BEDOGLIO

Posted byVirginia MerliniPosted inUncategorized
BEDOGLIO – Wall Madonna 1741, I think this is an Assumption of the Virgin. I am pretty sure that the saint to the right is San Gottardo and the saint on the left is San Bernardo di Chiaravalle.


BEDOGLIO – There is always something more to learn! Bedoglio is a tiny mountain frazione with about 8 houses. At 815 meters the little borgo is just north of Cadelpicco and southeast of Caspano on SP10 in the direction of Val Masino.

BEDOGLIO – This is the tiny frazione. The church on the right is Chiesa di San Pietro a Cadelpicco. The houses below the street are part of Cadelpicco. To the left is Bedoglio. There are four houses on the right and four on the left. You can see the fresco – the bit of orange color on the second house on the right.

I have photographed the one Wall Madonna in town many times because this is where I walked every day when I stayed in Dazio. But I never noticed the faded and elaborate inscription and date on the bottom of the fresco. Today I noticed it and after a fruitless effort at translating it because I knew it was some ‘saying’ or old idiom, I sent it to my polyglot, genius friend.

BEDOGLIO – Wall Madonna 1741, The full front of the 18th-century house that is its home. I think this is an Assumption of the Virgin. I am pretty sure that the saint to the right is San Gottardo and the saint on the left is San Bernardo di Chiaravalle.

This is the inscription on the bottom of the fresco:

M. LOMBARDINI F.F. PER SUA DIVOTIONE…
NON DIR DI ME GIACCHE [DI ME]
NON SAI PENZA DI TE E POI DI ME DIRAI. 1741

My friend – who is a polyglot and a genius – explains this dedication thus:

“I read:

M. LOMBARDINI F.F. PER SUA DIVOTIONE…

Yes, F.F. is fare fece or fece fare (no difference), “had [this] made.”

“M Lombardini had this made because of his devotion…”

And by the way a “devotion” in this type of instance means not that he was devout, but that he had a special affection for and dedication to the particular holy figure in the image.

The first line continues…

NON DIR DI ME GIACCHE [DI ME]
NON SAI…

I am restoring the [DI ME} because this is a well-known proverb-style saying that Italians write on gravestones and elsewhere…

… PENZA DI TE E POI DI ME DIRAI. 1741

“Don’t talk about me as long as you don’t know me. Think about yourself, and then you can talk about me.”

The middle part of the proverb varies. The giacchè sometimes appears as se (“if”) or finchè (“while, until”), but the rest is a well=worn formula.

Why non dir)e) for “talk about” instead of non parlar(e)? Because parlare di somebody means “speak about” in a non-judgmental way. Dire (“tell”) di somebody has the connotation of gossiping, telling stories.

Why dirai at the end? It’s an idiomatic use of the future tense. It means “do blabbly-blah… and THEN you’ll do blabbity-blah.” We don’t use the future this way in English, but it’s de rigueur in Italian. The sense of the proverb is, “Talk about yourself and you will be talking about me,” i.e., we’re all alike. Oh, and, by the way… I’m dead. So…

It seems like an out-of-place sentiment (a little *nasty) to write under a dedication to a saint!”

*The word used was a profanity so I offer a relevant synonym

Published by Virginia Merlini

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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