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The Ivrea‐Verbano and adjacent Strona‐Ceneri zones have been described collectively as a section through the continental crust. While resident in the lower crust, amphibolite to granulite‐facies paragneiss of the Ivrea‐Verbano Zone was intruded by huge volumes of mafic to intermediate plutonic rocks grouped as the Mafic Complex. Growth of the Mafic Complex involved hypersolidus deformation in an extensional environment. Isotopic and trace element variations close to the axis of this structure indicate crystallization from mantle‐derived melts that were extensively contaminated by crustal material. Previous investigations determined that the contaminant was fingerprinted by 87Sr/86Sr > 0.71, δ18O = 10–12.5‰, and a positive Eu anomaly. In the present study, the contaminant is also shown to have been enriched in Ba with respect to Rb and K. Charnockites associated with paragneiss septa in the lower part of the Mafic Complex have the appropriate chemistry to be samples of the contaminating material. These chemical features can be explained by melting of granulite‐facies paragneiss, which had previously been depleted in K and Rb by an earlier melting event. The Ba enrichment in the core of the Mafic Complex can be modeled by a replenishment‐tapping‐fractional‐crystallization (RTF) process operating within a small magma chamber is repeatedly replenished by mantle melts and contaminated by Ba‐rich charnockite. Very high Ba/K in the lower part of the complex are tentatively attributed to chemical exchange between the cumulate framework and infiltrating anatectic melts from underlying paragneiss septa. In contrast to the Mafic Complex, the chemistry of coeval granites in the adjacent Strona‐Ceneri zone reflect a component derived from crustal rocks that had not been significantly depleted by a previous melting event. Significantly, the incompatible trace element abundances in the Mafic Complex and Strona‐Ceneri granites are similar to model compositions for the lower and upper crust, respectively.