The paintings highlight the principal feasts of the liturgical year. The birth of Jesus is illustrated in a canvas in the fourth chapel on the right of the entrance, painted in 1635 by the Sienese artist
Rutilio Manetti, who was influenced by Caravaggio. The light, concentrated on the figure of Baby Jesus, emphasizes this event: Christ was born to bring peace to mankind, as announced by the words held by the angels. On the left, Saint Jerome appears in his red robes in reference to the name of the donor, Monsignor Girolamo Cervoni.
The next feast day after the Nativity is Epiphany, “manifestation”. The Lord makes himself known to the people of all the earth, represented by the Magi who, after traveling from far away led by a star, the sign of the coming of the Messiah, visit Jesus and offer him rich gifts. This episode, in the center of the second chapel on the right, was painted in 1673 by the baroque artist
Vincenzo Dandini, on a commission from the Colle nobleman Leonardo Albertani.
The Christ Child opens his arms to the three kings: Melchior, the eldest, offers incense, symbol of Jesus’ divine nature; Gaspar holds out a box of gold, symbol of the temporal power of Christ, king of the Jews; finally Balthazar, dark-skinned and wearing a turban, brings myrrh, the ointment used for embalming, the symbol of his mortal nature. The paintings on the sides, by the Sienese painter
Deifebo Burbarini, present two events that are celebrated on the Sundays right after Epiphany, the Baptism of Christ and the Wedding Feast at Cana, where Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine.
The infancy of Christ concludes in the side paintings of the first chapel entering on the left, which show, on one side, Joseph warned by an angel in a dream of the imminent slaughter of male children ordered by King Herod, and on the other the Flight into Egypt. The works were commissioned between 1690 and 1712 by the Colle nobleman Ottavio Dini to the painters
Paolo de Matteis and
Giovanni Odazzi, who also painted the central canvas showing the Wedding of the Virgin Mary.