5. The chapel of the Langue of Italy
The chapel of the Langue of Italy was dedicated to the Immaculate Conception and St Catherine of Alexandria, the patron saint of the Italian Knights. The chapel is true to the Baroque concept of one aesthetic expression where architecture, sculpture and painting are conceived as a whole. The decoration of the chapel was made at the personal expense of Fra Francesco Sylos who was ambassador to the Viceroy of Sicily and commander of Palermo and Agrigento. On a pale blue background the walls were decorated with a splendid arrangement in low relief with magisterial coronets and imperial crowns alternately placed with the eight-pointed cross of the Order, double-headed eagle as a symbol of the Holy Roman Empire and the monogram RC. The pilasters were carved with exquisite acanthus leaves as a reference to the grandeur of classical antiquity and garlands of fruit as symbols of the munificence of the reign of Grand Master Raphael Cotoner. The moulding of the cornice was decorated with scallops and crosses, symbols from the coat-of-arms of Fra Francesco Sylos whilst the frieze running above bears the inscription stating the donation of this knight. The altar and reredos were constructed in 1733 and designed by Romano Carapecchia (1666-1738). The relics of St Euphemia of Calcedonia are kept in this altar. The statues of St Catherine and St Alexandria stand on large scrolled corbels to either side of the altar.
The altar painting depicts ‘The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine’ and is the work of Mattia Preti executed in circa 1670. The paintings in the lunettes depict ‘St Catherine disputing with the Philosophers’ and ‘The Martyrdom of St Catherine.’ They are by an anonymous hand and belong to the 17th century. The paintings of The Penitent Magdalene, anonymous, and St Jerome by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, originally formed part of the collection of Fra Ippolito Malaspina, an important and powerful member of the Order, and were donated to St John’s after his death in 1624. The original painting of St Jerome is today kept in the oratory.