LUKE SYSON: More than 25 different types of wood where used to create the elaborate effects in this room. Crafted in Italy in the late 1540s, this was a private chapel for Claude d’Urfé.

WOLFRAM KOEPPE: And he was the Ambassador to the Council of Trent and ordered this wainscoting in Bologna and had it shipped to his castle, which was near Lyon in France.

LUKE SYSON: Curator Wolfram Koeppe:

WOLFRAM KOEPPE: A focal point of the chapel is the depiction above the altarpiece, which was made by Fra Damiano of Bergamo. And it shows the Last Supper, and certainly it was done on the very special order of the patron, who wanted to have everything executed in wood. The side room most likely was a sanctuary where you could withdraw for private prayers.

LUKE SYSON: The pictorial panels include architectural and landscape views, still lifes, and decorative panels which imitate the veins of stone.

WOLFRAM KOEPPE: This kind of trompe l'oeil, which is to imitate the nature, and the perspective which would take you far away, was a special fascination of the Renaissance period. In this case, it's paired with the lower part of the wainscoting, which shows three-dimensional panels with heads of angels. The chapel …was sold to America, and then used by the very famous architect Stanford White in one of his New York interiors, because the wainscoting was moved several times, the surface was also refinished. And what we see today is a kind of unified color.

LUKE SYSON: In the side wall of the chapel, you’ll see an archway. Beneath it, there’s a reproduction of a print that shows the room’s original arrangement.