The “Walled Chapels”

The “Walled Chapels”
The so-called "Walled Chapels" consist of three chapels with three barrel vaults, with an altar on the back wall, and a smaller room of uncertain purpose, all with frescoes, which were located along the left side wall of the original Church of Santa Maria della Pietà, built around 1480 together with the adjoining Convent of the Observant Minor Friars, and later named after S. Antonio da Padova after the restoration works that affected the entire monastic complex. As part of these structural changes, the terminal sector of the four rooms was closed off by the construction of a new lateral wall, more advanced than the older one, and erected for the construction of a staircase connecting the entrance of the church to the first floor of the convent. The gap created between the southern back wall of the convent's quadriportico and the new northern wall of the new church (therefore smaller than the previous one), transformed into an ossuary, was completely exposed during the restoration works carried out in 2009, which aimed to adapt the spaces of the former religious complex to the new museum structure.
The three chapels currently have the appearance of very narrow rooms (1.60 x 3.30/3.60 m), covered with barrel vaults and separated partitions (fig. 1); between the two easternmost chapels, there is a smaller room (1.78 m wide) also covered with a barrel vault and frescoed. The entire original wall space is covered with frescoes dating back to the 16th and 17th centuries, which have remained sealed for several centuries. The paintings reflect the Franciscan iconographic models established with the Counter-Reformation and spread through the work of monastic painters, carvers and architects; the use of a simple and popular figurative narrative responds to the Franciscans' need to make art available to the non-literate faithful, focusing mainly on the devotional aspect. The themes are religious and focus mainly on the figure of the Madonna, except for the easternmost chapel where the theme of the Crucifixion is depicted.
On the central wall of the first chapel (the westernmost: fig. 1) the figure of the Madonna of Constantinople, seated on a throne with the Child on her knees, placed in the centre between S. Bonaventura and S. Francesco da Paola (fig. 2). The fresco is dated to 1598 by an inscription on the arcosolium. To the side of this scene, on the wall separating the chapel from the next one, there are the Santi Medici Cosma and Damiano, represented frontally and without any volumetric perspective (fig. 3). Further down, between the two saints, a small niche opens up in the wall, on the bottom of which two cruets are painted, alluding to the wine and water used for the liturgy of the mass. The lower part of the chapel is frescoed with a fake balustrade with small columns, from which a frieze decorated with spirals begins and runs along the arch.
The layout of the second chapel is more complex, with three layers of frescoes identified on the main wall. The older layer shows only a few monochrome traces, while the second and third layers shows the main scenes that characterise this chapel, frescoed between the end of the sixteenth century and the end of the seventeenth century. In the middle of the main wall, there is the Madonna del Latte, represented as the Madonna del Rosario, placed between Santa Caterina da Siena and San Domenico di Guzman (fig. 4). This composition is collected within a circular frame, around which are placed clipei decorated with scenes from the life of Maria. Below, in a central position, we can see the scene of a naval battle (fig. 5), an unusual depiction for a place of worship, but with a strong historical-religious meaning since the famous Battle of Lepanto on 7 October was recognised there. 1571, which stopped the advance of the Muslims towards the West. As it was a very symbolic event for the imagination of all Christians of the time, it is easy to understand how the emotional impact was particularly felt in Salento, both of the relative proximity to the site of the battle (which took place in the stretch of sea in front of the today’s Naupatto, in Greece, just north of Patras), and for the events that had affected the Salento coasts in previous years, among which the famous Ottoman conquest of Otranto in 1480 stands out. Near the fresco of the battle, under the tondo with the Coronation of the Virgin, we read an inscription that reports the name of the client (fig. 6): Donna Aurelia Perreca. It is no coincidence that the Madonna del Latte, dominating the depiction of the battle, was rendered in the iconographic style of the Madonna del Rosario, which became very popular in the last decades of the 16th century; according to tradition the Battle of Lepanto was won by the Christians thanks to the practice of the Rosary and the intercession of the Virgin. The fresco is one of the first artistic representations of the Battle of Lepanto, which, in the years immediately following the battle was the subject of numerous paintings celebrating the victory of the Christian troops. Still in the same chapel, on the sides, on the walls that separate it from the first and third, there are paintings of the Madonna del Purgatorio (to the west: fig. 7) and the Santi Medici in a box framed by floral decorations (to the east: fig. 8).
Between this and the next chapel is a small vaulted and frescoed room, now called the "Chapel of the Annunciation", accessible through a modern opening in the cloister wall. On the western wall are the remains of a haloed woman and an angel, in which a scene of the Annunciation (fig. 9), while on the opposite wall, there are the figures of S. Antonio da Padova and perhaps S. Nicola are visible (fig. 10); a representation of the firmament with the sun and moon depicted in the manner of human faces also decorates the intrados of the vault.
Finally, the third chapel (the eastern one), whose pictorial language refers to the early 17th century, is dedicated to the Crucifixion. On the central wall, next to a wooden cross no longer preserved, but of which signs remain, the Virgin and S. Giovanni are frescoed. Above, on the vaulted wall, some scenes from the Passion of Christ take place: Jesus in the garden of olive trees, the Flagellation (fig. 11), the first fall (fig. 12), Jesus crowned with thorns, and, in the middle of the vault, the Crucifixion (fig. 13).