Cappella Piccolomini, Renaissance chapel in Sant'Anna dei Lombardi complex, Naples, Italy

Cappella Piccolomini is a small chapel within the Sant'Anna dei Lombardi complex, featuring walls of refined marble and sculptures that appear remarkably lifelike. A marble coffin holding Maria d'Aragona sits at its center, surrounded by detailed reliefs carved using a technique that creates the illusion of depth.

Antonio Piccolomini commissioned the chapel after the death of his wife Maria d'Aragona, daughter of King Ferdinand I of Naples; it was built between 1475 and 1490. The Strozzi bank, which had a branch in Naples, handled payments to the sculptors Antonio Rossellino and Benedetto da Maiano. Rossellino began the tomb around 1475, and Benedetto completed it after his death. The design reworks the Cardinal of Portugal's chapel in San Miniato al Monte, Florence.

The chapel's name comes from Antonio Piccolomini, who commissioned it and died in 1493; his wife Maria d'Aragona, daughter of Ferdinand I of Naples, is buried here. On the right wall, a marble bench sits beneath an arch with 15th-century frescoes of the Annunciation above it. The upper parts of the lunettes were later painted by local artists.

The chapel opens off the nave of Sant'Anna dei Lombardi through a large coffered arch, with two Piccolomini coats of arms at the upper corners inside. Light comes from wide oculi and windows, so the marble inlays and the floor intarsia are easiest to read in daylight. Look for the tomb on the left wall, the altar on the front wall and the marble seat with the Annunciation frescoes on the right.

On the right wall, under an arch, stands a marble seat topped by 15th-century frescoes of the Annunciation. The Piccolomini chapel departs from its Florentine model, the Cardinal of Portugal chapel in San Miniato al Monte, through a denser use of ornament that matched the taste of the Aragonese court.