Dome

View into the chapel, showing the south flank; Paul V's taste is most clearly displayed in the Cappella Paolina, designed by Ponzio, in S Maria Maggiore, where he had been chaplain. Giovanni Battista Crescenzi was Superintendent of Works for the project (as he was of others commissioned by Paul V). The chapel houses an icon of the Virgin attributed to St Luke, and serves as a funerary chapel for Paul V's family and for the family of his predecessor Pope Clement VIII. It followed the design of the chapel of Sixtus V on the opposite side of the church, but surpassed it in the splendour and richness of its decoration (1610-1613). Many ancient monuments were ransacked for its marble. Sculptors, predominantly Late Mannerists, included Ambrogio Bonvicino, Ippolito Buzio (d 1634), Antonio Peracca, Camillo Mariani, Nicolas Cordier, Pietro Bernini and the more modern Stefano Maderno and Francesco Mochi. The paintings were carried out under the direction of the Cavaliere d'Arpino; Lodovico Cigoli frescoed the dome, while the arches and lunette over the papal tombs were frescoed in a newer style by Guido Reni and Giovanni Lanfranco. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.groveart.com/ (accessed 2/8/2008)