Author of the entry: Gianluca Forgione

As recorded in the reprint of the Breve nota di quel che si vede in casa del principe di Sansevero don Raimondo di Sangro nella città di Napoli (1769, p. 9; cf. Attanasio 2011, pp. 58–59), the Compianto represents ‘the most distinguished work’ of Francesco Celebrano, alone enough ‘to immortalise his name’ (Napoli Signorelli 1811, p. 260). Traditionally identified as a ‘Descent from the Cross’, the relief in fact depicts the moment after Christ has been taken down from the cross and John and the holy women mourn over the laid-out corpse. This clarification establishes a more direct connection between the theme of the work and the Chapel’s dedication to Santa Maria della Pietà, as well as to its earlier altarpiece, a late sixteenth-century painting by an unknown artist, where Christ is shown lying across the Virgin’s lap in accordance with the Vesperbild type (Forgione 2022, p. 26).

No payment documents relating to the altarpiece have yet come to light; it was executed by Celebrano, who was serving as superintendent of the Chapel as Raimondo’s most trusted collaborator. In 1766, the first edition of the Breve nota attests that work on the relief was in progress at that time (p. 10; cf. Attanasio 2011, p. 59), and it was in all probability completed by the following year. The inventory of assets remaining in the Prince’s estate records that, at that date, the altarpiece was not yet fully ‘polished’ (allustrata) (Inventario 1771, fols. 65r–66v; cf. Attanasio 2011, pp. 76, 130), and that a lapis lazuli frame, subsequently executed to Sansevero’s own design, had yet to be added (Sarnelli 1772, p. 130). From the records of the lawsuit that Francesco Maria Queirolo (1704–1762) brought against Raimondo in 1759, it emerges that the sculptor was required to return to his patron even ‘the low-relief wax model of the high altar’ (cf. Chartulae desangriane 2006, p. 81). It cannot be ruled out that this corresponded to one of the ‘thirty-six original models in fired clay’ that Antonio Corradini had made for the decoration of the Chapel and left at his death in 1752 (Origlia Paolino 1754, p. 365).

The decisive role Corradini played in devising the Chapel’s sculptural decoration and his northern cultural background have also, until now, been invoked to explain the choice (unique in Baroque Naples) of adorning the high altar with a marble altarpiece (Cioffi 1994, pp. 24–26). More recently, however, it has been explained, above all, in the light of what the young Raimondo would have seen during his ten years studying with the Jesuits at the Seminario Romano, beginning in 1720 (Forgione 2022, pp. 22–25). In Rome, Di Sangro had occasion to examine the major marble altarpieces of the Baroque period, two of which deserve particular mention: the Compianto by Domenico Guidi (1625–1701) for the high altar of the Cappella del Monte di Pietà, delivered in 1674, whose reputation was advanced by a considerable number of engravings and pictorial adaptations (Giometti 2010, esp. pp. 190–200, no. 25.S); and the San Luigi Gonzaga in gloria, which Pierre Le Gros the Younger (1666–1719) made for the Jesuits at Sant’Ignazio in the late seventeenth century, to which Di Sangro and Celebrano also seem to have looked for the cornice mistilinea. The Prince’s interest in Roman sculpture is also documented with certainty in the Libro in folio delle statue esistenti in Roma that he lent to Queirolo, evidently for use as a working resource and primary visual reference for the decoration of the Chapel (Forgione 2022, pp. 22–23).

On closer inspection, Celebrano’s altarpiece appears to follow the compositional scheme of the spectacular, naturalistic, and temporary ‘Calvaries’ that, even in the time of the young Raimondo, were erected in Roman churches for the Quarantore, an ancient liturgical practice alluding to the brief period Christ spent in the tomb (ibid., pp. 11–18). This iconographic tradition may also shed light on the significance of the sarcophagus being opened by the angel beneath the mensa of the high altar. The episode has until now been linked to the Resurrection (cf., for example, Nappi 2010, p. 106, and Marco Bussagli, in Napoli, la Cappella Sansevero 2019, p. 103). However, unlike in depictions of the Quem quaeritis, the angel does not point towards Heaven, nor do we find the narrative context necessary for identifying the subject, with the holy women visiting the tomb and the sleeping guards present. The scene is, therefore, more plausibly to be read as continuous, in space and time, with the Compianto depicted above the altar of the Eucharist. The divine messenger would thus be opening the tomb for the laying out of the corpse. This interpretation would find confirmation in Father Pozzo’s design for the Quarantore. The folio, formerly in the collection of art historian Luigi Salerno and later circulating on the Roman art market, depicts several angels bearing Christ to the tomb, while two further angels, set within a majestic, raised ciborium, open the sarcophagus that will soon receive the body of the Saviour. The requirements of sacred theatrical spectacle justify the angel, in Pozzo’s drawing as in Celebrano’s altarpiece, undertaking an action not normally assigned to him in traditional iconography, where it is Joseph of Arimathea who prepares the tomb of the Redeemer together with Nicodemus (Forgione 2022, p. 37).

Essential bibliography on the work

Breve nota di quel che si vede in casa del principe di Sansevero don Raimondo di Sangro nella città di Napoli, [Naples] 1766, p. 10.

Breve nota di quel che si vede in casa del principe di Sansevero don Raimondo di Sangro nella città di Napoli, [Naples] 1769, p. 9.

Inventario de’ beni rimasti nell’eredità del fu eccellentissimo don Raimondo di Sangro principe di Sansevero, Naples, notary Francesco de Maggio, 1771, copy of the document held at the Archivio Storico del Pio Monte della Misericordia di Napoli, d’Aquino di Caramanico collection, provisional shelfmark A.162, fols. 65r–66v.

Sarnelli Pompeo, Nuova guida de’ forestieri…, Naples, Saverio Rossi, 1772, p. 130.

Napoli Signorelli Pietro, Vicende della coltura nelle due Sicilie…, VII, Naples 1811, p. 260.

Picone Marina, La Cappella Sansevero, Naples 1959, pp. 87–90.

Catello Elio, Francesco Celebrano e l’arte nel presepe napoletano del ‘700, Naples 1969, pp. 61–62.

Fittipaldi Teodoro, Scultura napoletana del Settecento, Naples 1980, pp. 213–214.

de Sangro Oderisio, Raimondo de Sangro e la Cappella Sansevero, Rome 1991, pp. 154–156.

Wittkower Rudolf, Arte e architettura in Italia. 1600–1750, first edition: Turin 1958; edition cited: Turin 1993, p. 395.

Cioffi Rosanna, La Cappella Sansevero. Arte barocca e ideologia massonica, first edition: Salerno 1987; edition cited: Salerno 1994, pp. 24–26.

Nappi Eduardo, Dai numeri la verità. Nuovi documenti sulla famiglia, i palazzi e la Cappella dei Sansevero, Naples 2010, p. 106.

Attanasio Sergio, In casa del Principe di Sansevero. Architettura, invenzioni, inventari, Naples 2011, pp. 45, 58–59, 76, 130–131.

Napoli, la Cappella Sansevero e il Cristo velato. Naples, Sansevero Chapel and the Veiled Christ, texts by Marco Bussagli, photographs by Carlo Vannini, Bologna 2019, pp. 103, 114–123.

Forgione Gianluca, I simulacri delle cose. La Cappella Sansevero e il barocco romano, Turin 2022, esp. pp. 19–37.

Comparative bibliography

Origlia Paolino Giangiuseppe, Istoria dello Studio di Napoli…, II, Naples, Giovanni di Simone, 1754, p. 365.

Chartulae desangriane. Il Principe committente, exhibition catalogue, Bruno Crimaldi (ed.) (Naples, Museo Cappella Sansevero, 28 March 2006), Naples 2006, p. 81.

Giometti Cristiano, Domenico Guidi, 1625–1701. Uno scultore barocco di fama europea, Rome 2010, pp. 190–200, no. 25.S.

DOI: 10.82049/CATALOGO01