Sacro Monte di Orta is a series of chapels that are of unique interest. Located in Piedmont in the north of Italy, construction began in 1583 and the original project envisioned 36 "chapels" which were dedicated to St. Francis and his order. The chapels are unique insofar as they are really full fledged art installations depicting, in two and three dimensions, scenes from the life of St. Francis amongst other things.
Twenty chapels of the originally envisioned thirty six were constructed by the time of completion of the project in the later 18th century and one that will be of especial interest to our readers is chapel number twenty which depicts the canonization of St. Francis of Assisi by Pope Gregory IX. The statues were created by Dionigi Bussola, while the frescos were executed by Antonio Busca.
I believe this chapel could be of particular interest since it shows the papal liturgy of canonization. It intends to depict an event that took place in the second quarter of the 13th century by artists who lived in the 17th century. In this regard, it can help to give an insight into, at very least, the papal court and liturgy as well as the liturgical arts from the 1600's -- which would have certainly been used as a template for the execution of this work.
