Sumptuous and richly decorated with 16 episodes of the Life of the Virgin by Domenichino, the seventeenth-century Nolfi Chapel, located near the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, is one of the most significant examples of Fano Baroque and preserves within it a unique heritage of paintings, frescoes, decorations and precious marbles.
In the current cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, the main place of worship in the city, the seventeenth-century Nolfi chapel, third on the right of the side nave, stands out for its magnificence. Ceded by Bishop Tommaso Lapi to Guido and Cesare Nolfi. The two patricians from Fano carried out the complete transformation of the chapel in 1604, enriching it with paintings, frescoes and precious marbles and thus making it a precious example of Baroque art.
In 1606, the Nolfi family decided to commission the Ancona painter Andrea Lilli to create the altarpiece representing Paradise and the Assumption. In the same year, the contract for the creation of the altar itself was signed, based on the design of Matteo Castelli from Como. The two theological virtues, Faith and Hope, placed above the tympanum, were sculpted by the Florentine sculptor Francesco Sonzino.
The funerary monuments of the two brothers Cesare and Guido Nolfi, located on the sides of the chapel, were embellished with busts by the sculptor Francesco Caporale. After Cesare's death in 1612, his brother Guido took on the task of completing the work on the chapel. The stucco decoration was subsequently completed between 1616 and 1617 by Pietro Solaro, plasterer, based on a design by the architect Girolamo Rainaldi.
But the most valuable intervention, the one that made the chapel famous, is certainly the splendid frescoed cycle, Life of the Virgin, the work of Domenico Zampieri known as Domenichino.
It was Guido Nolfi himself who involved the famous Bolognese painter having met him in Rome where the Fano jurist held prestigious positions in the papal curia. The artist accepted Nolfi's offer to decorate the family chapel, stipulating a contract in 1617 for the creation of sixteen frescoes representing the Stories of the Virgin in a vaguely Renaissance style. Subsequently carried out between 1618 and 1619, the decoration work on the chapel actually continued even after the death of Guido Nolfi in 1627 with the creation of other allegorical figures and angels.
The decorative complex was significantly damaged in 1749 following a fire that broke out in the choir and due to humidity. In 1762 the paintings were restored but subsequently almost abandoned. The definitive restoration, which took place in recent times, made it possible to return this splendid example of Baroque to its city.
