A plan and section of the Chigi Chapel

An etching depicting a plan and a section of the Chigi Chapel. This print is lettered with "VOL III // TAV LXI", the title in Italian and a scale. It was published in the third volume of "Raccolta delle migliori chiese di Roma e suburbane espresse in tavola disegnate ed incise da Giacomo Fontana", published in the 1830s in four volumes. Signed by the printmaker who identifies himself also as the draughtsman. Annotated on the verso.

The Chigi chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo was the burial place of the Papal banker Agostino Chigi, who commissioned Raphael to work on a number of projects in Rome during the 1510s. Raphael was responsible for designing the chapel itself as well as all aspects of its decoration, which encompassed mosaics, sculptures, tombs and (probably) an altarpiece. The chapel remained unfinished at the deaths of both artist and patron in 1520. (See RCINs 853848-853855 for the mosaics in the Cupola of the Chigi Chapel).

In the cupola of the chapel, a central roundel containing a depiction of God the Father is surrounded by compartments containing personifications of the seven planets and stars, all executed in mosaic by Luigi de Pace in 1516. Among the windows there are frescoes by Francesco Salviati with Scenes of Creation and original Sin; he also painted the rounds in the pendentives with the Seasons. The altar shows the Birth of the Virgin by Sebastiano del Piombo and Francesco Salviati, with a bronze bas-relief by Lorenzetto, while all around the chapel are the tombs of the Chigi family alternating with niches containing sculptures.