The two small skeletons on the rear wall holding a winged skull, are members of the Barberini family. In the middle of the ceiling inside a mandorla, the symbol of the nascent life. The slender skeleton, known as the Barberini princess, holding a scythe, symbol of death that cuts us all down like grass. The scale on the left is an allusion to judgement day, when God will weigh our good and bad deeds. The ceiling of the hallway is richly decorated with small five-pointed stars arranged around one large eight-pointed star, with a hanging chandelier. The section over the doorway presents recurrent floral motifs with ribs and vertebrae. The clock with a single sphere indicates the continuity of life; sister death opens this reality to us.
Photos: Füsun Kavrakoğlu, Rome, 2026.
On the side walls two Capuchins rest under an arcosolium (comes from the Latin words arcus (arch) and solium (throne, seat, or sarcophagus)). The back wall hints at three niches with Capuchins bowing forward: the two on the sides under an inverted arch; the one in the center under a large canopy of pelvises, from which hangs a frieze of vertebrae. The decorations end on the sides with hanging crosses that carry the spear and sponge on top of an auction: they are the tools of the Passion of Christ: a devotion to the Franciscans.
The only chapel without visible bones, serves to celebrate Mass for the dead.
Source
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