Italia Napoli Cappella Sansevero 2

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Cappella Sansevero
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Piazzetta Nilo
Piazza San Domenico
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The origins of the Sansevero Chapel are closely
connected to a legendary incident. Cesare
dEngenio Caracciolo tells in his Sacred
Naples of 1623 that, in around 1590, an innocent
man who was being led to prison in chains passed
before the garden of the di Sangro palace in
Piazza San Domenico Maggiore, and saw a part of
the garden wall collapse and an image of the
Madonna appear. He promised the Virgin Mary to
offer her a silver lamp and a dedication if only
his innocence might be recognised. Once released,
the man was faithful to his vow. The sacred image
thus became a place of pilgrimage and prayer, and
many other graces were received there. Shortly
afterwards, the Duke of Torremaggiore, Giovan
Francesco di Sangro, seriously ill, turned to the
Madonna to plead for his recovery. Miraculously
cured, he erected in thanksgiving a small
chapel called Santa Maria della
Pietà or Pietatella in the place where the
venerable image had first appeared (still visible
above the High Altar). However, it was the son of
Giovan Francesco, Alessandro di Sangro, Patriarch
of Alexandria, who, in the early years of the
seventeenth century began the enormous task
transforming and enlarging it, changing the
original votive chapel into a true votive
mausoleum to house the tombs of his ancestors and
future family members
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The current appearance of the Chapel corresponds
to a very precise icono-graphic design, conceived
by Prince Raimondo di Sangro and realised by the
artists who worked under his supervision. From
the main door, one enters the single nave, ending
in an apse containing the High Altar. The two
side walls have four rounded arches, each one
containing a tomb, except the third arch to the
left of the main entrance, where there is the
side door, and the third arch on the right, that
opens onto the Tomb of Raimondo di Sangro. The
tombs in the side chapels are dedicated to
the illustrious ancestors of the di Sangro
family, while the sculptures set against the
pillars separating the arches represent the
virtues
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Francesco Queirolo, the effigies of six cardinals
originating from the Sangro family
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The Monument to Alessandro di Sangro, situated in
a niche to the left of the Altar, portrays the
Patriarch of Alexandria and Archbishop of
Benevento, son of the first Prince of Sansevero,
Giovan Francesco di Sangro
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Alessandro di Sangro
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Alessandro was the one who as the inscription
over the main entrance of the Sansevero Chapel
states  rebuilt from the foundations and
extended the small chapel his father had built,
and had the first mass celebrated there in 1608,
establishing the site as the final resting place
of himself and his descendents
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Monument to Cecco di Sangro by Francesco
Celebrano, 1766
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Raimondo di Sangro wished to commemorate his
illustrious ancestor, commander under the orders
of Philip II, by immortalising his most famous
exploit in battle. Cecco is portrayed in the act
of emerging from a chest where he had been hiding
for two days, a strategy which allowed him to
take by surprise and rout the enemy, capturing
the fort of Amiens. This episode, which happened
during a campaign in Flanders, is described in
detail in the commemorative inscription carved
into the lion skin
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On the two sides,  hippogryphs  symbolise  care
and  surveillance, while the eagle with lightning
rods in its talons symbolises  warlike virtues
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The Monument to Cecco perhaps expresses better
than any of the others the main reason Raimondo
di Sangro built the Chapel to celebrate his own
household and the military glory of his male
ancestors
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This remarkable work in marble has many other
interesting points. The warrior brandishing a
sword, above the great gate, has been
interpreted as the guardian of the Masonic Temple
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Furthermore, this man leaping from the
sarcophagus one of the many references to
immortality in the artwork of the Sansevero
Chapel was presumably the origin of one of the
more famous legends concerning the Prince of
Sansevero
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According to the legend, as told by Benedetto
Croce, as he approached the end, Raimondo di
Sangro had himself cut to pieces and closed in a
coffin, from which he was supposed to emerge
hale and hearty at a specific time but the
family uncovered the coffin before the appointed
time, and the resurrection of the reunited body
lasted only a few moments
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Giovan Francesco di Sangro, here portrayed in
military dress, is the Duke of Torremaggiore (as
well as first Prince of Sansevero) who
according to Cesare dEngenio Caracciolo in
his Sacred Naples (1623) is said to have
founded a small chapel in around 1590, the
nucleus for what would become the Sansevero Chapel
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The first Prince of Sansevero, who died in his
eighties in 1604, was a brave soldier and took
part in a large number of campaigns in Africa and
Europe (he also fought as regimental commander in
the famous battle of Lepanto in 1571)
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The Monument to Giovan Francesco di Sangro was
most probably the work of Giacomo Lazzari, even
if a number of academics attribute it to
Michelangelo Naccherino
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The Monument to Paolo di Sangro, second Prince of
Sansevero
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The Prince is dressed as a Roman centurion, to
recall the renown he earned during the Spanish
campaign under Philip III, whose intimate advisor
he was
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Monument to Giovan Francesco di Sangro, third
Prince of Sansevero
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Monument to Giovan Francesco di Sangro, third
Prince of Sansevero
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The third Prince of Sansevero died at forty
during an expedition to Africa in 1627
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Monument to Paolo di Sangro, fourth Prince of
Sansevero
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The funerary statue dedicated to the fourth
Prince of Sansevero, who died in 1636, is
unanimously considered the most striking of the
seventeenth-century works in the Chapel. The
polychrome marble, inlayed in mother of pearl, is
of particular note
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Among the decorative motifs are two masks of an
almost plant-like appearance, placed to the sides
of the sarcophagus
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Among the decorative motifs are two small busts
of lions placed near a skull and an hourglass,
clear symbols of transience
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Monument to Giovan Francesco di Sangro, fifth
Prince of Sansevero Francesco Celebrano (?), c.
1756
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Monument to Giovan Francesco di Sangro, fifth
Prince of Sansevero Francesco Celebrano (?), c.
1756
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Monument to Paolo di Sangro, sixth Prince of
Sansevero, grandfather of Raimondo, who died in
1726 at the age of sixty-seven years
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Paolo di Sangro, sixth Prince of Sansevero
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Raimondo was very close to his grandfather Paolo,
who took care of him during his childhood, and
upon his death left him heir to the title and the
household at the age of only sixteen years
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Unlike the other funerary monuments, the Tomb of
Raimondo di Sangro appears sober, almost severe.
Designed by Russo in 1759, when the seventh
Prince of Sansevero was still alive, it comprises
two essential elements a complex of sculptured
emblems set in a great arch, in
seventeenth-century style, and a plaque with a
long eulogy to di Sangro. Between these is the
marble frame with the Portrait of the Prince
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The symbols Raimondo di Sangro wanted for his
tomb commemorate his earthly glory earned through
his military success and scientific-literary
output. A Breastplate and a helmet are surrounded
by insignia, flags, pikes, halberds and other
weapons. There are also books, parchments, set
squares and a globe. From the far right of the
arch hangs the sash of the Knights of the Order
of San Gennaro, a decoration he received in 1740.
The most interesting and original part of the
monument is the great marble slab with its
inscription. The funeral eulogy, in fact, is not
engraved, but in relief, and shows no trace of
chisel marks. This was achieved thanks to
a procedure based on chemical solvents devised by
the Prince himself
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Placed over the small door of the temple,
the Portrait of Vincenzo di Sangro was long
mistakenly considered to be an image of Prince
Raimondo. Sources and documents leave no doubt as
to the fact that the painting, work of the
Sorrentine Carlo Amalfi, actually depicts
Raimondos eldest son, born in 1743. If it is
known that the urn and decorative context of the
portrait were made before 1766, it is less
certain when the portrait itself was painted, and
a number of critics hypothesise the mid-seventies
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Stolen during the restoration work of 1990, the
painting was recovered in the July of 1991 and
returned to its place
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Vincenzo di Sangro had a brilliant military
career, becoming Commodore of the Royal
Navy. Universal heir to the family wealth, he did
not complete the work on the Chapel which was
still not finished when Raimondo died, probably
because of economic difficulties
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Placed at the centre of the nave of the Sansevero
Chapel, the  Veiled Christ is one of the most
famous and impressive works of art in the world
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Raimondo di Sangro appointed a young Neapolitan
artist, Giuseppe Sanmartino, to make a
life-sized marble statue, representing Our Lord
Jesus Christ dead, and covered in a transparent
shroud carved from the same block as the statue
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The Veiled Christ, a world artistic masterpiece,
was to have been in the intention of the Prince
located in the Underground Chamber designed by
di Sangro himself, in the Underground Chamber
that was also to be have been used to house the
future tombs of the Sansevero family, but which
was never finished as the Prince envisaged it
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Text pictures Internet All  copyrights  belong
to their  respective owners Presentation
Sanda Foisoreanu
2018
Sound Pergolesi - Stabat Mater in F Minor
- Mov. 1-3 - Gemma Bertagnolli, soprano Sara
Mingardo, contralto