Santa Maria del Popolo
The architect or architects of this innovative project remain unknown due to a lack of contemporary sources. Giorgio Vasari in his "Lives" attributed all the important papal projects in Rome during Sixtus IV to a Florentine, Baccio Pontelli including the basilica and monastery of Santa Maria del Popolo. Modern researchers deemed this claim highly dubious and proposed other names among them Andrea Bregno, a Lombard sculptor and architect whose workshop certainly received important commissions in the basilica. The fundamental differences between the façade and the interior suggest that maybe more than one architect was working on the building.
Cybo-Soderini Chapel (Santa Maria del Popolo)
The chapel was first mentioned in a contemporary document in 1530 as "capella Crucifixi" when the concession was renewed for Teodorina's son, Giambattista Usodimare (Cybo), the Bishop of Mariana. The bishop made an endowment of 30 gold scudi for the maintenance of the chapel instead of the house in the Borgo which had been destroyed during the Sack of Rome in 1527. In his will, dated to 1 December 1531 the bishop expressed his wish to be buried in the chapel and left the task to his heirs to erect a decent monument. At the time the chapel contained the burials of Teodorina and her husband. The bishop also donated valuable velvet and satin hangings. In 1555 the heirs, Cesare Cybo, the archbishop of Turin and Francesco Cybo renewed the endowment of the house in the Borgo which had been restored. The altar was consecrated on 18 October 1595.