Costa Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo)

The Costa or St Catherine Chapel (Italian: Cappella Costa or Cappella di Santa Catarina) is located in the south aisle of the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome. This is the fourth side chapel from the counterfaçade and was dedicated to St Catherine of Alexandria. The lunettes were painted by Pinturicchio and the marble altar-piece is attributed to Gian Cristoforo Romano.

The chapel was originally owned by Domenico della Rovere but it was acquired by Portuguese Cardinal Jorge da Costa (the italianized name is Giorgio Costa) for 200 gold ducats in 1488. Costa was a well-known and influential person in the court of Pope Alexander VI. The Cardinal employed the same workshop of painters as the Della Rovere dynasty, the school of Pinturicchio. It is not unlikely that the patron consciously sought out the same artist. The chapel preserved its original form except one window that was walled up for the creation of a new funeral monument in 1833.

The small chapel is hexagonal with a sexpartite ribbed vault and the entrance is protected by an elegant marble parapet which is decorated by garlands, ribbons and patenas. The fresco decoration was painted by a helper of Pinturicchio, stylistically close to Melozzo da Forli. The side walls are articulated by painted Corinthian pilasters decorated with candelabra, flowers and garlands on a yellow background, resting on a fake monochrome pedestal. The ribs and the splays of the two arched windows were decorated with grotesques but only the right-hand window is preserved (the other was later walled up). The vault is covered with a blue carpet and gold stars. The overall concept of the painted decoration is similar to that of the Della Rovere Chapel but the sculptural elements play a bigger part in the Costa Chapel.

The most important original frescos in the chapel are the paintings of the five lunettes (1488-90). Four of them depict the Fathers of the Church in front of a blue background: St. Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Gregory the Great. The central lunette is filled with the sculpted coats-of-arms of Cardinal Costa (the wheel of St Catherine) which is supported by two painted angels.

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Wikipedia