Overview
In 1411, the powerful Spanish cardinal Pedro Fernandez De Frias, archpriest of the San Pietro Basilica in Rome, initiated the construction of the Chapel of the Holy Annunciation, which was part of an Augustinian complex dating back to the early 13th century, near the heart of the city.
The chapel has a rectangular shape with a large barrel vault and was entirely painted with late Gothic Latium decorations, in keeping with the iconographic style of the Vatican church. The project, which was completed after the cardinal's death, was realised thanks to the contribution of two other Spanish cardinals, Alfonso Carrillo de Albornoz and Juan Cervantes de Llora, and the nobleman Juan de Tovar, whose coats of arms are engraved alongside that of the Crown of Castile, the region of origin of the patrons. Furthermore, the city of Cori commissioned the Privera painter Pietro Coleberti to paint the grandiose Last Judgement on the counter façade, around 1430, and a master craftsman created the majestic figures of the Apostles in the lower register, which have been attributed to a collaborator of the great Florentine painter Masolino da Panicale, Masaccio's companion in Rome and Florence, for their pictorial quality.
