Chapel of the Crucifix

The Chapel of the Crucifix has the same architecture as the other two previous apses. The building was supervised since 1653 by Carlo Buzzi, engineer of the Duomo of Milan. The place was got ready by demolishing part of the Pretorio, the Palace of the Podestà.

On the altar the precious Renaissance wooden group of the Crucifixion by Giovan Angelo Del Maino is placed .

The apsidal conch is overlooked by the baroque group or the Risen Christ and angels by the stucco-worker Agostino Silva from Morbio

The grandiose marble altarpiece was begun in 1781 by the architect Antonio Donegana acconding to Count Giambattista Giovio. .

The two angels with the thuribles that stand between the columns are an attempt to imitate the airy composition of the altar of the Blessed Virgin and as out of that, in the presbitery space, there are two grandiose statue of king-prophets, so here too two external statues of the prophets Elia and Isaia were set up, though of weak appearance: they should be the work of Raimondo Ferrabosco (around 1636).

In the niches of the apse there are four statues: on the left the holy apostles Peter and Paul by unidentified authors (17th century); on the right the 16th century and classical statues of St. Agnes and St. Sebastian. St. Sebastian, long attributed to Cristoforo Solari is instead a documented work of one of the masters of the Fabbrica del Duomo, Matteo from Annone (1522), it has been recently discovered; the St. Agnese statue (around 1520-1530) is hypothetically attributed to Gaspare from Annone, father of Matteo, and probably head of the workshop.

The two painted stained glass window are from the 20th century: on the right the Oration of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (1900), an excellent work by the landscape painter Filippo Carcano from Milano, offered by Giuseppina Camozzi Baragiola; on the left the Pietà, inspired by the group of Michelangelo in San Pietro, produced by the Milanese Corvaya e Bazzi (before 1914).

Above the tabernacle the silver cross-shaped reliquary closed by crystals designed by the architect Federico Frigerio was placed in 1939 by the Bishop Alessandro Macchi: it preserves a relic from the wood of the Holy Cross which come from the demolished church of St. Nazaro in Como (formerly the Cortesella neighbourhood) since 1083 placed there by the Bishop Bertramo from Brossano.

In 1666-68 the stucco group of the Risen Christ was moulded inside the apsidal conch.

The plasterer is Agostino Silva from Morbio (Ticino CH), son of Francesco, who had created the Assumption in the opposite chapel. The magnificent group composed of angels accompanying Jesus to heaven has in its center the figure of the Risen Christ who stands out in a mandorla, a medieval motif painted in the apsidal conch with the Christ Almighty.

Here the mandorla is partially recognizable because it is interpreted in a Baroque sense with the fluttering shroud and golden rays whirling around the glorified body of Jesus.

The balustrade was made of black marble like that of the altar of the Blessed Virgin under direction of architect Quadrio (1672).