The Prado National Museum presents "Annibale Carracci. The frescoes of the Herrera Chapel"

The presentation of "Annibale Carracci. The frescoes of the Herrera chapel" by the Museo Nacional del Prado consists of seven frescoes. First, the four trapezoids that decorated the vault of the chapel tell the story of the life of the protagonist saint: Saint Diego. The Prado also has three of the ovals that were located in the pendentives: San Lorenzo, San Francisco, and Santiago el Mayor.

Although these frescoes were Carracci's most important commission, as they depict scenes from the life of the Andalusian Franciscan Saint Diego de Alcalá who died in 1463, they are practically unknown to most of the public. This is largely due to the dispersion of the works.

In the early years of the 17th century, Annibale Carracci (Bologna, 1560 - Rome, 1609) undertook with Juan Enriquez de Herrera to fresco his family chapel in Santiago de los Españoles church in Rome. Carracci devised the entire ensemble and executed some of the frescoes before suffering a serious illness in 1605 that prevented him from working on the project, delegating the execution of the paintings to Francesco Albani.

The removal of the paintings from the walls of the chapel due to the deterioration of the church meant that, of the nineteen fragments of mural painting, only sixteen reached Spain (seven fragments are in the Museo Nacional del Prado and nine reached the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi from where they were deposited in the MNAC), and the remaining three were deposited in the Roman church of Santa Maria de Montserrat, where they have not been located. The altar painting was also transferred there, where it remains today.


Image of the exhibition rooms. Photograph courtesy of the Museo Nacional del Prado.

The collection in the Museo Nacional del Prado is made up of seven frescoes. The first space has four trapezoids that decorated the vault of the chapel and which narrate themes related to the life of the main saint: Saint Diego receives alms, the miraculous Refaction, Saint Diego saves the boy asleep in the oven and Saint Diego receives the Franciscan habit. In addition, the Prado has three ovals that were located in the pendentives: San Lorenzo, San Francisco and Santiago el Mayor. These works are on display for the first time after their recent restoration.

In the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) in Barcelona, nine other mural paintings, the two that were located on the exterior above the entrance to the chapel, are preserved as deposits of the Reial Acadèmia de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi, where they were officially admitted on 9 August 1851, The Assumption of the Virgin and the Apostles around the empty tomb of the Virgin, and four others, taken from the sidewalls of the interior, The Preaching of Saint Diego, The Healing of a Young Blind Man, The Apparition of Saint Diego in his Tomb and The Miracle of the Roses. The Barcelona Museum also has three other frescoes depicting the Eternal Father, taken from the hemispherical lantern, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the saints who flanked the altar painting on the chapel's headwall. This altar painting, painted in oil on panel, San Diego de Alcalá intercedes by Diego Enríquez de Herrera, is now in the church of Santa María de Montserrat in Rome. Alongside these paintings are related drawings, prints reproducing the lost fragments and funeral books of the kings of Spain in which the interior of the church is reproduced.

The church of Santiago de los Españoles was from the mid-16th century until the 18th century, when it began to decline, one of the most important religious, symbolic and representative places of the Spanish monarchy in Rome.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Palencia banker Juan Enríquez de Herrera (ca. 1539-1610) ordered the construction of a chapel in this church dedicated to Saint Diego de Alcalá, a 15th-century Franciscan monk raised to the altars in 1588, to whom Herrera had prayed for the healing of his sick son. The chapel was built between 1602 and 1606 when it was also frescoed. This was entrusted to Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), who had just decorated the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese with great success.

Carracci was assisted from the outset by one of the painters in his circle, Francesco Albani (1578-1660), a collaboration that was disrupted in late 1604 or early 1605 by the master's serious illness, which prevented him from continuing his work. From then on it was Albani who, under Carracci's supervision, took over the direction of the painting.

In 1833, as a result of the deterioration of the church, Pellegrino Succi was commissioned to start the frescoes. The sculptor Antonio Solá directed the entire operation and finally, in 1850, managed to ship sixteen paintings from the port of Civitavecchia to Barcelona, where nine of them remained, while another seven were sent to Madrid. The painting of the altarpiece was deposited in the church of Montserrat in Rome, where it remains. Since then, this is the first time this group has been reunited.


Piazza Navona. GASPAR VAN WITTEL. Oil on canvas, 96,5 x 216 cm. 1699. Madrid, Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on deposit at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.

Exterior views of the church of Santiago de los Españoles
The exterior views of the church of Santiago de los Españoles are very abundant. One example is the oil painting by Gaspar van Wittel in this exhibition, which shows the appearance of the Romanesque Piazza Navona in 1699, with the façade of the church on the far right. In contrast, evidence of its interior is extremely scarce. The prints included in the funeral books of the kings of Spain, which recorded the ephemeral decorations erected in the church on the occasion of the death of the monarchs, are undoubtedly the most descriptive and reliable. In one of them, published in 1725 on the occasion of the death of Louis I, we can see the entrance to the chapel and one of its walls, with a brief representation of part of its paintings, as well as the plaster decoration by Stefano Fuccari and the plaster sculptures by Ambrogio Buonvicino.

In the floor plans reproduced in the books on display, the Herrera chapel appears in second place from the foot of the church, on the Gospel side.


Image of the exhibition rooms. Photograph courtesy of the Museo Nacional del Prado.

Evocation of the visit to the Herrera chapel and frescoes on the exterior
The exhibition offers visitors an evocation of a visit to the Herrera chapel, now destroyed. On the outside, above the entrance arch, two paintings could be seen, precisely the ones shown in this room. In the next room, we enter the interior of the chapel, where the frescoes that could be seen at eye level are on display. The successive rooms progressively move up in level to the painting of the lantern of the vault, which is in the last room. Alongside the paintings, there is a selection of the known preparatory drawings in which Annibale Carracci and Francesco Albani tried out the proposals that were later to be included in the frescoes. Also included are the prints opened by Simon Guillain which reproduce the three fragments lost after the start-up.

This room also contains the two frescoes that were located outside the chapel. Carracci had previously begun the decoration of the interior, which was interrupted for reasons that are unclear. Once these two scenes were completed, he returned to the interior frescoes until they were finished. It is not known why the work was interrupted, perhaps due to the difficulties of working in an area occupied by scaffolding, or to the presence of workers from other trades who did not leave enough room, as well as excessively dirtying and dampening the small interior space.

Fresco paintings were usually begun at the highest point, to prevent successive interventions from dirtying what had already been done. For this reason, Carracci and Albani began their work on the exterior of the chapel with the fresco of the Assumption of the Virgin on the upper level and continued with the Apostles around the empty tomb of the Virgin.

While working on the Assumption, Annibale suffered a violent illness that prevented him from continuing, which is why the fresco of the Apostles was entrusted to Albani, who from then on took over the direction of the project. The two paintings are two of the finest of the entire group, while the Apostles around the Tomb is also the most colourful, perhaps due to its location on the outside of the chapel.


Reconstruction of the arrangement of the frescoes in the Herrera chapel in the church of Santiago de los Españoles in Rome. Photograph courtesy of the Museo Nacional del Prado.

The paintings on the lower part of the chapel's interior walls
The paintings on the lower part of the walls inside the chapel are on display in this room. On the sides are two of the miracles of Saint Diego: the Healing of a Young Blind Man and the Miracle of the Roses, both entirely by Albani, after Carracci's illness made him responsible for the project. On the altarpiece hung the oil painting of Saint Diego de Alcalá Intercede by Diego Enríquez de Herrera, a highly controversial attribution, and, on either side, Saint Peter and Saint Paul, frescoes usually attributed to Albani or Giovanni Lanfranco.

The attributional problems posed by this group have two causes. The first is its delicate state of conservation, which has prevented a satisfactory formal analysis. Furthermore, the very conception of the work in Carracci's workshop makes it difficult to identify the different hands. Indeed, in the Herrera chapel, the invention was the exclusive responsibility of Annibale, who shared the execution with painters he trusted. Raphael was the model to follow, both in composition aspects and in the fact that Carracci used the most qualified young men from his workshop to satisfy the growing demand for his works. We only know of the disappointment of one of his clients, Juan Enriquez de Herrera.

The paintings in the two half-points of the chapel
This room contains the paintings of the two half-points of the chapel, as well as the ovals that decorated the pendentives. The first two, the Preaching of Saint Diego and the Apparition of Saint Diego at his tomb, are usually attributed to two painters from Carracci's circle: Sisto Badalocchio and Giovanni Lanfranco, respectively. The attribution to the latter is confirmed by the elongated, slender proportions of the figures in the foreground, a characteristic feature of the artist's work. Badalocchio's authorship is recorded in written sources from the 17th century, which describe his failure due to his manifest lack of skill in fresco painting. Albani would have dry-retouched Badalocchio's work in order to conceal its defects. Its delicate state of preservation makes it impossible to confirm the veracity of this account.

Carracci's hand can be seen in two of the ovals, Saint Francis and Saint Lawrence, and they are among the most beautiful of all the paintings. The one dedicated to Saint James is undoubtedly by Albani, as his characteristic physical type shows. The fourth, with the missing Saint John the Evangelist, is evoked through a print.

Collaboration between Carracci and Albani
Four paintings by Carracci and Albani are on display in this room. We know that each was executed in two days, in two halves that were marked by a vertical crack in the mortar detected during restoration. Albani was able to begin all four scenes. In the two exterior scenes, he began with the sky and continued in successive planes with the landscape, the architectural elements and the vegetation closest to the figures. In the interior scenes, he painted the elements necessary for their development - the altar, the oven, the chapel, the niche, the staircase, etc. - and the architectural backgrounds, for which he used sharp, incised lines. Carracci was able to execute the most difficult parts, such as the heads and hands of the figures, and to finish with a general overhaul of the painting.

The start of these frescoes, executed from 1833 onwards, must have begun with San Diego saving the boy asleep in the oven, which was moved from its original concave profile to a different plane. The intention was to display the work on a wall as if it were an easel painting. After the poor results of this test, which fractured the lower corners of the work, it was decided to respect the curvature of the rest.

Interior of the lantern
The figure of the Eternal Father decorated the interior of the lantern. It was the first fresco to be executed and in it, being a narrow space, Carracci gave his place to Albani.
 
It still retains the original wooden structure designed after the fresco was started in order to support the painting on the back, maintain the rigidity of the transfer canvas and prevent possible deformation of the pictorial surface.

The frescoes in the Herrera chapel must have been painted in a very short period of time. The frescoes in the Museo del Prado took two days each, for a total of sixteen days of work if we add the missing oval, which is slightly longer if we accept that the collaboration between Annibale and Albani necessarily slowed down their work. The Assumption took five days; the Apostles around the tomb, eight, and the Miracle of the Roses, six.

The Herrera Chapel was the most important work of Annibale Carracci's final production, but as a result of the serious illness that befell him during its execution, he never again undertook work of this scale. He died on 15 July 1609, barely three years after the completion of these paintings.