austraLasia #2402

The following item is by C.M. Paul (INN but currently completing doctoral studies at UPS Rome). It was published by BIS India after being picked up from the SARS agency. It is of particular interest given that we are due to celebrate St Dominic Savio's Feast on 6th May in this 150th anniversary year for the Congregation.  It is also a good model for the kinds of stories of the kind being requested within the EAO Region (cf yesterday's edition). Please send such to dbfiscom@yahoo.com

The face that launched St Dominic Savio

ROME: 28th April 2009 -- "It was Fr Albert Caviglia who chose me to be the model for Dominic Savio.  I had no idea when I was sent to his artist friend", says 82 year old Father Gianetto, retired professor of Catechetics, recalling the 1940 session with an upcoming 20th Century Italian artist, Prof. Mario Caffaro-Rore (1910-2001), a student of Caviglia's who taught at the Academia di Belle Arti of Turin.
    "The truth is I was only a second level model. The real model was the drawing by artist Carlo Tomatis. My face was only an additional help for the painter", reminds Father Gianetto with all modesty, showing the two-page story told in the book entitled Alberto Caviglia by UPS Prof. Cosimo Semeraro (Torino, SEO, 1994, at pp. 158-161).
    "The whole thing was quite a private affair. No one knew of it. One day the painter came, took me to an empty classroom and made two sketches of my face with a pencil. I have photocopies of them. I barely knew about the purpose of it. I had no particular feelings. It was quite an ordinary affair for me", says Gianetto commenting on the event.
    Fr Caviglia (1868-1943), a Don Bosco historian, commissioned the 'new' portrait of Dominic Savio. He believed the Savio image propagated by the postulator of the Cause, Fr. Stefano Trione, was an historical falsification. Hence, the new image was done on the basis of Don Bosco's little biography of the boy Saint as well as eyewitness accounts gathered for the process of Canonisation.
    Incidentally, young Gianetto had to stay back in Turin to mind the house while his companions and the superiors went to Rome for the Beatification of Dominic Savio on 5th March 1950.  He also did not have the privilege of attending the Canonisation on 12th June 1954. Gianetto's story was conveniently forgotten even at Savio's Canonisation Golden Jubilee held at the UPS May 8-31 2004.
    "I may add that this (modelling episode) had no influence on my vocation. At that time I did not intend to become a Salesian. I was an ordinary, happy student in a Salesian school. My vocation is an entirely different affair", syas Gianetto, an admirer of Dominic Savio who continually prays to him that he may not be an unworthy Salesian. Currently Fr Gianetto puts in about nine hours daily to help six Chinese students at the UPS with Italian language coaching and corrections.

See the following link for a photo of Gianetto with his sketch and the traditional Caffaro-Rore depiction: http://sdl.sdb.org/gsdl/collect/dbscritt/index/assoc/HASH1739.dir/saviogianetto.jpg
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Title: australasia 2402
Subject and key words: SDB General Dominic Savio
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2402