Veiled Christ

In the middle of a small chapel in the old centre of Naples lies a marble figure of the dead Christ, covered from head to foot by a shroud so fine that it seems to cling to the skin. The face and body, marked by the suffering of the crucifixion, show clearly through the cloth, yet veil and figure are carved together from a single block of white marble. At Christ's feet lie the instruments of the Passion: the crown of thorns, pincers and shackles.

The Veiled Christ was completed in 1753 by Giuseppe Sanmartino, then a young Neapolitan sculptor. It was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero, who was remaking his family's burial chapel and wanted a life-sized Christ beneath a transparent shroud cut from the same stone. The prince first gave the task to Antonio Corradini, already known for veiled figures, who made a terracotta model but died soon afterwards. Sanmartino took over, adapted Corradini's design and produced the work that launched his career. Tradition holds that Antonio Canova later tried to acquire it and said he would give ten years of his life to have carved something like it. Because di Sangro was a scholar and student of alchemy, a legend grew that he had laid a real veil over the figure and turned it to marble by a secret process; the carving itself belongs to an old sculptural tradition of veiled statues.

The Cappella Sansevero, properly the church of Santa Maria della Pietà, began in 1590 as a private chapel near the family palace, became the family tomb in 1613 and took its present form under Raimondo in the mid-18th century. Around the Christ stand Corradini's veiled Modesty of 1752 and Francesco Queirolo's Disinganno of 1753 to 1754, with its intricate marble net, beneath Francesco Maria Russo's ceiling fresco of 1749. The chapel lies close to the church of San Domenico Maggiore in the historic centre of Naples, a World Heritage Site since 1995 that still follows the street grid of the ancient Greek city.

Getting there

The chapel stands on Via Francesco de Sanctis in the historic centre of Naples, about 1.5 km west of Napoli Centrale station. Naples International Airport (NAP) is about 5 km away.