Among the works present a Napoli, Veiled Christ it is one of the most popular and mysterious that has always attracted the attention of tourists, enthusiasts, experts and scholars. After the death of Antonio Corradini, the work was commissioned to Giuseppe Sanmartino by Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero. It was completed in 1753 and is considered a true masterpiece.
The work inside the Sansevero Chapel
The Veiled Christ is kept inside the San Severo Chapel, next to the palace of the Sansevero family and near the famous street called “Spaccanapoli” in one of the oldest districts of the city. Giuseppe Sanmartino has made a sculpture that is a true test of skill, creating the illusion of a transparent veil that covers the body of Christ and reveals all his human nature. In the Veiled Christ there is all the human pain of a pierced, struck and beaten body and it is precisely the veil that covers Christ that makes the work almost a marvel, sculpted as if it were transparent, showing the face and body.
Jesus is depicted in the moment after his crucifixion, deposed and dead, but the most peculiar thing is the shroud that covers him. The veil is transparent and light and makes the observer see everything underneath. With his face asleep and peaceful, the holes in his feet and hands, his hair, the muscles of his body. On the side are the pliers and nails taken directly from the body.
The legend of the Veiled Christ
A work so dazzling that it is the subject of legends and tales that further increase its charm. Raimondo di Sangro, the one who commissioned the work, had a reputation as an eccentric man and alchemist. His life gave birth to a series of stories and some legends. Among these, the most important and known one concerns the veil. According to legend, the Prince transformed a veil into marble through his skills as an alchemist. An experiment that Raimondo di Sangro himself successfully carried out.
Thanks to the amazement that has struck those who admire the work for over two hundred and fifty years, many truly believe that the Veiled Christ is the fruit of an alchemical process of "marbling" made by the prince of Sansevero. Furthermore, the legend is fed by the Sansevero Chapel. Inside, in another room, it is possible to observe the skeletons of a woman and a man. There are small details of the skeletal and circulatory system.
The true story
Il Veiled Christ it is actually a work entirely in marble, made from a single block of stone. At the Banco di Napoli Historical Archive, there is a document that confirms everything. An advance of fifty ducats in favor of Giuseppe Sanmartino signed by Raimondo di Sangro is reported. In the document, dated December 16, 1752, the prince explicitly writes: "And for me the aforementioned fifty ducats will be paid to the Magnificent Giuseppe Sanmartino on behalf of the statue of Our dead Lord covered by a veil of marble ...".
Also in the letters sent to the physicist Jean-Antoine Nollet and to the academician of the Crusca Giovanni Giraldi, the prince describes the transparent shroud as "made from the same block as the statue". Giangiuseppe Origlia himself, the main eighteenth-century biographer of di Sangro, specifies that Christ is "all covered with a sheet of transparent veil of the same marble".
No marbling process, but a unique work considered among the greatest sculptures of all time. Antonio Canova himself declared that he would have given up 10 years of his life to create such a miraculous sculpture.
Featured photo source: dalianera - CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
