Caravaggio_ A Life Sacred and Profane - Andrew Graham-Dixon [111]
The saga had begun in 1565, when a French cardinal named Mathieu Cointrel (or Matteo Contarelli, as his name was Italianized) had paid a considerable sum to acquire the chapel, where he intended to be buried. Contarelli had already given generously during the construction of San Luigi dei Francesi, footing the bill for its fine marble façade, designed by Giacomo della Porta. But despite his best efforts his own chapel was still all but bare of decoration when he died in 1585.
The cardinal himself had contracted Girolamo Muziano, a competent but unexceptional painter, to paint frescoes on its two lateral walls and decorate its vault. Muziano had prevaricated for years, only to renege on the commission with almost nothing painted. In 1587 the executor of Contarelli’s will, Virgilio Crescenzi, had commissioned a marble altarpiece from a Flemish sculptor, Jacques Cobaert. Crescenzi had also persuaded Giuseppe Cesari to fresco the walls and ceiling. Cesari had completed the frescoes on the vault by 1593, when Caravaggio was part of his studio, but he never got round to the rest because he was deluged by other assignments, including several from the pope himself. Meanwhile the sculptor, Cobaert, was said to be working away, although there was nothing to show for it. Thrilled by the importance of the commission, but paralysed by self-doubt, he toiled for years on what he hoped would be his magnum opus. His contract was renewed in 1596, yet as the end of the sixteenth century approached there was still no sign that he would ever actually deliver the work. Those close to him remarked that Cobaert was becoming ever more paranoid and secretive.
In 1597 the patience of the long-suffering priests had finally snapped. With the Jubilee year of 1600 fast approaching, they had sent a petition to the pope:
Most Blessed Father, the French community of the Church of San Luigi in Rome … humbly represents that the chapel … founded in this church by the late Cardinal … and provided by him with one hundred gold scudi per annum for two chaplains, has been closed for more than twenty-five years and is at present still closed. And if Your Holiness does not bring His authority to bear in the matter, there is a danger that the chapel will never be completed, because Signor Abbate Giacomo Crescenzi, the executor of the will of the above-named Cardinal since the retirement of his father Virgilio Crescenzi … has not finished it and excuses himself on the grounds of difficulties with the sculptor, the painter and other things. Thus the soul of the deceased has been cheated of its masses and the church of San Luigi similarly cheated of the endowment which was destined for the chapel. All of this is a discredit to the divine service and a shame for the community, and it leads people to believe that the neglect is the fault of the community when they see the chapel continually boarded-up and closed while various other churches in Rome are constructed from their foundations up … the heirs and sons of the Crescenzi, accumulating [revenues] year after year and day after day, have bought many and various offices in the Cancelleria, real estate and other things without doing anything which relates to the will of the testator and without even having anniversary services said for the soul of the deceased …1
As a result of this tirade, Clement VIII ordered the Crescenzi to surrender Contarelli’s legacy and entrusted responsibility for the chapel to the governing body of the Fabbrica di San Pietro – the works office of St Peter’s. Giuseppe Cesari was approached again and asked to finish what he had begun, but he pleaded overwork. Del Monte, whose palace was directly opposite the church, followed these developments carefully. Del Monte was friendly with the Crescenzi family. He busied