Pellegrini chapel

About

The Pellegrini Chapel (Italian: Cappella Pellegrini), initially named "Guaresco," is a religious building commissioned by Countess Margherita Pellegrini to the famous architect Michele Sanmicheli and built between 1528 and 1559. It occupies a prominent place in Renaissance architecture. It is located within the Franciscan complex of San Bernardino in Verona, which consists of a Gothic-style church and a series of valuable cloisters and became a coveted place for Verona's noble families to build their aristocratic chapels between the 15th and 16th centuries.

Around 1527, having finished his stay in Rome and before being commissioned to build important fortifications for the Venetian Republic, Michele Sanmicheli resided in Verona with his cousin Paolo, with whom he collaborated on numerous construction sites. During that period he had the opportunity to associate with several noble families, befriending Guaresco Raimondi, father-in-law of Countess Margherita Pellegrini. The life of the Veronese noblewoman was ravaged by serious family bereavements, including the death of her husband Benedetto Raimondi, two children, Nicola and Anna, her father-in-law and finally, in 1528, her 18-year-old son Niccolò, with whom the line of descent of the Raimondi-Pellegrini family was permanently interrupted.

This chapel, originally dedicated to St. Anne, was thus desired by Pellegrini to commemorate the death of her son but equally to celebrate herself and the family to which she belonged: the building was to serve as a funerary monument to contain the remains of the patron and her family members, although the final result betrayed this project. The idea of building a chapel, rather than a simpler tomb, probably came to her after she learned of the construction of the Emilei chapel at the church of San Michele in Isola, while the decision to have such a monumental work erected certainly contributed to the fact that it took on the significance of wanting to hand down to posterity the importance of the family, which was destined to disappear.

The design of the work was entrusted to Sanmicheli, who created a space endowed with a great harmony of parts and a clear distribution of light, with an architecture reminiscent of ancient buildings, particularly the Pantheon in Rome, Porta Borsari and the Gavi Arch in Verona. Construction began between the second half of 1528, after Niccolò's death, and October 15, 1529, the date of one of Margherita Pellegrini's wills, in which it is confirmed that work had already begun.

Controversy and completion by the Marastoni

Initially Sanmicheli personally directed the work, but in 1534 he had to abandon it to go to Venice for further assignments, so his cousin Paolo took over the direction of the building site. Disagreeing over some contractual issues, on July 8, 1538 Margherita obtained from the podestà of Verona the cancellation of the contract and compensation for damages. From then on, the architect and his collaborators no longer worked on the building.

The countess's dislike of Paolo Sanmicheli's management of the building site was due to her eagerness to see the chapel completed, given her precarious health condition: seeing that the work was proceeding very slowly caused her anxiety and concern. In addition, among the reasons that led to the dismissal of the Sanmicheli cousins was probably the high cost of the work, which was characterized (like Michele's other early works) by a rich and articulate decorative apparatus, combining elements and themes from Verona's Roman monuments with the proportions and modules of Renaissance architecture.

The workshop assigned to continue the work turned out to be that of the Marastoni stonemasons, who found the chapel already completed up to the height of the balcony with parapet. Despite the changes made during the work, which included the use of less noble materials and a decidedly simpler style, the new artisans were unable to speed up the work. The Marastoni, in fact, took nineteen years to complete the work, which the client did not manage to see completed. Pellegrini's last will is dated September 24, 1557, and reports that the monument was still being completed, which is why she requested that the construction of the chapel continue after her death and that the building be kept in good condition. The noblewoman died shortly after the document was drafted while the work was completed in 1559.

After two centuries of neglect, in 1793, Abbot Giuseppe Luigi Pellegrini became interested in the work and decided to restore it with the approval of his brother Carlo Pellegrini, marshal of the Austrian Empire. The work was directed by architect Bartolomeo Giuliari, who had previously been involved in restorations of Sanmichelian works, and who preliminarily carried out an accurate survey of the state of the monument. This made it possible to note how in the continuation of the work the Marastoni no longer used the so-called "bronze," a refined white Veronese stone so called because of the sound it emits during its working, employed particularly for ornaments, but rather exploited less noble material. Moreover, the stonemasons reduced the quantity and quality of decoration, so that the walls were bare, the columns and pilasters lacked fluting and the capitals lacked carvings.

Giuliari's project thus went on to add, to the portion of the chapel built by the Marastoni, a rich decorative apparatus in stone and stucco, so as to bring the appearance of the monument closer to Sanmicheli's original design. In particular, on the dome the opening of the lantern was restored through the removal of the rose window that decorated the top, while the coffers were rearranged with better proportions, according to those suggested by Piranesi, with dimensions sloping upward and defining each coffer with a series of three cornices and a flower in the center. In the second order, however, they carved some decorations on the cornice and leaves on the capitals, fluted the columns and pilasters, and introduced raised festoons under the architrave, similar to what had already been done in the first order.

The work, completed in 1795, thus went on to re-establish a decorative and stylistic continuity between the first and second orders, where the work of the Marastoni had impoverished the Sanmichelian architecture, even if it meant designing and executing a rather invasive intervention.

During the twentieth century, the monument was the subject of several restorations, mainly aimed at solving problems of infiltration and humidity, financed partly by the religious order and partly with contributions from the state, banks and various foundations, but always conducted under the supervision of the local Superintendence.

After years of poor maintenance that had resulted in a certain level of deterioration inside the aristocratic chapel, at the urging of the owners, represented by engineer Ottorino Pellegrini, in 1925 action was taken with the restoration of the dome and lantern: the roofing was redone, the window frames and decorations of the cupola were restored, and the stained glass windows of the lantern were replaced. The construction site was supervised by the Royal Superintendence of Monuments of Verona, headed by engineer Alessandro Da Lisca.

In the decades following World War II, the roof and the stained glass windows were repaired on several occasions: in the early 1960s, when the Superintendence contributed an expenditure of 1,200,000 liras ; in 1971, with Superintendent Piero Gazzola overseeing the work of re-roofing, with replacement of purlins, planking and brick tiles, for an amount of about 600,000 liras; finally between 1987 and 1993, when with a state grant of 150,000,000 liras, the restoration of the roof (consolidation of the wooden ribs, restoration of the brick eave cornice and insertion of eaves channels) and the lantern (lead lining of the canopy and recomposition and plumbing of the windows) continued.

Considerable conservation work finally took place between 1987 and 2000, supervised by the Superintendence official Pietro Maria Cevese. During the work, efforts were made to solve problems related to rising damp in the perimeter walls of the structure, as well as water infiltration from the glass windows of the drum. The opportunity was taken to carry out work to clean the stone surfaces of the chapel and vestibule, as well as to restore the plaster, stucco and coloring; in particular, the original colors of the dome were recovered, with the reappearance of the blue background in the coffers.

Around 1527, having finished his stay in Rome and before being commissioned to build important fortifications for the Venetian Republic, Michele Sanmicheli resided in Verona with his cousin Paolo, with whom he collaborated on numerous construction sites. During that period he had the opportunity to associate with several noble families, befriending Guaresco Raimondi, father-in-law of Countess Margherita Pellegrini. The life of the Veronese noblewoman was ravaged by serious family bereavements, including the death of her husband Benedetto Raimondi, two children, Nicola and Anna, her father-in-law and finally, in 1528, her 18-year-old son Niccolò, with whom the line of descent of the Raimondi-Pellegrini family was permanently interrupted.

This chapel, originally dedicated to St. Anne, was thus desired by Pellegrini to commemorate the death of her son but equally to celebrate herself and the family to which she belonged: the building was to serve as a funerary monument to contain the remains of the patron and her family members, although the final result betrayed this project. The idea of building a chapel, rather than a simpler tomb, probably came to her after she learned of the construction of the Emilei chapel at the church of San Michele in Isola, while the decision to have such a monumental work erected certainly contributed to the fact that it took on the significance of wanting to hand down to posterity the importance of the family, which was destined to disappear.

The design of the work was entrusted to Sanmicheli, who created a space endowed with a great harmony of parts and a clear distribution of light, with an architecture reminiscent of ancient buildings, particularly the Pantheon in Rome, Porta Borsari and the Gavi Arch in Verona. Construction began between the second half of 1528, after Niccolò's death, and October 15, 1529, the date of one of Margherita Pellegrini's wills, in which it is confirmed that work had already begun.

Initially Sanmicheli personally directed the work, but in 1534 he had to abandon it to go to Venice for further assignments, so his cousin Paolo took over the direction of the building site. Disagreeing over some contractual issues, on July 8, 1538 Margherita obtained from the podestà of Verona the cancellation of the contract and compensation for damages. From then on, the architect and his collaborators no longer worked on the building.

The countess's dislike of Paolo Sanmicheli's management of the building site was due to her eagerness to see the chapel completed, given her precarious health condition: seeing that the work was proceeding very slowly caused her anxiety and concern. In addition, among the reasons that led to the dismissal of the Sanmicheli cousins was probably the high cost of the work, which was characterized (like Michele's other early works) by a rich and articulate decorative apparatus, combining elements and themes from Verona's Roman monuments with the proportions and modules of Renaissance architecture.