page_title: Chigi Chapel
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Chigi Chapel / Description
caption_attribution_description: Lunette painting at the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo
context_page_description: The Chigi Chapel or Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto is the second chapel on the left-hand side of the nave in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. It is the only religious building of Raphael which has been preserved in its near original form. The chapel is a treasure trove of Italian Renaissance and Baroque art and is ranked among the most important monuments in the basilica.
context_section_description: Exterior
  The exterior of the chapel is very simple: an oblong cube of exposed brick, surmounted by a cylindric tambour pierced with large rectangular windows. The cube is finished with a stone cornice while the tambour is decorated with a brick modillion trim. The low conical roof is covered with tiles but originally it was leaded. The dome is crowned by a small stone lanternino which has niches instead of windows between Tuscan pilasters and its base is decorated with four scrolls. This miniature round temple is topped with the symbols of the Chigi family, the mountains and the star with a cross. The exterior is practically invisible due to the location of the chapel behind the city wall, the Porta del Popolo and the main body of the basilica. Its simplicity and severe appearance was based on the reception of ancient Roman central-plan buildings for example the Temple of Minerva Medica.
  Interior
  Raphael's centralized plan was inspired by the designs of Bramante for the new St. Peter's Basilica. Another source of inspiration was the Pantheon with its dome, marble revetments and Corinthian pilasters. The simple cube is surmounted by a hemispherical dome resting on a high drum which is penetrated by a row of windows that allow light into the chapel. The trapezoidal pendentives were the characteristics of Bramante but the whole conception of space, which requires the viewer to look at from several points of view to capture its splendor, is new and unique. The side walls are made up of round-headed arches, of which only the entrance arch is open, the others are blind; they are alternated with canted corners in which shell-headed niches are framed between Corinthian pilasters. The subtle use of coloured marbles emphasizes the individual elements of the classical architecture.
  The portal of the chapel is a Renaissance reinterpretation of the entrance bay of the Pantheon. It has a monumental effect with double transverse arches resting on huge Corinthian pilasters. The marble pilasters have cable-fluted shafts and beautifully carved, vivacious capitals which were practically copied from the much admired classical model. Raphael had studied the ancient building and created a precise architectural drawing of the entrance which is now preserved in the Uffizi. The entablature and the cornice is decorated with egg-and-dart, bead-and-reel and flower-patterned enrichments. The pilasters are of polished white Carrara marble with faint grey veins while the capitals are of unpolished pure white Carrara marble. The surfaces between the pilasters are covered with a coloured marble revetment, their slabs divided by white marble panels.
  The surfaces of the arches are decorated with Renaissance ornaments; on the intrados of the outer arch there is a meander, the archivolt of the inner arch is decorated with rich garlands of fruit and a mask, while the intrados of the inner arch has a central band of alternating rosettes and rectangles with grotesques, framed by two interlacement bands with six-pointed stars in the middle. The stucco Chigi coat-of-arms (quartered with the oak and the six mountain with the star) above the portal was added by Bernini in 1652. The inscription "Unum ex septem" on the cartouche hanging from the coat-of-arms indicates that this is one of the privileged altars which are devotionally equivalent to visiting the Seven Churches of Rome.
  The entrance of the chapel is marked by a marble railing. It is made of a yellow giallo antico marble frame with dark red portasanta balusters. The railing was enlarged and the turgid balusters were added in the 17th century. This balustrade was copied by Giovanni Battista Contini in the Elci Chapel in Santa Sabina using a different colour scheme. The step leading into the chapel is a large monolith of Egyptian granite. All the other chapels in the basilica have simple white stone steps. Agostino Chigi paid 300 scudi for the large block of stone. The central panels of the wooden doors are decorated with a dense foliage of carved acanthus leaves.
  The friezes in the chapel are "dropped" in 
caption: The sacerdotal ancestors of the Virgin by Raffaello Vanni
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