Portinari Chapel

Commenced in 1460 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.

[4][6] Above the chapel’s altar a donor portrait from 1462, sometimes attributed to Giovanni da Vaprio, depicts Pigello Portinari kneeling in prayer before Peter of Verona.

The main body of the chapel is surmounted by a dome with sloping tiled roof supporting a high lantern, framed by four turrets.

The interior spaces are defined by architectural orders, pilasters, architraves, mouldings, pendentives and a ribbed dome with all the details picked out in grey stone that contrasts with the flat plaster surfaces.

In the 1880s the sepulchre, which had been hidden away awkwardly behind the altar, was moved into the main body of the chapel and placed somewhat off-centre, where it would be well lit by the lateral windows, and where it still stands.

The Portinari Chapel and the campanile of Sant’Eustorgio
Interior facing east. The Annunciation is depicted above the archway which forms the entrance to the apse; the two doors to the side were only opened in 1874–75. [ 1 ]
Vincenzo Foppa, Scene from the life of Peter of Verona , south wall of the chapel. In the ‘Miracle of the Host’, the saint reveals an apparition of the Madonna and Child (note their horns) as a Devilish simulacrum.