Mellini Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo)

View of the chapel

Mellini Chapel (Italian: Cappella Mellini) is the third chapel on the left-hand side of the nave in the Church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. The chapel contains several funeral monuments of the members of the Mellini family among them the works of Alessandro Algardi and Pierre-Étienne Monnot.

History

The first patron of the chapel was a celebrated jurist, Pietro Mellini who belonged to a noble and ancient Roman family. The chapel, which was dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, is one of the original 15th-century hexagonal side chapels of the basilica, but its inner decoration was changed when it was rebuilt by Cardinal Giovanni Garzia Mellini in the 1620s in Baroque style. The main altar was consecrated in 1628. It has been the funerary chapel of the Mellini family for centuries.

Description

The interior of the chapel is covered with a rich white and gold stucco decoration which also extends over the outer surface of the entrance arch and the half-columns. The latter have Ionic stucco capitals with garlands and angel heads. The keystone of the arch is an escutcheon with crossed branches. The frescos on the vault display The Story of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, that of the lunettes the four cardinal virtues; they were painted by Giovanni da San Giovanni in 1623-24. The entrance of the chapel is barred by a marble balustrade with richly carved wooden doors that are decorated with the coat-of-arms of the Mellini family (the letter M and diagonal stripes).

The main altar-piece shows The Virgin with Saint Augustine and Nicholas of Tolentino. The huge Baroque painting is the work of Agostino Masucci from the middle of the 18th century. It is framed by a sumptuous gold and white stucco aedicule with Corinthian columns and a segmented, broken pediment which is crowned by the symbol of the Holy Spirit and two putti.

Tombs

Giovanni Battista Mellini

Drawing in the Royal Library which shows the original form of Giovanni Mellini's tomb

The oldest monumental tomb in the chapel is the funeral monument of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Mellini (died 1478), the Bishop of Urbino and the younger brother of Pietro Mellini. Giovanni Battista played an important part in the reconstruction of Saint Peter's Basilica during the reign of Pope Sixtus IV. The funeral inscription mentions his mission as papal legate to Milan in 1477. The monument was dismantled by Cardinal Savio Mellini in 1698 who appropriated the architectural frame for his own tomb and placed the effigy of his forefather in front of the new monument. This effigy lies on a bier decorated with richly handled fruits and flowers. The drapery on the figure runs in one sweep from head to foot.[1] A 17th-century drawing in Windsor Castle preserved the original appearance of the tomb. Above the effigy there was a relief of Christ, the Man of Sorrows, being raised by angels from his tomb. The base of monument was decorated with the figures of two cherubs and the top was crowned with a shell pediment.

Pietro Mellini

The funeral monument of Giovanni Garzia Mellini by Algardi

The tomb of Pietro Mellini (died 1483) is located under the 17th-century monument of Mario Mellini. The quattrocento tomb shows a Tuscan influence. The effigy of the great jurist is "a simple figure of great dignity, such as marked the man in his own lifetime". The face looks like a trustworthy portraiture and the folds of the drapery are realistic. The supports of the bier are decorated with carved ornaments. The sculpture shows a strong similarity to the figure of Raffaello della Rovere in the crypt of the Church of Santi Apostoli, Rome. The monument was once of the same type as the tomb of Marcantonio Albertoni and Giovanni della Rovere, both in this church, but it was truncated.[2]

Francesco Mellini

The oldest brother of Pietro and Giovanni Battista, Francesco Mellini, Augustinian friar and the Bishop of Senigallia, is buried under a tomb slab in the chapel. He was suffocated by the crowd at the conclave of 1431. The relief of the slab shows the full-length image of the Bishop, surrounded by a frame of trefoil arch supported on slender twisted columns with the family coats-of-arms in the upper corners.

Giovanni Garzia Mellini

The tomb of Cardinal Giovanni Garzia Mellini (died 1629), the vicar general of Rome was created by Alessandro Algardi in 1637-38.[3] The monument was erected by the cardinal's nephews, Mario and Urbano Mellini but only after a conspicuously long time their uncle's death. The centrepiece of the monument is the white Carrara marble bust of the Cardinal in a niche which shows him leaning forward and turning towards the altar, his left hand on his heart and his right hand holding a prayer book. The work was much admired in Algardi's day because it conveys a sense of Baroque piety combined with expressive realism and brilliantly observed, technically perfect details. The monument itself is a classicising aedicule framed by flat pilasters with masks and crowned by a broken segmental pediment with the Mellini coat-of-arms in a conch. The big letter M, the main symbol of the family, recurs on the trapezoid sarcophagus (and the other Baroque tombs in the chapel). The Doric frieze is decorated with ecclesiastical objects (crozier, chalice, holy vessels and mitre). The voluminous epitaph follows the stages of Giovanni Garzia's prestigious career from his youth until his death, including his important diplomatic missions for Pope Paul V to Philip III of Spain and the warring Habsburg brothers of Emperor Rudolf II and Matthias.

Urbano and Mario Mellini

The tombs of Urbano (†1660) and Mario Mellini (†1673), distinguished soldiers of the Papal State, were placed in front of the windows. The monuments were attributed to Alessandro Algardi, and Wittkower claims that the bust of Mario "obviously echoes Bernini's Francisco I of Este and must date from after 1650".[4] The bust on Urbano's tomb was made well before 1660, probably in the mid-1630s, and its original designation is not clear, but it was suggested that Algardi made it as a model for the Cardinal's portrait.[5] The monuments are almost identical with subtle differences. Both consist a trapezoid sarcophagus and the bust of the deceased which is set between volutes. The sarcophagus is decorated with the letter M on Urbano's tomb. The inscription states that the tomb of Mario Mellini was built by his son, Cardinal Savio Mellini "for the best of fathers". The bust was probably made by the workshop of Pierre-Étienne Monnot, the sculptor who created Savio Mellini's tomb.[6]

The monument of Savo Mellini (with the tomb of Giovanni Battista Mellini)

Savio Mellini

The tomb of Cardinal Savio Mellini, the Bishop of Nepi and Sutri on the right hand wall of the chapel was made by Pierre-Étienne Monnot, a French sculptor who worked in Rome. The strange monument was superimposed upon the older tomb of Giovanni Battista Mellini. The architectural frame of the Quattrocento tomb was partly reused. Two small reliefs with the personifications of the virtues and the cardinal's insignia on the side pilasters belong to that period.

The monument imitates the more famous tomb of Giovanni Garzia Mellini on the left side of the chapel. The centrepiece is the marble bust of the Cardinal in a similar pose than his counterpart opposite. He looks toward the altar holding a book and a biretta. His head is covered by a zucchetto. The bust is placed in a deep rectangular niche which is clad with black and yellow slabs. The characteristically colourful Late Baroque composition is enhanced by a yellow marble inscription plate. Two marble busts on the ledge portray Savio's deceised brothers, Pietro (†1694) and Paolo Antonio Mellini (†1683). The monument is crowned by a broken segmental pediment with the cardinal's coloured coat-of-arms. The French sculptor signed his work on the biretta of the bust: MONNO(T) F(E)CIT.

The very long funerary inscription mentions fact the Cardinal Savio has served as papal nuncio in Spain for ten years, and later he was the cardinal priest of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo. According to the inscription his tomb was erected in 1699 (i. e. during his lifetime). A will dated to 9 September 1698 states that the statues of the tomb had been completed but the monument was still unfinished at the time.[7] The cardinal planned his own tomb and apparently lived to see it erected because he died in 1701. The two flanking busts are sometimes attributed to Monnot but according to Enggass they were made by another hand.[8]

Mario Mellini (†1756)

The large tombstone (in the floor) of Cardinal Mario Mellini (died 1756) is inlaid with colourful stones in typical Baroque fashion. The inscription says that Mellini was minister plenipotentiary of Maria Theresa, Empress and Queen of Hungary at the Holy See "in the most difficult times", and his tomb was erected by his nieces, Anna Serlupi and Giulia Falconieri and his nephew, Antonio Casali in 1760. The epitaph is set in a Baroque crest which is flanked by green branches and surmounted by the coat-of-arms of the cardinal. The allegorical figures of Prudency (left with mirror in her hand) and Fortitude (right with sword) are reclining on the top of the crest.

Notes

  1. ↑ Gerald S. Davies, cit. pag. 294-295
  2. ↑ Gerald S. Davies, cit. pag. 117, 295-296
  3. ↑ Cristina Ruggero: Monumenta Cardinalium, Vol. 2. p. 441
  4. ↑ Rudolf Wittkower: Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600-1750, revised by Joseph Connors and Jennifer Montagu, Yale University Press, p. 175
  5. ↑ Cristina Ruggero: Monumenta Cardinalium, Vol. 1. p. 133-134
  6. ↑ Ruggero Vol. 1. p. 68 citing Walker
  7. ↑ Ruggero, vol. 2, pp. 444-445
  8. ↑ Robert Enggass: Early Eighteenth-century Sculpture in Rome: An illustrated catalogue raisonné, Vol. 1, The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976, p. 85

Bibliography

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

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.