La fiamma è spenta o è accesa? Simboli "inquietanti" nella cappella Ferrari in Santa Maria in Aquiro a Roma dipinta da Carlo Saraceni

The author discusses the iconography of
the funerary chapel of Orazio Ferrari in the
church of Santa Maria in Aquiro in Rome,
dedicated to the Virgin Annunciate and
decorated by the painter Carlo Saraceni and
other artists and craftsmen between 1613
and 1617. A native of Tortona in Lombardy
(now Piedmont), Ferrari (1548-1639) was a
lawyer active in the circle of the Barberini
family throughout his life. In the light of his
devotions and spiritual and literary interests,
including emblems and devices, as they can
be ascertained from his will and inventory of
books and paintings as well as the inscriptions
present in the chapel, an iconological
interpretation is then proposed of some
details in the two main sidewall stories,
representing the Presentation of Mary in the
Temple and Her Birth respectively; namely,
the hut behind St Anne in the former and the
couple of objects laid on the chair in the right
foreground in the latter. These objects – that
is, a candle and a mirror – are analysed as
a three-level combined symbol of the Immaculate
Conception, of Vanity in general
and of a personal, eschatological projection
of the patron himself, to be intended as a
reminder of the future life promised to the
faithful.