Cappella dei Papi in Santa Maria Novella in Florence, chapel in the Santa Maria Novella convent, Florence, Italy

The Cappella dei Papi inside the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella is a small chapel with painted vault and wall decorations. The ceiling displays nine sections arranged in geometric frames, while monochrome patterns and colorful ornaments adorn the walls and vault surfaces.

Built in 1515 for the November visit of Pope Leo X, Giovanni de' Medici, when Florence prepared sumptuous celebrations and the pope heard mass here. The decoration was first entrusted to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, who completed only the north wall with the Coronation of the Virgin; the young Pontormo then painted the vault and south wall, assisted by Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini for the grotesques. In 1892 the frescoes were cleaned, freeing them from an armature erected to stop plaster falling.

The chapel's decoration mixes two hands: Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio painted the north wall's Coronation of the Virgin, while the young Pontormo, helped by Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini for the grotesques, did the vault and south wall. The Medici dedication appears in the four corner panels with the family coat of arms and in the grotesques, which carry the personal emblems of Lorenzo the Magnificent and Leo X.

The chapel is on the first floor of the Chiostro Grande, now inside the Carabinieri officers' school, a military zone not open to the public. Visits require a written request to the Ufficio musei of Florence's Assessorato alla Cultura, then authorisation from the Reparto comando della Caserma, and must fit around military and training activities.

The four corner panels of the vault, putti with the Medici coat of arms, are certainly by Pontormo; the grotesques around them were painted by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio and his pupil Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini. The grotesques also carry the personal emblems of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the pope's father: a ring with a diamond and three feathers, white, green and red, for the three theological virtues.