The Corinthian capitals support a fluted pediment, creating a sort of Serliana which, rather than demarcating a presbytery, serves to divide the space reserved for the nobility from that of the servants and peasants.
Between the low cross vaulted ceiling and the lintel, a small pediment or tympanum is barely visible, a curious structural and ornamental gesture for a classically trained mason.
[1] Sherman was commissioned and over numerous years (1987–1994) painted and decorated the chapel with secular metaphors dealing centrally with biological disequilibrium and celestial glory rendered earthly.
[3] The three panel framed by the pilasters have been filled in with a matrix of tiles in unpainted bas relief, each portraying a kneeling sheep in either a left or right profile, in a free play of combinations.
[1] The Guzzetti Chapel is sited on the grounds of the Villa Corona ensconced in the Etruscan citadel of Corthona, a rich fertile landscape of olive trees, orchards, and vineyards.
As described in the publication Camera Picta Alberto Busignani wrote: “Sherman approached these bare, plastered walls, whose surface is broken only by two small windows facing the valley and framing a fragment of the landscape.
In the analysis, the same sensibility that led Sherman to undertake this unusual project evokes in the viewer a simple and independent visceral response.”[3] The chapel, paintings and gardens are extensively photographed and detailed in the book and three dimensional fold out publication by Roland Bellini.