Lombardy itinerary
Bergamo Alta
La Cappella Colleoni - Colleoni Chapel

Bergamo Alta: La Cappella Colleoni - Colleoni Chapel

The Cappella Colleoni was built in 1472 when Bartolomeo Colleoni, famous “condottiero” of the Serenissima and Captain of the Venetian army, decided to build his own mausoleum. Colleoni made demolished by his soldiers the sacristy of S. Maria Maggiore, in spite of the refuse of the canonical people of the basilica.

 A cultured and modern man, Colleoni designed a monument that, placed in the heart of the urban space, would have determined new perspectives (for this reason since 1474 the demolition of the Palazzo della Ragione was established. The achievement of the project was in charge of Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, sculpture-architect that was engaged with the great project of the Certosa di Pavia. Anyway, the task was very complicated: he had to organize a sacred space that would have preserved the Captain bare, that would have been apt to the sacred celebrations and that would have found at least a formal harmony with the basilica beside it. Thus, the octagonal tambour of the chapel and the pointed pinnacle of the lantern refer to the fanciful end of the basilica, while the exuberant polychromy of the facade recalls, for the colors and the materials, the portal of the basilica by Giovanni da Campione of the fourteenth-century.

The intellectual interests of Colleoni meet and integrate the availability to the figurative experience by giving life to the Colleoni Chapel: an unique work, made of strictness, transgression, refinements and exhibitionism. (Walter Barbero)”.

In the interior, the Colleoni monumental grave presents two overlapped sarcophagi inserted in a triumphal arch, a re-elaboration of the monumental gothic graves whose characters, that belong more distinctly to the Renaissance are in any case recognizable in the bas relieves and in the sculptures, a testimony of the extraordinary plastic capacities of Amadeo. In the second sarcophagus, a wooden equestrian statue of Colleoni  by Sisto and Siry da Norimberga (1501). In the cupola, in the lunette of the vault, splendid frescoes of G.B. Tiepolo (1733) that represent the Virtue and some episodes of the life of S. Giovanni Battista.

On the left wall the Tomb of Medea, preferred daughter of Colleoni, work of Amadeo; on the front a high relief, the Pieta' (1470). Below: wooden bench containing biblical inlay by G.Caniana (1785). In the presbytery, thealtar by B. Manni (1676) by L.Pollsk; in the lunette the Martirio di S. Bartolomeo (S .Bartolomeo Martyrdom) by G.B. Tiepolo and S. Marco Evangelista by Tiepolo. On the walls: the Sacra Famiglia(Sacred Family)  by M.A. Kauffmann; wooden pews with carvings by G.A Sanz and biblical marquetries by Caniana (1773)

Bergamo Alta - Cappella Colleoni: Information

Address:
Piazza Duomo, tel. 035 210 061
Opening times:
From March to October: everyday, 9a.m-12.30a.m; 2:00p.m – 6.30p.m.
From November to February:  9a.m-12.30a.m; 2:00p.m – 4.30p.m. Closed on Monday.

Bergamo Alta - Piazza Vecchia - Piazza del Duomo: Information

Text and Photos © courtesy of Provincia di Bergamo – Settore cultura, sport e turismo

Bergamo Alta: Piazza Vecchia | Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore | Le mura venete
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© 1997-2010 Enrico Massetti
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