Altar frontal

Metals are to be found all over the architectural surface of the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, underlining and sometimes even highlighting the details that form it. The shine of the gold that covers these metal elements lends brilliance to the bases, shafts and capitals of the columns and pilasters, affording greater relevance to the friezes, archivolts and arches, with their profuse decoration enlivening the intercolumniations and other breathing spaces in the surface of the walls. Although they belonged to different professional classes, various men worked on the chapel’s metal decoration. Born into a family of prominent 18th century Roman goldsmiths, Antonio Arrighi was one of the artists who worked the most not only for the Chapel of St. John the Baptist but for Portugal in general, during the reign of John V. He was involved in the metalwork, being responsible for the decoration of the whole of the altar table – frontal, sides and predella – which displays the technical quality that typified most of his work, whether or not he was working with precious metals. The predella is particularly interesting due to the dynamism transmitted to the flowers and the angels’ heads, brightly shining against a red background and affording a sense of animation to the piece that the mouldings cannot contain.