Mural Paintings from the Herrera Chapel

Mural Paintings from the Herrera Chapel
Artist	Annibale Carracci
Year	1604–1606
Type	Fresco transferred to canvas
Location	Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya & Museo del Prado, Barcelona & Madrid

The Mural Paintings from the Herrera Chapel is a group of mural paintings by Annibale Carracci and collaborators, of around 1602, now divided between the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona, and the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

They are frescos that were painted for a chapel in Rome around 1604, but later transferred to canvas and moved to Spain by 1851.

History

In 1602, the Spanish nobleman Juan Enriquez de Herrera dedicated a chapel to the Spanish Franciscan Saint (Didacus or) Diego de Alcala in what is now Nostra Signora del Sacro Cuore in Rome, but was then "Saint James of the Spanish", the Spanish national church in Rome. He commissioned Saint Didacus of Alcalá Presenting Juan de Herrera's Son to Christ and frescoes from Carracci. The mural decoration, with scenes from the saint's life, was done by the Bolognese painter Annibale Carracci. In 1604 began designing the master of all the preparatory cartoons, but he became ill while personally directing the work 'in situ'. So, the work was finished by his collaborators, who included Giovanni Lanfranco, Sisto Badalocchio and Francesco Albani.

The Spanish national church in Rome later became the new Santa Maria in Monserrato degli Spagnoli, and the old church was cleared of its artworks. The frescoes in the Herrera chapel were transferred to canvas at the request of the sculptor Antonio Solá, at the expense of Ferdinand VII (d. 1833), and arrived in Spain in 1851. They are now distributed between MNAC and Museo del Prado.

Description

The group consists of 16 items, 9 of which are kept at the MNAC and the other 7 at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. From the former church of San Giacomo degli Spagnuoli in Rome.

#	Image	Title	Authors	Museum	Reference
1		Apostles around the Empty Sepulchre	Carracci and Francesco Albani	MNAC
2		Miracle of the Roses	Carracci, Francesco Albani and Domenico Zampieri	MNAC
3		Assumption of the Virgin	Carracci and Albani	MNAC
4		Everlasting Father	Carracci and Albani	MNAC
5		Healing the Man Born Blind	Carracci and Albani	MNAC
6		Saint Paul	Carracci and Albani	MNAC
7		Saint Peter	Carracci and Albani	MNAC
8		Predicació de Sant Dídac	Carracci and Sisto Badalocchio	MNAC
9		Apparition of Saint Didacus above his sepulchre-	Carraci and Sisto Badalocchio	MNAC
10		Apoteosis de san Francisco		Museo del Prado
11		Apoteosis de Santiago el mayor		Museo del Prado
12		Apoteosis de san Lorenzo		Museo del Prado
13-17		Escenas de San Diego de Alcalá, titular de la capilla		Museo del Prado

External links

• The artwork at Museum's website