After searching the frazioni Castione Adevenno for five days I found the fourth fresco painted by Franceso Ambrosione who painted in the Valtellina and Valsassina in the mid to late 17th-century and early 18th-century. Four Wall Madonna’s have been identified and attributed to him – 2 in Caiolo Alto, 1 in Fusine, and this one in Guasto. Here are the other three!
Guasto – the house where the Ambrosione is located.
This is the house with the Ambrosione.
Guasto – seen from Vendolo – the house with the Ambrosione if the one farthest to the left.
View of Guasto from Vendolo. These are the few homes there. There are two homes on the other side of the street. The road through Vendolo – via Vendolo – goes to Guasto and then Postalesio,
Caiolo Alto – via De Giacomo
This is via De Giacomo in Caiolo Alto.
Caiolo Alto – Sacra Famiglia painted by Franceso Ambrosione in 1670
This is a Sacra Famiglia painted in 1670. It is in Caiolo Alto very near the 15th-century Oratio di San Pietro. It is located on the side wal of a home and the view is impeded by foliage and a fence.
Caiolo Alto – near the Oratorio di San Pietro – Sacra Famiglia painted in 1670 by Francesco Ambrosione
This is the home. The Wall Madonna actually faces the back of the Oratorio. The Oratorio di San Pietro is below.
Caiolo Alto – the Oratorio di San Pietro – the home with the Ambrosione is behind the churchCaiolo Alto – via De Giacomo, 39 – Enthroned Madonna of the Rosary with Jesus between San Lorenzo and Sant’ Antonio di Padova – painted in 1682 by Francesco Ambrosione
This Wall Madonna is difficult to locate. It is on the main road through Caiolo Alto but on the entry door of a double row of old homes. It is in the middle – on the narrow path between the double row of homes. It is on the second floor at the top of an external flight of stairs and the view is permanently impeded by a new roof over the terrace that it faces. The painted was paid for by Lorenzo Frizzallo and was very badly restored in 1998.
Here is another view of the building and the patio with roof that blocks the view of the fresco.
Fusine – via Pessolo, 5 – the street is also called via ValMadre on some maps. The Ambrosione is on the left side of the home.
This is Fusine – across the Adda River from Castione Adevenno on the Orobie Alps side of the Valtellina. The street is via Pessolo and this house is number 5. The home sits behind the village with its back to the mountains and its right side near a torrente and a mule track that leads into the alpine summer grazing meadows.
Fusine – via Pessolo, 5 – Madonna & Child with a young John the Baptist kissing Jesus’ hand.
This beautiful Wall Madonna was painted in 1650 by Ambrosione and shows the Madonna and Child with a young John the Baptist kissing Jesus’ hand.
Fusine
This is a view of Fusine from the road that leads into the summer frazione. The road was closed because of ice. There are no services in the mountains where these homes are.
I am a retired academic - a sociologist, sociolinguist, ethnographer, and photo-ethnographer. I am building this website and blog to share my passion for the public and private art of Italy. My main focus is on the Wall Madonna. The concept ‘Wall Madonna’ is my own. It is the name I give to the art found on the external walls of many of the homes of the locals which depicts Mary – the woman called Theotokos – God-bearer. I use Wall Madonna to refer to those images frescoed on the outside of homes and public buildings, or the paintings, carvings and statuary attached to the same. My intent is to examine Wall Madonna’s as a type of visual language and gesture in order to come to an understanding of their function and purpose in Italian social life.
In searching for Wall Madonna’s I try to present a broader harvest of my quest so that the towns and cities I visit are frescoed for the reader in my blogs. Therefore, I like to include streetscapes, doors – which have a language of their own, vistas, and the life of the people as reflected in the things one sees as one peruses a town.
Because my family is from the Valtellina and because the valley is lush and beautiful and steeped in history - and an abundance of Wall Madonna’s – I have a small home here. I love the Valtellina. I hope my photos capture your attention. There is no greater joy than sharing this art with others.
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Wall Madonna's of the Valtellina 