Seen as the initiation of this change in Portugal, the Chapel of Our Lady of Piety influenced the decoration and composition of several other important chapels elsewhere in the country. This chapel (Capela de São João Baptista) was commissioned in 1740 by King John V. Upon completion, it was said to be the most expensive chapel in Europe, funded with the gold and other wealth that flowed to Portugal from Brazil. The designs and material were assembled under the direction of the architects Luigi Vanvitelli (1700–1773) and Niccolo Salvi (1697–1751). Vanvitelli modified his original design according to drawings sent to Italy by architect João Frederico Ludovice (1673–1752). Hundreds of different artists and craftsmen worked on its construction. It was assembled in the Church of St. Anthony of the Portuguese (Sant'Antonio dei Portoghesi) in Rome beginning in 1742. Consecrated by Pope Benedict XIV on 15 December 1744, it was sufficiently finished that the pontiff could say Mass in it on 6 May 1747. In September of that year, Manuel Pereira de Sampaio, Portuguese ambassador to the Holy See, saw to the dismantling of the chapel and its transport by three ships to Lisbon, where it was reassembled in São Roque in what was formerly the 17th-century Chapel of the Holy Ghost. Reassembly was overseen by Francesco Feliziani and Paolo Niccoli (or Riccoli), along with the Italian sculptor Alessandro Giusti (1715–1799). The assembly of the mosaic panels depicting the "Baptism of Christ" and "Pentecost" were not completed until August 1752, two years after the death of John V. The chapel introduced the then new rocaille or rococo style into Portugal. The decorative elements of rocaille inspiration — festoons, garlands, angels — combined with the classical austerity of the structural composition formed the basis of an evolving taste that would decide the future trends of Portuguese gilt woodwork. The use of columns with straight channelled shafts with gilt fillets on a lapis lazuli background, the austerity of geometric lines reinforced by the use of precious marbles and mosaics, and the rocaille decoration illustrate the combination of innovations introduced by this chapel into the Portuguese decorative tradition. The side panels — "Annunciation" and "Pentecost" — and the central panel — "The Baptism of Christ" — as well as the floor (displaying an armillary sphere), are mosaics, remarkable for their nuances and for their sense of perspective.