Johann Joseph Franz Curta

Frescoes by Curta can be found on the façades of the chapels of Mandrou and Mascognaz, restored during the time of parish priest Dandrés; on the portal of the old church of Champoluc, built in 1836 by the same parish priest; and on the portal of the chapel of Saint-Jacques-des-Allemands, rebuilt in 1872 by parish priest Clos. Also by Curta are the grand fresco of the Last Judgement on the façade of the chapel of Lignod, dating from 1875 and painted over an earlier fresco, as well as other works in small oratories along the transit routes. Through Curta’s work, a form of ecclesiastical control was also exercised over the production of images placed in ‘unofficial’ locations: this is the case, for example, with the recurring theme of the Holy Family, which appears on several private dwellings in Mascognaz, Mandrou, and Antagnod, thereby establishing a connection between the official place of worship and peripheral locations.

Curta’s compositions appear to draw on illustrious models from Italian painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, from Correggio to Michelangelo, whose works the artist came to know during his studies at the drawing school in Varallo and later at the Albertina Academy in Turin. In his depictions of the Holy Family, he imitates the compositional structure of Correggio’s Madonna and Child, known as the Zingarella (held at the National Museum of Naples), while in the Last Judgement at Antagnod, he draws on the Sistine Chapel for the figures of the judging Christ and the Virgin at his side.