In the church of Madonna del Prato, inspired by the Roman San Carlino alle Quattro

Fountains by Borromini, Francesco Allegrini was the author, with his own workshop and the young Frenchman Louis Dorigny, of all the existing pictorial work inside except for the venerated painting of the high altar and the two small side chapels. Allegrini’s frescoes depict the Assumption of the Virgin (apse), the Glory of Paradise (dome); Faith (first right oval of the dome); Charity (second left oval of the dome), the Martyrdom of St. Stephen (left lunette), and the oil on canvas with the same subject placed below, in the altar of the Galeotti della Zecca family, for whom the painter had already painted a Saint Charles Borromeo and a Saint Rose of Lima. In this magnificent cycle, Francesco gives thanks to the skillful use of intense colors and the effect of light on the bodies, the illusion of a greater curvature of the vault. This is his last great work, and with the frescoes of the Assumption and the Glory of Paradise, the painter becomes “the principal executor of Bishop Sperelli’s iconographic project for the church of the Madonna del Prato.” Following damage in the 2016 earthquake, the frescoes were restored in the most damaged parts. A new lighting system now allows their beauty to be fully enjoyed.