The Chapel of the Holy Souls

The archway of chapel, now dedicated to the dead, still preserves its original decorations frescoed by Camilo Procaccini.

Camillo Procaccini, a late Mannerist painter from Emilia Region, relocated to Milano towards the end of the XVI century. There he founded a successful workshop which became a vehicle for the dissemination of Counter-Reformation principles in painting.

Glancing past the balustrade railing in pavonazzetto and black marble dating from the first half of the XIX century, one can admire the altar, a splendid testimony to Lombard art of the XVII century.

A painting depicting the Crucifix and the Souls in Purgatory by an unknown Lombard painter from the second half of the seventeenth century is situated between two cherubs above the altarpiece from Camillo Procaccini’s school; the altarpiece of slate painted with floral motifs according to the “Florentine Mosaic” technique, features a fine Pietà at its centre.

Above it and placed between two pilasters surmounted by cherub heads, is Camillo Procaccini’s painting from around 1610, representing the “Madonna and Child between Saint Gotthard and Saint Monica”. The plinth, where the Madonna stands holding the Child, bears the Frisiano family coat of arms. In fact it was Gottardo Frisiano who commissioned the chapel in 1610, and the youth standing next to the Madonna in the painting, is said to portray his son, Agostino.

The drapery framing the painting is also noteworthy. The chapel alcove has two frescoes from the beginning of the 16th century; on the right wall, “The Adoration of the Child with Saints” (unknown) and on the left, “The Crucifix with Saint Sebastian, Rocco, Francis and(?)”.