Rucellai Chapel or Chapel of the Teatine blesseds

1. The chapel. Based on the drawings of Matteo Castelli of Melide, relative of Borromini, the Rucellai chapel , then the Ruspoli and then Dei Campana, was originally dedicated to the Saints Angels. Then, in 1764, to blessed John Marinoni, to whom is added, in 1772, blessed. Paolo Burali D’Arezzo and, in 1803-1804, blessed. Joseph Mary Tomasi, reason why the chapel was called of the Blesseds. In 2001 for the complete restoration of the chapel , they took away the two paintings of s. Sebastian and s. Lawrence who were hiding the original decoration of the side walls. The ancient paintings of the Pomarancio, with the exception of St. Michael the Archangel, now definitively destroyed, for sure were beautiful.Nowadays: in the right wall, the Eternal Father at the time of giving the mission to the Archangel Gabriel (Missus est angelus Gabriel) and, on the left wall, the Archangel Raffaele when he invites father and son Tobith an Tobiel , father and son, to praise the Lord. In the cupola and pendentives there are now a paradise of angels, whose number – the restoration team asserted – no one has ever counted.

2. Decoration of the chapel. The first painting on the altar was dedicated to ”S. Michele Arcangelo who casts out the demons of the sky “by Cristoforo Roncalli called Pomarancio (c.1521-1626), now lost. In 1765, there is placed “a painting of the blessed John Marinoni” by Alessio Elia, replaced a few years later by the current canvas depicting the blessed theatines Giovanni Marinoni and Paolo Burali D’Arezzo. To the original painting, after 1803, blessed Joseph M. Tomasi was added. The canvas, subjected to a careful restoration work in 2000, can not be attributed to Sicilian Francesco Manno (1754-1831), perhaps he was the author of Tomasi’s figure added to the painting following his beatification, Maybe the author is Pietro D’Angeletti (1758 -1786) which in 1772 painted not only the picture of the Blessed Pablo Burali, today in the General Curia of the Theatine Fathers, from which he obtained the memorial copper of his beatification, as well as the two paintings of the Blessed Marinoni and Burali, visible on the walls of the transept of the ancient Teatine church of S. Silvester at the Quirinale.

3. The two themes of Pomarancio. Instead of the two lateral paintings removed in 2000, depicting S. Sebastian and S. Lawrence, by an anonymous artist from the end of the seventeenth century roman school, coming from the chapel of S. Sebastiano, where they were placed, after enlarging the canvas, towards 1869 “to cover the paintings of Roncalli, not convenient to the site. And for the same reason, the lunettes were covered with canvas” today we see, carefully restored the two Pomarancio themes,” not convenient to the place “when it was later devoted to the worship of the Three Blessed Theatines. On the wall of the right, the archangel Gabriel sent by the Eternal Father to announce to Mary the Incarnation of the Word (Missus est Angelus Gabriel …), and in that is missing, the Archangel Rafael, reducing the journey with the young Tobith, Inviting father and son to thank God. After the restoration of 2001, the chapel lunettes have remained without decoration while inside the cupola there are countless angels and Putto’s; Pomarancio’s work, consistent with the original title of the chapel.

3. Burial monuments. Laterally there are four burial urns of black veined marble with inscriptions. The first, on the left, remember the founder of the chapel, Orazio Rucellai, who, still living in 1603, made “sibi et suis” the monument. Then follows the monument that O. Rucellai erected in memory of his maternal uncle, the famous author of the famous Galateo, Mons. Giovanni Della Casa. To the right is the cenotaph of Archbishop Annibale Rucellai, bishop of Carcassonne in France, commissioned by the TheatinePope Paul IV and Pius V to important offices at Henry II, then appointed by Clement VIII governor of Ancona, Bologna and Rome, while the last burial monument is still without registration.
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