
Via Maestra 19, 10050 Novalesa
The reconstruction of the parish church in Novalesa involved the demolition of the chapel of the Disciplinants of the Holy Sacrament, adjacent to the 17th-century church, to which the confreres agreed on the condition that the community would build a new chapel outside the church itself. The work took place in the final decade of the century, following the completion of the main church. Of considerable size and equipped with a sacristy, it featured a deep tribune hosting the benches of the confreres (still existing: basic, with bench seating adorned only by a scroll on the side), on whose walls a thematic cycle consistent with the dedication of the Confraternity was painted, consisting of figures of the Apostles on the walls. We can get an idea of the 17th-century commission of the Company of the Disciplinants, which most likely originated in 1597 following the pastoral visit of 1584 that noted its absence, thanks to archival documentation and some significant pieces preserved in the church itself. Among these is the wooden altar screen representing the Communion of a Saint, bearing the signature "Dufur pingebat 1708". The structural design of the altar screen follows the typology of the Moriana retables. Two pairs of twisted columns, based on high plinths and crowned with Corinthian capitals, flank the central painting; above this, supported by a rich entablature, is a pediment consisting, as in the retables of Avrieux and Termignon, of two scrolls and a "petite retable"; the latter is flanked by twisted columns and concluded by a broken pediment. Laterally, the structure is completed by wings with sinuous scrolls. [...]
The examined structure, to which larger altars add lateral sections with statues in niches and on top (as in the disassembled altar of the parish church of Giaglione), represents the final outcome of an evolutionary process matured in Moriana throughout the 17th century, with peculiar characteristics but also in sync with phenomena widespread throughout the alpine arc. Based on the Counter-Reformation modules received in the first half of the century through the interpretations of Jean Clapier and his workshop, complex contributions not yet fully defined in origins and times were grafted by other dynasties of artisans, leading to outcomes not far from those found in nearby Dauphiné. Canonical models were offered to Savoyard carvers by the Livre d’architecture of the ducal architect and sculptor Francois Cuénot (active in the Savoy territories between 1638 and 1687). Specifically, the formulation and virtuosic execution of the decorative apparatus (from the nervous and light tendrils on the column spirals to the sinuous shape of the wings, from the perforated frame of the central painting to the entire system of scrolls, volutes, thistles, and palmettes that qualify and cover every surface), together with the style of the figurative parts (see the cherub heads on the column bases), provide clear and precise comparisons with the works produced by sculptors Bernard Flandin, Sébastien Rosaz, and Jean Simon for the parish church of Termignon.
Even the figure of the Eternal Blessing projected from the "petite retable" of the gable closely recalls the similar image on the Rosary altar in Termignon, where the mentioned artisans worked in 1676. Thus, the Novalesa confraternity altar can be attributed to the group of Flandin, Rosaz, Simon, or at least to those among them, like Rosaz and Flandin, who extended their activity until the early 18th century. The central painting also comes from the same milieu, its author being from a family of artisans known for other works scattered throughout the upper Arc valley.
See Valle di Susa Arte e Storia dall’XI al XVIII secolo, Turin 1977, article by Guido Gentile.