Giovanni Antonio Bruzio in the 17th-century stated that Teodorina Cybo assigned the revenues of a house in the Borgo district for the maintenance of the chapel but the building was demolished when the new colonnade on St. Peter's Square was built.

The chapel was first mentioned in a contemporary document in 1530 as "capella Crucifixi" when the concession was renewed for Teodorina's son, Giambattista Usodimare (Cybo), the Bishop of Mariana.

"The face appears to be a sort of coarse and rustic but intensely dramatic replica of the Eucharistic Christ at Lammari, a late work by Civitali executed between 1496 and 1501", she concluded.

Tradition says that St Philip Neri spent a lot of time in front of it in prayer, while Pope Gregory XIII granted privileges to the altar in 1576.

The justification for the 1636 restoration of the chapel was "the reverence felt by the whole Roman people" towards the statue,[3] and the entire painted decoration aimed to underscore its importance.

The current wooden Corinthian aedicule which frames the statue comes only from the 19th century but a similar structure was most probably created after 1636 because the decoration around the windows takes this into account.

Frescos The side walls are articulated by painted Corinthian pilasters and the splays of the windows are decorated with monochrome trophies including the instruments of the Passion.

The gate of Jerusalem closely resembles the original Porta del Popolo outside of the basilica giving the impression that the procession is arriving on Via Flaminia.

The lunette frescos are connected to the central theme of the painted decoration because the four Old Testament figures prefigured or prophesied the mission and death of Jesus.

His angel is holding up a tablet with Greek, Latin and Hebrew letters, a probable reference to the holy relic of the Titulus Crucis which was also brought to Rome by Saint Helena.

In the second lunette King David is shown with his harp, sceptre and a putto holding a scroll with an inscription: "[R]egnavit a ligno De[us]" which means: "God has reigned from the wood", an allusion to the cross.

The expression is derived from a now obsolete version of the Psalm 96 in the Psalterium Romanum and appeared in this form in the hymn Vexilla Regis by Venantius Fortunatus.

The words on his scroll clearly reveal his true identity: "Non est sp[eci]es ei ne[que decor]" which means "he had no form nor comeliness".

"[5] Attribution An inscription on the vault clearly states: "PETRUS/VAN LINT/(AN)T(VE)RP(ENSIS)/COLOR(IBU)S/P()R()T()S FEC(IT)/PETR(US) PAUL(US) DREUS/ROM(ANUS) ORNA/MENTA ARCH/ITE(C)T(URAE) DELIN(EAVIT)/AN(NO) SALUT(I)S/[...]", referring to Pieter van Lint (and also Pietro Paolo Drei).

The year of the execution is missing due to a lacuna but a very fine preparatory study for the figure of Jonah, preserved in the Fondation Custodia, bears the date of 1637.

Notwithstanding this confusion the frescos of the chapel were created by Pieter van Lint, a little-known Flemish artist who "proved to be a highly educated painter from a visual standpoint, deeply absorbing models of Italian painting, especially that of the Emilian school".