A Catalan Patron at the Monastery of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco: Lluís de Prades and the Chapel of the Angels

Abstract

The Chapel of the Angels at the monastery of Santa Scolastica in Subiaco is an important artistic legacy, both for the presence of a pictorial cycle dedicated to the angels – a rare iconographic subject in the context of the period – and for the nature of its location, in a cave at the base of the monastic complex. The importance of the chapel is further enhanced by the figure of its patron, the bishop of Mallorca Llu s de Prades, who took refuge in Subiaco in the third decade of the fifteenth century, after abandoning the Avignonese faction of the Great Schism, and who was buried here after his death in Rome in 1429. Recent studies have already provided significant insight into links between the chapel and the Aragonese context of the time; this analysis of the historical figure of the prelate and his cultural background throws light on the nature of the site and the meaning of its decorations. The article analyses the life of the bishop in Spain and Italy, using documents found recently in the monastic archive of Subiaco, and his network of political and cultural relationships. It then analyses the architecture of the chapel and its paintings, from both a formal and iconographic point of view, and offers some hypotheses on the meaning of the cycle in relation to the themes that marked Llu s de Prades’ life and worship.