Cappella Portinari: Renaissance frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa and contemporary homage by Rinaldo Invernizzi

The Cappella Portinari, a Renaissance chapel within the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio in Milan, is the subject of a contemporary art exhibition by Rinaldo Invernizzi in autumn 2024. The chapel, built in the 1460s by Florentine banker Pigello Portinari, houses frescoes by Vincenzo Foppa depicting scenes from the life of Saint Peter of Verona, a 13th-century Dominican friar and inquisitor martyred in 1252. The chapel also contains the Arca di San Pietro, a Gothic marble tomb by Giovanni di Balduccio da Pisa from 1339. Foppa's frescoes, his first major public commission, cover the vault and upper walls, featuring a rainbow-feathered ceiling, angelic choir, and four scenes of Saint Peter's miracles and martyrdom. The frescoes were whitewashed during the 1630 plague and later restored in the 19th and 20th centuries. Invernizzi's exhibition, titled 'Rinaldo Invernizzi per la Cappella Portinari,' presents a cycle of paintings that engage with Foppa's themes of idolatry, deception, faith, and compassion, using a reduced palette and motifs like the foot and hand of Saint Peter, as well as knives and swords to comment on contemporary warfare.