MASTERPIECES MALATESTA TEMPLE

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The Masterpieces of the Malatesta Temple

Entering the Malatesta Temple, one can immediately admire, on the right, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta’s sepulchre, composed of a basement on which stands a rectangular tomb. The basement is adorned with a relief representing a festoon and two family coats of arms. Immediately on the right there is the Chapel of St Sigismundus. The statue on the altar is a valuable work of art by Agostino di Duccio, who also carved on the side walls of the Chapel the angels who sustain a curtain which frames, on the left, the precious fresco by Piero della Francesca. The splendid Cell of the Relics is between the first and the second chapels. The portal is adorned with the four Apostles symbolising the New Testament and with a fine relief by Agostino di Duccio depicting two angels riding dolphins.  In the Cell of the Relics used to hang the splendid fresco, now placed on the altar of the last chapel on the right, which depicts Sigismondo Malatesta Kneeling before St Sigismundus, a famous masterpiece dated 1451 and signed by Piero della Francesca. The marble slabs of the pillars, masterpieces by Agostino di Duccio, also author of the Tomb of Isotta, are splendid praise of the Chapel of Isotta. Walking on, one arrives to the Chapel of St Jerome, also known as the Chapel of the Planets, because of the splendid marble slabs by Agostino di Duccio depicting the zodiac. On the left, next to the entrance of the Malatesta Temple, in front of the Chapel of St Sigismundus, is located the Chapel of the Martyrs, also called Chapel of the Madonna dell’Acqua, because of a statue of the Virgin dating back to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, possibly work of the anonymous “Maestro di Rimini”. Worth mentioning is the Tomb of the Forefathers, which is in a niche in the left-hand wall of the chapel. The Tomb of the Forefathers dated about 1454 and carved from Greek marble, offers on the frontal side three partitions. In the central partition is the dedicatory inscription to the Forefathers. In the two lateral partitions, Agostino di Duccio carved the Temple of Minerva on the left, and The Triumph on the right. Walking on one can admire the Chapel of the Fallen, which is in front of the Cell of the Relics. On the portal are represented four personalities of the Bible, who symbolize the Old Testament and are specular to the Apostles of the Cell of the Relics. Next there is the Chapel of the Guardian Angel, also known as Chapel of the Childish Games, because of the marvellous marble slabs representing lively putti engrossed in their games, superb masterpiece by  Agostino di Duccio. At the end, one can also admire the splendid marble slabs, carved in 1456 by Agostino di Duccio, representing the liberal arts, which are preserved in the Chapel originally dedicated to Saints Gaudentius or Augustine, and now called Chapel of the Liberal Arts. Very interesting is also the spectacular canvas representing St Francis Receiving the Stigmata, painted by Giorgio Vasari in 1548, which was in the past above the High Altar, and at the present hangs in the last chapel on the left.