Chigi Chapel

The Chigi Chapel or Chapel of the Madonna of Loreto (Italian: Cappella Chigi or Cappella della Madonna di Loreto) is the second chapel on the left-hand side of the nave in the Church 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 considered among the most important monuments in the basilica.

In 1507 Julius II granted assent to the acquisition of a burial chapel in the church to his friend, the wealthy Sienese banker and financier of the Roman Curia, Agostino Chigi. Chigi had bought the second chapel in the north aisle, and changed its dedication to the Madonna of Loreto whose shrine he was passionately devoted. The chapel was most probably rebuilt from scratch with Raphael as the architect, and an inscription on the dome marked the completion of the mosaics in 1516. In the following years Lorenzetto worked on the architectural decoration of the chapel and the statues under Raphael's patronage. The main iconographic theme of the chapel was the Resurrection; and visually it represented a marriage between Christianity and antiquity.

Agostino Chigi was buried in the half-finished chapel on 11 April 1520. His widow, Francesca died in the same year on 10/11 November. Raphael himself died a few days before Agostino. The simultaneous death of both the artist and the patron stymied work on the chapel. Agostino's younger brother, Sigismondo Chigi commissioned Lorenzetto to go on with Raphael's plan in 1521. But the work advanced slowly and the death of Sigismondo in 1526 left everything in limbo. Vasari records in his Lives, speaking about the statues of Jonah and Elijah:

"... the heirs of Agostino, with scant respect, allowed these figures to remain in Lorenzetto's workshop where they stood for many years. [...] Lorenzo, robbed for those reasons of all hope, found for the present that he had thrown away his time and labor."

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