Ovetari Chapel

Antonio Ovetari was a Padua notary who, at his death, left a large sum for the decoration of the family chapel in the Church of the Eremitani.

The project was carried out by his widow, Imperatrice Ovetari, who, in 1448, commissioned the work to a group of artists, which included the elder Giovanni d'Alemagna, Antonio Vivarini (a Venetian late Gothic painter) and two young Paduans, Niccolò Pizzolo and Andrea Mantegna.

Mantegna completed the Stories of St. James, frescoed the central wall with the Assumption of the Virgin and then completed the lower sector of the Stories of St. Cristopher begun by Bono da Ferrara and Ansuino da Forlì, where he painted two unified scenes: the Martyrdom of St.

During World War II the two frescoes were stored in a separate location and were thus saved from the destruction of all the rest of the cycle during an Allied air bombardment of 11 March 1944.

Despite the presence of several painters in the work, the layout of the cycle is generally attributed to Mantegna, who devised the architectural frames.

These figures show similarities with the frescoes by Andrea del Castagno in the Venetian Church of San Zaccaria (1442), both in the format and their sculptural firmness.

In the remaining spaces were the Eternal Father Blessing and the Doctors of the Church within frames, frescoed by Niccolò Pizzolo.

The decoration of the Chapel was completed by an altarpiece in terracotta covered with bronze by Pizzolo, which, although very damaged, is still existing.