MIT Libraries homeDome

The altarpiece, a high relief depicting "St. Francis in Ecstasy": detail of the head of St. Francis and the left angel; Bernini had earlier made an organic unity of the interior architecture of the Raimondi Chapel (1640-1647) at S Pietro in Montorio. Guido Ubaldo Abbatini assisted Bernini with the painting of the vault of the Raimondi Chapel (1642-1644). [Grove] "The Tomb of Monsignor Francesco is designed by Bernini but executed by members of his studio. The tombs face each other across the chapel and "in both cases the deceased is shown alive and praying in the niche above but also as a corpse in the sarcophagus, a device common in northern Europe in the late Middle Ages, but extremely rare in Italy, particularly in the 17C" Source: Blunt, Anthony; Guide to baroque Rome, London ; New York : Granada, 1982 (0246117621) (accessed 12/2/2007)