Bufalini Chapel, Renaissance chapel in Campitelli, Rome, Italy

The Bufalini Chapel is a Renaissance chapel within Santa Maria in Aracoeli church on Rome's Capitoline Hill, featuring extensive frescoes across its surfaces. Three walls and the ceiling display scenes from the lives of Saint Bernardino and Saint Francis, while the floor shows Cosmatesque mosaic work and four Evangelists appear in dynamic oval frames above.

Niccolò di Manno Bufalini, a consistorial lawyer from Città di Castello, commissioned the chapel as his burial chapel. No documents record the frescoes' execution, but they are generally dated to about 1484-1486. Pinturicchio obtained the commission after the Sistine Chapel works ended in 1482, when most painters left Rome; he stayed and formed a workshop. The frescoes were restored in 1955-1956 and 1981-1982.

The chapel was the Bufalini family's burial chapel, and their coat of arms, a bull with a flower, recurs throughout the frescoes. Bernardino had mediated the feud between the Bufalini and the rival Baglioni and Del Monte families, which explains the family's devotion to him. Look for the two portraits identified as Riccomanno Bufalini, in a fur-lined hood and gloves, among the mourners at the saint's funeral.

Access to the chapel requires climbing 124 marble steps to reach Santa Maria in Aracoeli church on the Capitoline Hill. Wearing comfortable shoes and allowing extra time to explore the surroundings is advisable for visitors.

The monochrome band beneath the central wall, now only partly legible, once held blind niches and reliefs; one survives showing a military procession with prisoners and satyrs. It is among the earliest examples in Rome of the antiquarian taste soon taken up by Filippino Lippi in the Carafa Chapel.