Monuments in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo
The long time gap is explained by the fact that the cardinal was buried in the Old St. Peter's Basilica together with his uncle and benefactor, Cardinal Antonio Pallavicini Gentili (Antoniotto). In 1596 their bodies were relocated to the cemetery Santa Maria del Popolo where Antoniotto's monument was set up and later transferred to the Montemirabile Chapel. Philipp Zitzlsperger calls this a particularly instructive example of the separation of the body and the tomb which increasingly came to be the norm in Rome from the second half of the 16th century because the location of the cardinal's corpse has not been established but the transferral of the remains was reason enough to the relatives to erect a cenotaph in the church itself.
Santa Maria del Popolo
The name of Santa Maria del Popolo is missing in the catalogue of the churches of Rome which was written by Cencio Camerario in 1192. Later tradition held that the miraculous image of Our Lady, painted by St. Luke himself, was moved to the church by Pope Gregory IX from the Sancta Sanctorum in the Lateran. This happened after a flood of the Tiber – probably the great flood in 1230 – caused a horrible plague in the city. The pope convoked the cardinals, the whole clergy and the people of Rome and the icon was transferred in a solemn procession to Santa Maria del Popolo. After that the plague ceased and the tranquility of the city was restored. The "Madonna del Popolo" has certainly remained one of the most popular Marian icons through the centuries, attracted many pilgrims and assured a greater role to the geographically still remote church.