Rome: Santa Prassede, project for the Olgiati Chapel, cross-section towards the altar, 1583

Artist/Maker

DatesSigned: Signed 1583

Material / Technique

Dimensionsh x w: 56 x 42 cm uppklistrat på bakgrundspapper

Inventory numberNMH CC 198

AcqusitionDonated 1941 by Eric Langenskiöld. Formerly in the Cronstedt collection, Fullerö

Other titlesTitle (sv): Förslag till Cappella Olgiati i S. Prassede, Rom. Sektion Title (en): Rome: Santa Prassede, project for the Olgiati Chapel, cross-section towards the altar, 1583 Previous: Proposal for the Olgiati Chapel at S. Prassede, Rome. Section

DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Bortolozzi, Italian Architectural Drawings from the Cronstedt Collection, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2020 (cat.no. 125) Francesco da Volterra (c. 1535–94) Pen and brown ink over black chalk, stylus, brown and red wash, compass, straightedge and freehand, 56/56.3 × 42.1 cm NM H CC 198 PAPER: the drawing has been laid down on to a mounting sheet of late 17th-century French writing paper WATERMARK: not clearly visible WATERMARK OF THE MOUNTING SHEET: Chaplet 10 INSCRIPTIONS: 1583 (in the altar socle); disegno dela capella di M[esser] Bernardo Olgiati da Como da farsi a S. Prasedia (on the verso of the drawing, covered by the mounting, apparently in the hand of Volterra) MEASUREMENTS: Roman palmi; scale at lower right edge with 20 units [palmi] = 18.3 cm PROVENANCE: Carl Johan Cronstedt and descendants; Eric Langenskiöld; gift to the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm 1941 BIBLIOGRAPHY: Langenskiöld, Moselius 1942, 72, Cat. no. 340; Langenskiöld 1946, 59–61 and fig. 41; Marcucci 1991, 180 and fig. 139; Marcucci 1997, fig. 20b EXHIBITED: Langenskiöld, Moselius 1942, 72, Cat. no. 340 Design of a chapel with a centralised octagonal plan under a dome concealed in the perimeter walls. The dome, pierced by three circular windows, rests on large pendentives springing from canted corners, articulatedby giant order pilasters that flank niches and recessed rectangular panels. Three lunette windows, inscribed in the roundheaded arches, illuminate the interior. The drawing is for the side of the chapel opposite the entrance and depicts the altar with its liturgical furnishings. In the altar socle, is the date 1583. The project depends on the model of Raphael’s Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, but it also bears some similarity with the Bandini Chapel at San Silvestro al Quirinale, built by Ottaviano Mascarino between 1580 and 1585 (Rome, Accademia di San Luca, no. 2332; Wasserman 1966, 45–48, figs. 1–3). In contrast to the two above mentioned chapels, overlooked by hemispherical domes vaulted from the outset andresting on a drum containing windows, the focus of the Stockholm project is not on the dome, but on the walls. In this respect, the comparison with Mascarino’s project is significant. The Bandini Chapel is taller (68 palmi, about 15 m) than the chapel in Stockholm (55 palmi, about 12.26 m), but the relationship between the height of the chapel to the architrave and the diameter is respectively 1/16 and 1/18, proportions that challenge the principles of Raphael’s architecture. In style and technique, the drawing is very close to other drawings of chapels designed by Volterra and preserved in Stockholm: the project for the Rustici Chapel at Santa Maria sopra Minerva from 1586 (NM H CC 199, Cat. no. 126) and that for the Caetani Chapel at Santa Pudenziana from 1591 (NM H CC 165, Cat. no. 123 and NM H CC 166, Cat. no. 124). The main evidence for the identification of the Stockholm drawing with the Olgiati Chapel is the inscription on the reverse of the sheet. Marcucci (1997) published the drawing as being for an unidentified chapel by Francesco da Volterra, most likely because she did not read the inscription, which was covered by the mounting. It seems certain that the final project for the chapel, the construction of which was commissioned by the Lombard banker Bernardo Olgiati, was provided not by Volterra, but by Martino Longhi the Elder (Lerza 2002, 149–153). The construction, based on a rectangular plan and covered by a coved vault, resembles the Altemps Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore, also by Longhi. However, circumstantial evidence for recognising the Stockholm sheet as an initial, alternative proposal for the Olgiati Chapel, is the date of the beginning of the work, established by Caperna as February 1583 (1999, 88, 104 n. 34) and the probable involvement of Volterra in the restoration of Santa Prassede in the service of Carlo Borromeo, titular cardinal of the church between 1564 and 1584 (Marcucci 1991, 91; Caperna 1996, 96). LITERATURE: Marcucci 1991; Caperna 1993; Russo 1993; Marcucci 1997; Caperna 1999; Lerza 2002 [end]

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