Feoli and Cicada Chapels (Santa Maria del Popolo)

The two small chapels from the transept

The Chapel of Saint Thomas of Villanova and the Chapel of Saint Rita (otherwise the Feoli and Cicada Chapels) (Italian: Cappelle di San Tommaso da Villanova e di Santa Rita) are two little chapels opening in the right transept of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo. They are relatively insignificant in terms of artistic value compared to the other side chapels of the church.

History

The Chapel of Saint Lucy or the Borgia Chapel, which was erected by Pope Alexander VI, was located in right transept of the church. Giovanni Borgia (†1497), the son of the pope, and his mother, Vannozza dei Cattanei (†1518) were buried there but during the Sack of Rome in 1527 their tombs were looted and destroyed. The chapel was decorated with frescos and an altar painting of the saint.

After the Borgia Chapel was demolished two new identical chapels were built during Bernini's intervention in 1658 at the expense of the convent. The left one, which was already dedicated to St. Thomas of Villanova at the time of its construction, was given first to Abbot Benedetto Mazzini in 1671. He planned to use it as a family burial place. The chapel was obtained in 1857 by Pietro Feoli who commissioned Giambattista Benedetti to completely redesign it in Neo-Renaissance style.

The other chapel inherited the old dedication to Saint Lucy but it was restored and re-dedicated to St. Rita of Cascia in 1901 by Cardinal Agostino Ciasca.

Description

Painted Renaissance Revival decoration on the vault of the Feoli Chapel by Casimiro Brugnone de Rossi.

There was a Baroque painting on the altar of the Chapel of St. Thomas by Fabrizio Chiari depicting St. Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms in the 17th century which is now placed near the sacristy. The current Renaissance Revival decoration of the chapel was executed in 1858 by Casimiro Brugnone de Rossi who was a favoured artist at the time of Pope Pius IX. He painted the Four Evangelists and the dove of the Holy Spirit on the dome and God the Father in the lunette. The new altar painting of St. Thomas of Villanueva Distributing Alms is dated to 1860. It is a more conventional work than the previous Baroque painting. There are many 19th century family tombs and memorials in the chapel.[1]

In the Chapel of St. Rita the altarpiece is a painting by Giovanni Piancastelli. (The original altarpiece of Saint Lucy by Luigi Garzi is lost.) The sepulchral monument of Odoardo Cicada, the Bishop of Sagona by Guglielmo della Porta is dated around 1545. The Renaissance wall tomb followed the design of Michelangelo's Late Renaissance monument for Cecchino Bracci in Santa Maria in Aracoeli but much of it was later demolished. An anonymous drawing in Windsor Castle (Cod. 201 Albani) preserved a sketch of its original form.[2] Today the only surviving parts are the marble bust, the sarcophagus resting on strigillated supports and a pedestal with the coat-of-arms (a crowned eagle).

The marble slab of his relative, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Cicala (†1570) is set in the floor. The tombstone is decorated with the coat-of-arms of the cardinal on a bronze shield.[3] It was commissioned by the Cardinal's nephew and heir, Carlo Cicada, the Bishop of Albenga. The tombstone was later truncated; the original decorative border with the Cicada eagles in the corners was lost but a drawing in the Royal Library preserved its original look.

Feoli tombs

In the 19th century the Feolis used the Chapel of St. Thomas of Villanueva as their family burial place. The oldest monument was dedicated by Pietro Feoli in 1858 to "the sweetest and best uncle", Agostino Feoli who had died two years before. He was the richest banker and industrialist of the Papal States in the middle of the 19th century. The ashes of Luigia Bartolucci and Ferdinando Feoli were placed in the chapel in 1859. These two monuments are similar wall tombs in neo-Quattrocento style with finely carved vegetal decoration, shell shaped gables, the family coats-of-arms and the portraits of the deceased set in medaillons.

On the pillars of the arch are the twin monuments of Luigi Feoli (died in 1870) and a young boy, Carlo Feoli (died in 1873) both by Giacomo Cerulli. They are simple, symmetrical Neo-Classical funerary monuments with the busts of the deceased in oval niches.

References

  1. ↑ Ilaria Miarelli Mariani: La pittura, pp. 136-139
  2. ↑ Claudia Echinger-Maurach: Michelangelos späte Grabmalskonzeptionen und ihre Nachfolge, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 50. Bd., H. 1/2 (2006),pp. 64-68
  3. ↑ http://requiem-projekt.de/db/suche.php?function=b_ausgabe&grabmalID=234

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Santa Maria del Popolo (Rome).

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/31/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.