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Sui muri della navata centrale, al di sopra della trabeazione, sono visibili riquadri a mosaico risalenti al V secolo, importante testimonianza artistica dell’epoca del basso Impero. Il soffitto risale al tempo di Alessandro VI Borgia (1492-1503) e, secondo la tradizione, venne dorato col primo carico di oro americano, dono di Isabella di Spagna.
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(votive chapel) is partly due to Arnolfo di Cambio. On the floor outside the chapel a simple marble slab closes the tomb of the Bernini family, where Gian Lorenzo was also buried. Symmetrical with the Sistine Chapel and just as sumptuous, the Pauline Chapel opens on the left nave. It was designed for Paul the Fifth Borghese (1605-1621) by Flaminio Ponzio. In comparison with the Sistine Chapel, the Pauline Chapel presents a higher quality of pictorial decoration that was in part painted by Cavalier d’Arpino and Guido Reni. The sacristy of the chapel can be accessed from the right of the altar. The sacristy leads to another chamber, where a Madonna with Child by Beccafumi and a Slope to the Calvary by Antonio Bazzi called the Sodoma are kept. Members of the Borghese family are buried in the cellars of the Pauline Chapel, including Pauline Bonapart, sister of Napoleon the First. Proceeding down the left nave there is the spectacular Sforza Chapel with an elliptical plan designed by Michelangelo and built by Tiberio Calcagni and Giacomo della Porta between 1564 and 1573.
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