Bufalini Chapel
The Bufalini Chapel or Chapel of St. Bernardine of Siena in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome is famous for the fresco cycle by Pinturicchio . It is one of the most important chapels that were designed in Rome during the early Renaissance period . The chapel, the first in the right aisle, is dedicated to St. Bernardine of Siena and is also called Bufalini Chapel after its first donor Nicolò di Manno Bufalini .
history
The client Niccolò dei Bufalini (~ 1450 - 1506) from Città di Castello , held the position of Avvocato Concistoriale in Rome. The Bufalini family had a special relationship with St. Bernardine of Siena, as he had succeeded in ending the feud between the warring families Bufalini and Baglioni. The choice of theme for the frescoes in the chapel was thus predetermined. The coat of arms of the Bufalini family - a bull with a rose - appears several times in the chapel. Cardinal Mazarin , whose mother Ortensia came from the Bufalini family, took over the patronage rights to the chapel in 1646 , which passed to the Mancini-Mazzarino family.
At the beginning of the 1480s, work on the design of the Sistine Chapel in papal Rome was finished. This time saw the meeting of some of the most important Italian painters of the era: Sandro Botticelli , Perugino , Domenico Ghirlandaio , Luca Signorelli , Cosimo Rosselli and Pinturicchio. When the work in the Sistine was completed, most of these masters had left Rome, with the exception of Pinturicchio, who stayed in town, set up a workshop and assembled a diverse group of employees who had worked in the papal chapel. Among them were painters from Umbria, Tuscany, Emilia and Lazio. Pinturicchio was able to continue his artistic career in Rome with important commissions. He received his first major commission from Riccomanno Bufalini. The common Umbrian origin of the client and the artist was the basis of an already existing relationship of trust, which is also shown by a Madonna painted for Bufalini in the Pinacoteca Comunale in Città di Castello (around 1480).
No documents have been received regarding Bufalini's assignment to Pinturrichio and his workshop. According to current research, the execution of the fresco cycle is dated to the early 1480s. A lot of severe damage to the painted surfaces, especially in the vault, as well as previous restorations have permanently impaired the effect of some areas of the picture - only the interventions in 1955–1956 and 1981–1982 were able to stop the decay.
description
The chapel is entered through a triumphal arch , the architecture of which is continued in the pseudo-architecture inside. The interior of the chapel has a square floor plan (about 5 × 5 meters). The height to the cross vault is also just over five meters. The floor is a well-preserved, valuable cosmatic work . The frescoes unfold on three walls and the vault; they are dedicated to the life of St. Bernard of Siena. The saint played an important role within the Order of the Friars Minor at that time , was vicar general of the order and one of the most famous preachers. He was canonized in 1450.
The church is looked after by the Franciscan Minorites - the images therefore also depict important Franciscan saints: the St. Francis of Assisi , Anthony of Padua and Louis of Toulouse .
Vault
In the four caps of the vault with which the work was usually started , the four evangelists are shown, each seated on a cloud, in front of a dark blue, star-studded background , surrounded by pointed mandorels . At the intersection of the ribs in a medallion , the noun sacrum IHS can be seen. Bernardine was persecuted several times for his special veneration of the name of Jesus and accused of heresy in 1423 , but was acquitted in 1427.
The altar wall
The fresco on the altar wall shows the transfiguration of St. Bernard on two levels: In the main scene below, St. Bernard is shown standing on a rock. His right hand points up to Christ. In his left hand he is holding an open book in which one can read: PATER MANIFESTAVI NOMEN TVVM (H) OMINIBUS , here too the reference to the noun sacrum IHS. Above the saint, but still in the lower part of the picture, two angels hold a crown. On his right, St. Louis of Toulouse in his solemn episcopal robes and on the left, St. Anthony of Padua in the original Franciscan habit, in one hand the flame symbolizing the fervor of his piety and in the other a book, a hint on his erudition. Both figures are surrounded by cypress and palm trees; in the background a landscape with rocks, lakes and mountains, which avoids a strict symmetrical scheme, but extends the depth of the space. The upper level shows the blessing Christ in a mandorla, surrounded by worshiping and music-making angels.
Right wall
On this wall, Pinturicchio created an illusionistic room layout by including the bifore , by painting two symmetrical pseudo-windows in the upper part on the sides of the bifore. One depicts the blessing God the Father, the other a peacock, a symbol of Christ. The part of the wall below shows three unrelated scenes:
- On the left, in an oblique pseudo-architecture, which uses the pillars of an arch adorned with grotesques : St. Bernardine gives up his worldly possessions and receives his habit from the superior of the order .
- In the middle, under the bifore in a false window, five people are depicted. The Franciscan in the foreground seems to point to the scene of the stigmatization of St. Francis and to discuss this incident with the two people on his right and left. Behind this scene, a troop of horsemen can be seen indistinctly and in the background the city gate Porta Camollia of Siena. Before this, St. Bernard used to pray daily to a picture of the Madonna painted over the gate.
- On the right in a rocky landscape with an aqueduct in the background, the representation of the stigmatization of St. Francis of Assisi.
Left wall
The left, east-facing wall is divided into two superimposed scenes, divided by a frieze.
- The lunette above the architrave shows the young Saint Bernard as a hermit . According to tradition, the saint withdrew into solitude for ten years after having survived an epidemic of the plague . As a hermit on a hill, he can be seen on the right in the picture, absorbed in reading the Holy Scriptures. The left part of the picture shows a group of people with three main characters: a young man, with blue trousers and a red skirt, points to the saint and tries to get the group to take action. The younger man in the red coat on the left raises his hand as a sign of moderation. The old man, in traditional clothing, in the center shows understanding for St. Bernard's turn to the ascetic life.
- The large scene below shows the death and miracles of St. Bernardine. It is set on an urban square that is delimited by buildings of different heights. On the left in the field of vision a building with an archway and richly stuccoed arcades and cross vaults . On the right, a little further away, a cubic building connected by a double loggia that opens up to the landscape and the clear sky. In the vanishing point of the central perspective there is an octagonal sacred building, as it appears in Perugino's Christ gives Peter the keys in the Sistine Chapel. In the foreground, the saint is buried, lying on a bier covered with a green cloth. Religious friars, pilgrims and ordinary people approach to pay homage to the saint. The richly dressed person with a fur-trimmed, red robe and gloves is identified as the client Bufalini; behind him probably members of the family. A group behind the dead represents the miracles of the saint: in the very center of the picture a pilgrim who has been healed of his blindness and a man with a crippled hand. You can also see the awakening of the stillborn child of Giovanni and Margherita da Basilea, the healing of Lorenzo di Niccolò da Prato, who was injured by a bull, and the settlement of the rivalries between the Umbrian families.
Individual evidence
- ↑ His full name was Niccolò di Manno Bufalini di Città di Castello
- ↑ C. Gennaro: BUFALINI, Niccolò dei (Nicolaus de Castello, Niccolo di Castello) . In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani . Enciclopedia Italiana . Retrieved July 6, 2011.
- ^ Holly M. Rarick: 158
- ↑ Casimiro Romano: p. 62 ff.
- ↑ H. Rarick: S. II
- ↑ Father, I made your name known to people ( Jn 17.26 EU )
- ^ Holly M. Rarick: 144.
- ↑ C. Acidini: p. 13.
literature
- Cristina Acidini Luchinat: Pinturicchio. The great masters of art, Scala 1999, ISBN 88-8117-436-7 .
- Marco Bussagli: Rome, Art & Architecture. Krönemann, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8290-2258-1 .
- Holly Marguerite Rarick: Pinturicchio's Saint Bernardino of Siena frescoes in the Bufalini Chapel, S. Maria in Aracoeli, Rome: An observant commentary of the late fifteenth century. Dissertation, Case Western Reserve University Cleveland 1990.
- Casimiro Romano (OFM): Memorie Istoriche della chiesa e convento di S. Maria in Araceli di Roma. 1736 (first edition); Tipografia della RCA, Rome 1845.
- Giorgio Vasari: Le vite de 'più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri. 1568.
Web links
- Maria in Aracoeli - Berhardin Chapel (English)
Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 37.6 ″ N , 12 ° 28 ′ 58.3 ″ E