THE HOLY MISTERIES
The work, dated 1551, was originally on an altar in the nave of the old Cathedral of Treviso, but when the Duomo was rebuilt in the second half of the 18th century, the altar was dismembered.
Faced with the splendid series of works performed for Carlo da Rho, it is presumed that the composition was suggested by the client but the individual episodes are executed with grace and freshness of invention, to underline the artist’s hand.
The renunciation of a compositional scheme, capable of separating and giving order to the different mysteries, leads to true poetic licenses. For example, the procession of the Magi, which starts from the natural arch below Mount Tabor, where the transfiguration is taking place, must pass in front of the Risen Christ to get to the Nativity hut.
The landscape that can be seen both through the architectural windows and in the distance as in the open central part is also very successful.
Just as very striking is the unreal light that, radiating from the transfigured Christ, far into the sky, touches the clouds, the summit of the mountain and then reaches the natural arch investing the following of the Magi.
But then, the Paris’s hand is also recognized in other stylistic details such as that characteristic way of highlighting the garments with the effect of thick and squeezed folds.
