Cappella Portinari

Cappella Portinari stands inside the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio in Milan, as a Lombard Renaissance chapel. Pigello Portinari commissioned it between 1462 and 1468. He managed the Milan branch of the Medici Bank and intended the space as a private tomb and reliquary for Saint Peter Martyr’s relics.

Florentine and Lombard influences meet in the square plan and sixteen-ribbed dome. The design draws inspiration from the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence. At the centre, a lantern still carries the Portinari family crest above cherub friezes and vivid frescoes.

Vincenzo Foppa painted the walls between 1464 and 1468, including The Miracle of the Cloud and The Martyrdom of Saint Peter of Verona. Atmospheric perspective gives these scenes a lifelike, human presence rather than the rigid geometry associated with Tuscan painting. Restorations in the mid and late twentieth century helped preserve the chapel’s original appearance.