Niccoline Chapel
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The Niccoline Chapel (Italian: Cappella Niccolina) is a chapel in the Vatican Palace. It is especially notable for its fresco paintings by Fra Angelico (1447–1451). The name is derived from its patron, Pope Nicholas V, who had it built for use as his private chapel.
The chapel is located in Innocent III's Tower, in the most ancient part of the Apostolic Palace. The walls were decorated by Fra Angelico with images of two of the earliest Christian martyrs; the upper level has Episodes from the Life of St. Stephen, and the lower one Scenes from the life of St. Lawrence. The vault is painted blue, decorated with stars, and features figures of the Four Evangelists in the corners. The pilasters are decorated with the eight Doctors of the Church.
Fra Angelico had depicted a Deposition (the removal of Christ from the Cross) on the wall behind the altar, but it was destroyed. However, his other works in the lunettes are well preserved.
The scenes of St. Stephen follow the path of the Golden Legend, while those of St. Lawrence are patterned after the older cycles in the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, where he is buried. Stephen was a Greek-speaking Hebrew, one of the first deacons named in Jerusalem by St. Peter. His prayers earned him the hostility of his opponents in the city, who eventually stoned him to death in front of the city gate. Lawrence was a deacon to whom Pope Sixtus II had entrusted the Church's treasure in order to give it to the Roman emperor Valerian. Lawrence instead divided it between the poor, for which act he was martyred. The frescoes underline the similarities in the two figures' lives: both are ordained deacons, both give alms to the poor and both are martyred after a courageous declaration of faith. The choice of these two figures also shows the connection between the Churches of Jerusalem and the Rome.
The frescoes, full of fine architectural details, allude also to Nicholas V's desire to rebuild Rome as the new capital city of Christianity. The large walls in the Martyrdom of St. Stephen hint at the rebuilding of Rome's walls. Further, the schism in the Jewish community in Jerusalem can be compared to the Christian schism witnessed by Nicholas (who is portrayed in the frescoes as his predecessor, Sixtus II).
References
- Hinzen-Bohlen, Brigitte (2000). Kunst & Architektur - ROM. Cologne: Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft.
- Staccioli, Paola (2003). Guida insolita dei musei di Roma e della Città del Vaticano. Rome: Newton Compton.