4. Chapel of St. John the Baptist
Video guide
4. Chapel of
St. John the Baptist
The Chapel of St. John the Baptist is one of the most spectacular and outstanding chapels in the church. Under the patronage of the Sesse family, this chapel not only housed the family pantheon, but also served as a baptistery. The work was promoted by María Ángela Sesse, who died in 1690. The Sesse family was one of the most notable families in Calatayud, and María Ángela was one of the great benefactors and promoters of the conversion of the collegiate church into a cathedral. This impressive chapel was built at their expense.
The space is one of the most interesting in the collegiate church, both for its stylistic and iconographic coherence and for the quality of the works preserved. From the tiled wainscoting to the stuccoes of the dome on pendentives, which depict plant themes, to the altarpiece and the large canvases that tell the story of Saint John the Baptist, every detail reflects a high artistic level.
Access to the chapel is through a semicircular arched doorway, made in stucco on a base of alabaster from Fuentes de Jiloca and black stone from Calatorao. The doorway is flanked by two pilasters and has an entablature with a high overhanging entablature and a double split pediment with prominent scrolls and an attic. The inner box of the attic contains a relief of the infant Saint John the Baptist. The ensemble is completed with allegories of the virtues: Faith, carrying a chalice, and Hope, with the anchor, flank the door, while on the turrets above the curved pediments are Justice, with the sword, and Fortitude, with the column.
The chapel is presided over by an altarpiece whose masonry was made by the Bilbilitano Bernabé de Jauregui. On the bench, in relief, the four evangelists are represented on the pedestals that support the Solomonic columns, and in the centre, two canvases with the Annunciation to Zechariah and the Birth of St. John the Baptist. The central body, forming a single street flanked by two pairs of Solomonic columns with the shaft covered with leaves and bunches of grapes, is occupied by an oil on canvas with the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, very close to the style of Claudio Coello. Above the frieze, with abundant corbels decorated with plant motifs, the attic has a painting of the Baptism of Christ, a copy of a work by Carreño de Miranda.
On the sides of the chapel are two large canvases with narrative scenes from the life of the Baptist: the preaching and the banquet of Herod, the latter a copy of a work by Rubens. Some authors have suggested that the Zaragozan painter Pedro Aibar Jiménez was involved in these works.
The chapel’s baptismal font was enlarged in the 20th century, although some parts of the original 17th-century font were preserved, such as the cherub heads in the corners.
