Agnello mistico
Agnello mistico
Compianto
Compianto
Il Cristo Risorto
Il Cristo Risorto
Busto del beato Pio IX
Busto del beato Pio IX
Tomba del Cigalini
Tomba del Cigalini
Stendardo Sant'Abbondio del Morazzone
Stendardo Sant'Abbondio del Morazzone
Milano de Fondulis San Satiro
Milano de Fondulis San Satiro
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In the keystone the Mystical Lamb , emblem of Christ’s sacrifice and iconographic attribute of St. John the Baptist to whom the chapel is dedicated together with St. Nicholas. In 1498 the dean of the Cathedral Battista Bossi commissioned to Tommaso Rodari the group of the Mourners painted and sculpted in sandstone , as it is written in the inscription of the predella.
The group in the niche is arranged inside an architectural Musso marble frame which resumes the architectural lines of a famous Renaissance building: the Florentine façade of Santa Maria Novella by Leon Battista Alberti.
The relief in the panel of the cymatium presents two soldiers at the Sepulchre of the risen Christ whose image is missing: it should be at the top between two angels. Probably the statue (now in the Museum) was removed when the wall damaged by dampness.
It was restored and it was placed over the lavabo in the Mansionari Sacresty .
On the wall there are two sculptures: on the left the Bust of Pope Pio IX, work of neo-Gothic inspiration by Giuseppe Bayer (1885) ; on the right the funeral monument dedicated to the physician Zanino Cigalini, son of Francesco, work of 1562 : he died sat the age of 34. In spite of his long beard his features are youthful. The bust rises among piles of books, above the sarcophagus which is framed inside a triumphal arch according to the humanistic style. The dedication below by his brothers Marco and Paolo, respectively a lawyer and a physician, honors the great culture of the dead physician.
The banner by Morazzone (1608?-1609) , partly embroidered, partly painted with oil colours, depicts on one side the patron saint Abbondio, with episodes of his life in the medallions, on the other side angels worshipping Eucharist and relative themes in the medallions, because it was commissioned by the confraternity named Compagnia del Ss. Sacramento.
The chapel of St. John the Baptist was erected in accordance with the will of bishop Francesco Bossi (1420-1434) and belonged to his family ownership.
The group on the altar sculpted by Rodari is like other Lombard laments which are instead wooden or backed clay and reveals suggestions both from that by Agostino de Fondulis of St. Satiro in Milan and from Bramante .
In 1839, during the restoration of the plaster of the overlooking wall for the painting of vaults and walls, a tomb was found in the wall: a human skeleton, still with hair, beard and red clothes was buried there. The red colour suggests a canon of the Cathedral
That body was closed again in the northern wall, not far from the zone where the statue of the Risen Christ was placed. That statue was then removed from the top of the altar-piece, placed in the Mansionari sacristy and now in the Museum.
In the dedication of the bust of Pope Pio IX by Bishop Pietro Carsana with his clergy and his people “insubre et helvetio”, this specification about Swiss people seems a claim of the part of the Ticino diocese separated from that of Como in 1871, just before the entrance of the new bishop.