Interior view

Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417-1468) decided to renovate the old church of San Francesco (Tempio Malatestiano) in Rimini, the traditional burial place of the Malatesta lords. He contracted Leon Battista Alberti for the design but entrusted the supervision of the construction to the builder and artist Matteo de’ Pasti. Alberti’s solution was to wrap the entire existing Gothic church in a marble classical skin, articulated with arches.

The interior of the church was designed by Agostino di Duccio, who from 1449 to 1456 was in Rimini, employed by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta for the decoration. There Agostino supervised a large group of sculptors working on the most richly sculptured Renaissance building in Italy. He was probably personally responsible for all the major figural carving in the six chapels that were built in the church.

Whereas Alberti had concealed the Gothic elements of the pre-existing church with a classical skin, Agostino, like most of his contemporaries, preferred to apply classical vocabulary over and around Gothic structure, retaining pointed arches and framing double tiers of Gothic window tracery with classical rinceaux. Agostino’s manner is lavish, enhanced by polychromy and the recurrent appearance of coats of arms, chivalric helmets, and such exotic motifs as elephants, the Malatesta family emblem.

The six chapels are:

1. Cappella di San Sigismondo (or Cappella delle Virtù), first chapel on the right, decorated by Virtues.

2. Cappella dei Martiri (Cappella dei Antenati), first chapel on the left, dedicated to the Martyrs and bearing figures of Prophets and Sibyls.

3. Cappella di San Michele Arcangelo (or Cappella di Isotta), second chapel on the right, decorated with with music-making cherubs.

4. Cappella San Gaudenzio (or Cappella dei Giochi Infantili), second chapel on the left, decorated with playing children.

5. Cappella dei Pianeti (or Cappella dello Zodiaco), third chapel on the right, with the Signs of the Zodiac, alluding to the perfection of the heavens.

6. Cappella di Dan Giuseppe (or Cappella delle Muse and delle Arti Liberali), third chapel on the left, featuring the Liberal Arts, referring to the earthly realm.

View the ground plan of the church.