ARCHITECT, Italian
(active 1460s in Milan)

Sant'Eustorgio: Exterior of the Cappella Portinari

1462-68
Photo
Piazza Sant'Eustorgio, Milan

The Portinari Chapel is a Renaissance chapel at the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, Milan. Commenced in 1462 and completed in 1468, it was commissioned by Pigello Portinari as a private sepulchre and to house a silver shrine given by Archbishop Giovanni Visconti in 1340 containing the relic head of St Peter of Verona, to whom the chapel is consecrated. The architect is unknown, the traditional attribution to Michelozzo having been succeeded with equal uncertainty by attributions to either Filarete or Guiniforte Solari.

The chapel is located at the eastern end of the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio. From the exterior it is a compact cubic brick building with a lower-roofed, projecting square apse. The main body of the chapel is surmounted by a dome with sloping tiled roof supporting a high lantern, framed by four turrets. The dome of the apse is protected by an octagonal structure, again capped with a tiled roof.

View the section of Cappella Portinari.




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