The Colleoni Chapel and the Luogo Pio della Pietà. Guide

The Colleoni Chapel, one of the finest examples of Lombard Renaissance architecture, was built as a mausoleum for the condottiero (commander of mercenary troops) Bartolomeo Colleoni (1395/1400-1475) in the religious and political heart of his city, Bergamo, adjacent to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. Its construction was commissioned around 1470 by Colleoni himself and entrusted to the architect-sculptor Giovanni Antonio Amadeo, who envisioned an innovative building based on a central plan. From the façade, composed of a play of inlays and decorations in polychrome marble, the strong revival of the ancient style-prevailing in Lombardy in the late fifteenth century and the result of a precise political choice -is evident. This style also characterizes the condottiero's funeral monument, in which biblical episodes alternate with antique elements and on which Amadeo had an equestrian sculpture placed on its top, modeled on the tombs of the great lords of the 14th and 15th centuries in Lombardy and Veneto. This handy guide, enriched with a historical profile of Colleoni, takes visitors on a journey of discovery of the precious works housed in the chapel: from the Renaissance tomb of Medea, daughter of Bartolomeo, who died at the age of fifteen in 1470, to the sculptures by Pietro Lombardo and his workshop, passing through the 18th-century paintings by Giambattista Tiepolo, Giuseppe Maria Crespi, and Angelika Kauffmann. The guide also describes the Luogo Pio Colleoni, the institution that was responsible for completing the chapel, its future maintenance, and worship services. The Luogo Pio preserves numerous works of art, among which the statues from the chapel's façade, the Council Hall, frescoed after 1476 by a local workshop, and the portrait of the condottiero by Giovan Battista Moroni stand out.