 Introduction
The chapel houses three idiosyncratic sculptures. These statues are emblematic of the excesses of artifice in late-Baroque. The Veiled Truth (also called Modesty or Chastity) was completed by Antonio Corradini in 1750 as a tomb monument dedicated to Cecilia Gaetani dell'Aquila d'Aragona, mother of Raimondo. A Christ Veiled under a Shroud (also called Veiled Christ), shows the influence of the veiled Modesty, and was completed in 1753 by Giuseppe Sanmartino (1720-1793). The Release from Deception by Francesco Queirolo of Genoa serves as a monument at Raimondo's father.
Location
History
This princely intellectual, mad scientist and inventor was accused of just about everything then considered base: atheism, alchemy, and Freemasonry. The last two are likely: he seems to have been a Grand Master of the Freemasons, and his claim to be able to reproduce the miracle of San Gennaro's blood got him kicked out of the Fraternity of the Treasure of San Gennaro. He left a personal touch in the basement, down the stairs to the right, where two glass cases house a pair of “anatomical machines”, which are astonishing even if fake. Purporting to be an encyclopedic reconstruction of the blood vessels of an adult male and a pregnant female, they are supposedly based on two of the prince's servants, who fell victim to his curiosity when he injected them while still alive with what is conjectured to be a mercury solution that hardened their arteries.
Statues
At the center is Giuseppe Sammartino's remarkable alabaster Veiled Christ (1753), one the most successful and convincing illusions of soft reality crafted from hard stone, depicting the dead Christ lying on pillows under a transparent veil. The artist was only 33 years old when he sculpted this famous work, which was originally meant to be placed in the crypt. It was too good to leave down below with those things; the audacious virtuosity of the clinging drapery showing the wounds underneath is one of the marvels of Neapolitan sculpture.
A taste for the outre and extravagant had already been demonstrated by other statues in the chapel, especially Francesco Quierolo's Disillusion, to the right of the altar, with its chisel-defying net making a spectacular transition to empty space. This Genovese sculptor also did the female statue representing Sincerity on the right and the commemorative Altar to St. Odorisio between the two Allegories. Antonio Corradini, who came to Naples from the Veneto region via Rome, is responsible for the allegorical statue to the left of the altar, Veiled Modesty (1751), widely considered his masterpiece; he also sculpted the funerary monument and allegorical figure of Decorum, on the inside of the front wall to the right of the exit. Francesco Celebrano contributed the stunning funerary monument above the front door, with Cecco di Sangro leaping out of his coffin in commemoration of one of his most famous exploits when, having been left for dead; he suddenly reappeared, fully armed, in the thick of the battle.
Useful information
Open: Monday and Wednesday-Saturday: 10am to 6pm, Sunday: 10am-1:30pm.
Admission: 5 Euro.
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Pagina iniziale
Cappella Sansevero
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