TheSuardi Chapel is anoratory or private chapel inside the villa inTrescore Balneario,Province of Bergamo owned by theSuardi counts. It is dedicated toSaint Barbara andSaint Brigid and was completely rebuilt by the cousins Giovan Battista and Maffeo Suardi. It was fully covered in 1524 byfrescoes they commissioned fromLorenzo Lotto ofChrist the Vine andLives of the Saints. In the 19th century, count Gianforte Suardi built a corridor connecting the chapel to the villa and modified the chapel entrance – those entering had previously immediately found themselves in front of the north wall with its depiction ofChrist the Vine.
Located on the road across theVal Cavallina which linksBergamo toLago d'Iseo, the chapel had existed since the 15th century. Around 1523 countGiovan Battista Suardi commissioned Lotto to decorate the oratory[1] and so the artist immediately moved to the area. By this show of piety, the count hoped to avert a flood (predicted by astrologers for 20 February 1524)[2] and to counter the seeds ofLutheranism brought to northern Italy by theLandsknechts.[3] The frescoes were complete by summer 1524.[4] The artist and commissioners were friends, as shown by their correspondence discussing the cartoons for the intarsi in the choir ofSanta Maria Maggiore, Bergamo. Lotto was assisted byFrancesco Bonetti, documented as his pupil from 1517 to 1550.[5]
Simple and rustic in its architecture, the chapel's plan is essentially rectangular with a pitched wooden roof supported by exposed beams and a small semicircular apse with some modest existing frescoes from before Lotto's time.[4] Lotto's frescoes are spread over three walls above a large plinth. Together they form a complex iconographic programme on redemption and faith as incarnated in the lives of saints Barbara (north side), Brigid (south side), Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria (back wall), along with Christ's victory over evil as predicted by the prophets and sibyls and guaranteed and confirmed in the lives of the saints.[6] Several figures show peasants and other working class figures, often studied from life and previously unrepresented in Italian painting.[7]
Lotto also frescoed the ceiling between (and using) the beams, creating a fake pergola against a bright blue background, with playing putti and cartouches with biblical and liturgical passages about vines and wine as used in the mass.[4] The brushwork is quick but efficient and the work's taste for popular narration (typical of Lotto) remains wedded to the north Italian tradition.
At the centre of the north wall is a monumental figure of Christ the Vine, with arms spread wide. At his feet are the work's commissioners praying – Battista, his wife Orsolina and his sister Paolina. Above these three figures is a dedicatory inscription, part of which is lost, with the commissioners' and the painter's names and the date along with the relevant passage fromJohn 15.5 ("I am the Vine, you are the branches") in Latin in gilded letters. That New Testament text is central to the iconography of the whole chapel, linking the Roman Catholic Church and the lives of saints Barbara, Brigid and Mary Magdalene to Christ in a clear anti-Lutheran polemic.[4]
From Christ's fingers rise vine branches, which end at the ceiling in ten fruit-like circles with images of the saints and Doctors of the Church, withSaint Jerome at the far left andSaint Ambrose at the far right. At either end harvesters with ladders and billhooks fail in their attempt to cut down the branches and fall from the sky[8] - these symbolise historical heretics and some are inscribed with their names.[8] From left to right, the other saints in the circles areSaint Apollonia,Margaret of Antioch withSaint Lucy,Saint Ursula,Saint Barbara withCatherine of Alexandria,Mary Magdalene withCatherine of Siena, the Virgin between two angels,John the Baptist,Saint Peter withSaint Paul,Alexander of Bergamo withSaint Stephen andSaint Sebastian,Saint Dominic withAugustine of Hippo and finallyFrancis of Assisi. Damaged cartouches above their heads give their names.[4]
Either side of the figure of Christ are a series of buildings and landscapes, all showing scenes from the life ofSaint Barbara, her conversion and her martyrdom underMaximian andDiocletian. They are set in city scenes such as a marketplace, giving a popular and lively feel to the storytelling.[8] The figures are smaller than the saints in the upper register and show the saint's life as an unheroic one, a series of anecdotes, similar to works from northern Europe at that time, anti-rhetorical and anti-classical, as do the unusual colours chosen, from yellow with violet, pink with green and white with brown. This conception of scenes within an architectural setting owed much to the example of theSacro Monte di Varallo.[6]
At the far left we see her locked up by her father in a round tower (a typical attribute of the saint), still under construction but guarded by soldiers. At its top we see her being instructed in Christianity by a hermit, eventually leading to her baptism and rejection of pagan idols. After her return to the women's quarters, her father discovers her conversion and furiously orders her to be killed by the sword. The saint flees to the mountains and hides in the bushes, but a shepherd betrays her and drags her by the hair to thepraetor, who orders her to be whipped and tortured with upside-down hammers. She is then imprisoned, but Christ visits her and heals her.[4]
She is then brought before the praetor again, who has her hung up by the arms and tortured with torches. She is stripped and her breasts cut off, but an angel brings a white sheet to protect her modesty. She is then dragged through the city into the marketplace amidst a curious crowd. The final scene, in the background, shows her own father beheading her but then being punished by being suddenly devoured by fire.[4]
The right-hand or south side shows three squares, each showing multiple scenes from the life ofBrigid of Kildare, a 6th-century Irish saint. The three squares are punctuated by the entrance and two windows but are united by a continuoustrompe-l'œil wall with round openings, from which appear prophets and sibyls:[4]David, theErythraean Sibyl,Isaiah, theSamian Sibyl,Jeremiah, theDelphic Sibyl,Ezekiel, theCimmerian Sibyl,Micah and theHellespontine Sibyl,[4] each with a name label above them.[4]
The first square opens outwards through a half-rolled-up wall and shows Brigid taking the veil, on which occasion she miraculously revived a tree. It also shows her handing out bread to the poor in the presence of another of the commissioners, Maffeo Suardi, shown with men, women and children of his family.[4] A still life of sacred objects is shown on the altar of the small painted church in the image, perhaps a reference toRaphael'sThe Mass at Bolsena.[6]
The second square shows a landscape in which the saint gives out food to the needy, turns water into beer, heals a blind man, calms a hurricane, dries up a tree and tames a boar.[4] The third square is set in a city, showing more of Brigid's deeds, such as dividing a vase between three lepers and saving a man condemned to death by replacing him with his shadow.[4]
Over the entrance door is a half-length figure of a male bird-hunter carrying an owl and a bundle of rods on his shoulders – the rods would be used to make traps in the branches and the owl to attract birds into the traps. An ancient tradition holds this bird-hunter to be a self-portrait of Lotto hidden under a cryptic and esoteric disguise.[4] On the ceiling is a peeing putto symbolising the saving water of baptism and of divine protection – according to alchemists of the time boys' urine had important properties as a "burning" liquid whose essence was fire. In alchemy urine was known as "lot", probably used here as a play on the artist's surname and as a reference to his ability to transform and create.[9]
The east wall at the back shows one frame with scenes from the life ofMary Magdalene and another with scenes from the life ofCatherine of Alexandria. Above them both is a continuation of the frieze of prophets and Sibyls,[4] with this section includingHabbakuk, theTiburtine Sibyl,Zephaniah, thePhrygian Sibyl,Daniel, thePersian Sibyl andMoses, each with a still-legible cartouche of their name.[4]
In 1499, the German mathematician and astronomer Johannes Stöffler predicted that a vast flood would engulf the world on 20 February 1524. (His calculations foretold 20 planetary conjunctions during this year—16 of which would take place in a "watery sign," a.k.a. Pisces.)