… intriguing jack-in-a-box …

Naples Sansevero

One of the top sights in Naples is the group of extraordinary Baroque sculptures in Cappella Sansevero. The most famous is the Veiled Christ by Napolitan Guiseppe Sanmartino. This dramatic and technical tour-de-force depicts the dead Christ under a thin, transparent shroud. Such was its virtuosity that a legend grew about its creation: people believed that a real cloth shroud had somehow been turned to stone over the marble body. Queue up, buy the ticket and shuffle around the statue: it truly is amazing.

Veiled Christ Naples

However … the rest of the chapel is just as interesting. After admiring the main event, I wandered around, as I always do, avoiding the crowds and rebelling against the directions. This is why I do it: most of the tourists completely miss this delightful memorial to Cecco di Sangro as it is above the entrance and so you have to turn your back on the Veiled Christ to notice it.

Some background: most of the decorative scheme was devised and commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero (1710 – 1771). He was a fascinating character: an Italian nobleman, soldier, writer, scientist, alchemist and freemason whose dangerous and heretical archive was destroyed by his family after his death.

This sculpture has attracted several intriguing stories.  According to the Chapel’s own website, the Monument to Cecco di Sangro represents a real event. Raimondo’s ancestor,  Cecco is climbing out of a chest where he had been hiding for two days, allowing him to take the enemy by surprise and capture the fort of Amiens. Alas, I haven’t been able to find any corroboration for this escapade. The subject matter has also been interpreted as the soldier being the “guardian” of this supposedly Masonic Temple.

But most delightfully, according to one legend, as told to the local philosopher 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; unfortunately the family opened the coffin too early and the “resurrection” lasted only a few moments … oops.