Cuneo Civic Museum - The Madonna and Child

The Madonna and Child

On the counter-façade of the Church of San Francesco in Cuneo, a fresco of a Madonna and Child is visible, which re-emerged under the plaster following the restoration work carried out on the monument at the end of the 1980s and occupies a total surface area of ​​160 x 183 cm.

Art historians who have analyzed the work from a stylistic and content perspective emphasize its delicate, luminous tones and the particular attention paid to the gentleness of the affections, while also noting that the rendering of the Child's figure is somewhat uncertain. The attribution is therefore uncertain, but there is consensus that the fresco is similar to the work of Guglielmo Caccia, known as Moncalvo, a Monferrato painter responsible for the more famous Nativity of the Virgin, now at the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Cuneo. The proposed date is the first half of the 18th century.

The artist was nicknamed Moncalvo because he spent his youth in the town of the same name. He is considered the most important exponent of Counter-Reformation art in Piedmont, so much so that he has been called the Raphael of Monferrato. He painted the gallery of the Royal Palace of Turin commissioned by Charles Emmanuel I, and on this occasion he acquired the noble title of baron. His finest work is the Deposition from the Cross in the church of San Gaudenzio and the decoration of the dome of San Paolo, both in Novara. It has also been hypothesized that in Chieri he created some of the Madonnas visible on the facades of civic buildings in the same town. In the Church of Santa Croce in Cuneo, his Madonna and Child with Saints Bernardino and Nicholas can be seen. Caccia eventually created a school of painting whose works can be admired around Montabone, in the churches of Monastero Bormida, in Nizza Monferrato, and in Acqui Terme.