoration of the frescoes\u2014including specialized diagnostic analyses (polished section microstratigraphy, SEM-EDS, micro-FTIR) essential for addressing the residual areas of more resistant plaster\u2014requires specific funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APPACuVI: the engine of discovery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Among the promoters of the initiative for the study, restoration and valorization of the cycle, a prominent figure is APPACuVI<\/strong>, the Association for the Protection of the Artistic and Cultural Heritage of the Intelvi Valley. Founded in 1973<\/strong> with the aim of promoting and financing restorations of the artistic heritage of the valley, it is today the cultural association of reference of the Lario-Intelvese Mountain Community, with headquarters in Palazzo Scotti in Laino and chaired by Marco Ausenda<\/strong>. His Scientific Director<\/strong> it is the Prof. Andrea Spiriti<\/strong>, who signed the attribution of the Cla\u00ednese cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The association operates on three complementary fronts: the restoration financing<\/strong>, the scientific research<\/strong> (of which the volume on Tibaldi is a paradigmatic example, arising from the 2023 conference on Mannerism in the Intelvi Valley), and the cultural dissemination<\/strong> through conferences, study trips in the footsteps of the Artists of the Lakes, guided visits to the area, publications and the quarterly The Voice of APPACuVI<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is thanks to this combination of rigorous research, conservation efforts, and institutional collaboration that the 2022 discovery quickly transformed from a local discovery to an event of national significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support the restoration of the Tibaldi cycle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anyone wishing to make a concrete contribution to the completion of the pictorial restoration of Tibaldi's frescoes in Claino can do so via bank transfer to the association's account:<\/p>\n\n\n\n