The painter of the Help of Christians
Reporting of Federici Studies Center
We see it with his eyes. Thomas Lorenzone, the painter of the Help of Christians
«Look how beautiful she is! It's not my work, no. It's not me who paints. There is another hand guiding mine. Tell Don Bosco that the painting will be beautiful".
In the first months of 1865, Don Bosco's thoughts are absorbed by the large painting of Mary Help of Christians which will stand in the sanctuary. He entrusted its execution to the painter Lorenzone, and tries to communicate to him everything he "wants to see" in that painting:
«In alto Maria SS. among the Angels, the apostles around her, i profeti, the virgins, the confessors. In the lower part, the people of various parts of the world who stretch out their hands towards her and ask for help".
Lorenzone lets him finish, Then: «And where do you want to put this painting?»
«In the new church».
«And he believes he will? And where to find the room to paint it? To find a space suitable for the dimensions you imagine, we would like Piazza Castello!»
Don Bosco had to recognize that the painter was right. It was therefore decided that only the apostles and evangelists would be painted around the Madonna. The oratory would have been depicted at the foot of the painting.