Ovetari Chapel

The Ovetari Chapel in the Church of the Eremitani in Padua presents wall paintings showing scenes from the lives of Christopher and James arranged across three stacked sections. The parts visible today give an impression of the original layout and the spatial depth that the artists developed.

The notary Andrea Ovetari commissioned the decoration of the chapel in the mid-15th century, and several artists worked for nine years on the scenes. An Allied bombing raid in March 1944 destroyed most of the wall paintings, and restorers later reassembled individual fragments.

The stories of the two saints show scenes from their lives and deaths as they were honored in the late medieval period. Visitors today can trace the composition and use of color that were considered a new way of arranging images at the time.

The chapel sits in the right transept of the church and is accessible during the building's opening hours. Visitors should allow some time to look at the preserved fragments and the information about the reconstruction after the war damage.

Mantegna was only seventeen years old when he began work on the wall paintings, and his work was already considered extraordinary at the time. After the bombing, more than 80,000 fragments lay on the floor, and experts needed decades to identify some pieces and return them to their place.