Chapel 21 - Prayer in the Garden

The scene depicts Jesus praying in the olive grove and an angel holding the chalice of the Passion. The statues of Jesus and the angel were shaped by Giovanni d’Enrico and date back to 1604.
When, in 1776, the new arcade was built on the south side of the square of the Basilica to unify and give a continuous front to the chapels of the Last Supper (chapel 20) and the Prayer in the Garden (chapel 21), the ancient votive chapel was incorporated. It was expanded to allow the creation of a lateral space in which the statue of St. Charles in prayer was placed (corresponding to a previous figure painted on the wall), shaped and donated to the Sacred Mount in 1776 by the sculptor of the royal house of Savoy, Giovanni Battista Bernero.  The will of Bishop Bascapè was thus heard, who wanted to remember the prayers and meditations of Borromeo, when he was visiting Varallo, in front of that mystery. In 1778, Antonio Orgiazzi the Elder completed the decoration of the chapel and repainted the statues.