Chapel Handbag

This cross-stitched handbag represents spaces found inside the Master Hall of the Chigi Palace, an area remaining from the original 16th-century construction. The Hall features a grand fireplace made of “peperino” stone ornamented with imagery and heraldic symbols of the Savelli family, attributed to Girolamo de Rossi (circa 1596-98). Today, this principal room is used for concerts, meetings, and conferences.

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The upper walls showcase large canvases by Giuseppe Cesari, known as “Cavalier d’Arpino,”; these paintings of angels were done as preparatory work for the mosaics of angels of the dome in St. Peter's Basilica. The chapel within the Master Hall, however, houses the true treasure of this collection: Bernini's renowned sanguine, St. Joseph and the Child (1663).

This hand-stitched handbag is stitched to a silver frame (c. 1931), and features imagery reflective of the fireplace in the Master Hall. When opened, the handbag reveals not a functional interior, but an image of St. Joseph and the Child, the artwork painted by Bernini on the chapel wall in 1633.