Church of San Bernardino: Interior, Pellegrini Chapel with niche tabernacles

The altarpiece, from 1579 (Madonna with Child and St. Anne) is by Bernardino India, while the lunette has an Eternal Father by Pasquale Ottino.\u000a\u000aThe first important public architectural project under the Venetians (doge Francesco Foscari) was the construction (1452-1466) of S Bernardino, still on Gothic lines but with some Renaissance decorative elements. One of Sanmicheli's most sophisticated and admired buildings is the Pellegrini Chapel (ca. 1527), attached to the church of S Bernardino. Approached from a short vestibule, the tall chapel is of circular plan, with a dome concealed externally by a drum in the North Italian manner. The interior was inspired by that of the Pantheon, having a radial plan with large recesses on the main axes and tabernacled niches between them. The upper storey has a balcony, perhaps intended for a choir. Richly embellished with exquisite carving, the execution, as Vasari observed, appears to defy the immense technical difficulty of adapting so complex a design to a curving wall surface and realizing it in stonework. The church is part of a Franciscan monastery.