This wonderfully painted chapel was born out of the dissolution of a vow: in fact the patron, the noble and powerful Battista Suardi, at a time marked by the Protestant Reformation and the raids of mercenary soldiers, testified in this way to his loyalty to the Church of Rome.
So, in 1523, he called the master Lorenzo Lotto and entrusted him with the decoration of the room that served as an oratory, called precisely a chapel, inside his villa in Trescore Balneario at the mouth of Val Cavallina.
If you consider that the ultimate goal of the fresco cycle is the celebration of Christ’s victory over evil, you will understand the meaning of the work of this extraordinary artist.
On the main walls you will see the story of St. Barbara and St. Bridget of Ireland unfold in the stunning frescoes; on the back wall, on the other hand, you will find the narration of the lives of St. Catherine martyr of Alexandria and Magdalene being redeemed.
Saint Barbara was a Roman noblewoman secretly converted to Christianity, of whom Lotto recounts, in a single sequence, her escape from the home of her father who wanted to force her into marriage, and her subsequent trial and martyrdom.
Of St. Bridget, on the other hand, he depicts her vocation and the miracles she performed, in single isolated panes.
Try to find the Gospel phrase “Ego sum Vitis, Vos Palmites” (“I am the Vine, you are the Branches”) painted above the large Christ-Vine figure in the center of the north wall of the Suardi Chapel, superimposed on the story of St. Barbara.
Christ is depicted as a miraculous Vine, from which shoots emerge that are intertwined in medallions with Saints painted on them: the decoration represents opposition to heretics who try to harvest Christ’s vineyard, i.e., the Church, and exaltation of the value of good works performed by the Saints.
Lotto’s frescoes follow a realistic narrative register, with clear, cool colors: you will see the clear, terse, almost transparent light that illuminates the paintings.
As you raise your eyes, you will observe on the ceiling a fake pergola, with a very bright blue background, obtained by using the real wooden beams of the roof.
Curiosity:
if you look carefully, you will discover above the front door the self-portrait of Master Lotto in the guise of a bird hunter carrying an owl and a bundle of twigs on his shoulders.