Frescoes in the Cappella dei Santi Fondatori, Abbazia di Santa Maria, Grottaferrata (1609-12)

The Exarchic Monastery of Santa Maria in Grottaferrata, also known as the Greek Abbey of Saint Nilus, was founded in 1004 by a group of monks from Calabria led by St Nilus of Rossano, a charismatic leader and a very important figure of his time. When St Nilus, the monks' spiritual father, died shortly after founding the Abbey, St Bartholomew the Younger, his favourite disciple and cofounder of the monastery, assumed their leadership. Today, Grottaferrata is the last of the many Byzantine-Greek monasteries that dotted Sicily, southern Italy and Rome itself in the Middle Ages. It is also unique in that, having been founded fifty years before the Great Schism that divided Catholics and Orthodox, it remained in communion with the Church of Rome while preserving the Byzantine rite and monastic tradition of its founders.

Preceding the modernization in the style of the Roman Baroque, a chapel, connected to the church and consecrated by the abbey's two founders, had been remodeled between 1608 and 1610. The redesign was funded by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese who commissioned Domenichino to decorate the chapel. The commission was completed in 1612.

Domenichino was responsible for the design of painted architecture which structures the simple space of the chapel primarily by painterly means. The elegant row of columns between the chapel and the chancel creates a caesura in terms of subject matter. The paintings in the spandrels flanking the choir arch depict the Annunciation. Between the columns one can see into the chancel, the centre of which is topped by a small oval cupola. The four evangelists are depicted in the cupola pendentives, and above them in oval panels appear three early Christian female martyrs (Sts Agnes, Cecilia, and Francesca Romana). In the cupola's centre panel God the Father appears enthroned on clouds and flanked by angels.

By contrast to the scenes related to the Salvation, the narrative paintings on the long walls of the main space are devoted to the two founders of the abbey; because of their size and viewing angles they are the chief attractions of the ensemble. The long walls are divided into two stories, each divided by a door into two rectangular spaces of different width. The events from the lives of the two founders are presented in a total of seven scenes. The scenes selected from various sources meant to illustrate the joint activities of the two founding saints. Three scenes are in the chancel, and four on the long walls of the main room.

In the painted niches at the attic level stand eight monumental figures wearing Byzantine vestments and identified by Greek inscriptions. They are bare-headed and wear halos. Closest to the chancel are Sts Basil, John Chrysostom, and Gregory of Nazianzus, venerated as hierarchs in Eastern Church. Secondary to them are the doctors of the church Cyril of Alexandria and John of Damascus, as well as the church fathers Athanasius the Great and Gregory of Nyssa. The eighth figure is St Nicolas of Myra.