Author of the entry: Mariano Saggiomo

With the exception of the attribution to Francesco Queirolo (1704–1762) proposed in the 1772 edition of Pompeo Sarnelli’s guide (p. 133), the sources agree that the Decoro is the work of Antonio Corradini (see, at least, Origlia Paolino 1754, p. 365; Sigismondo 1788, pp. 37–38; Galante 1872, p. 161), despite the fact that the date 1755 incised in the inscription is three years later than the death of the Venetian artist. The autograph status, or at any rate the conception of the subject, is in fact confirmed by the same compositional scheme adopted by the sculptor in the Pudicizia here in the Chapel and earlier still in the Vestale of Palazzo Barberini, executed in Rome in 1743 (cf. Riccoboni 1952, pp. 155–156; Cogo 1996, pp. 296–301, no. 40; for comparisons with Austrian works the artist may have seen, cf. Cioffi 1994, p. 29). However, Marina Picone (1959, p. 72) observed in the Decoro ‘a want of equilibrium, a stylistic decline […], as if it were a work executed on that model by an imitator who has reproduced the external features of the composition with absolute fidelity without truly entering into its spirit and sensibility’ – doubts which Picone extends, this time in the opposite sense, to the portraits of Isabella Tolfa and Laudomia Milano, set in the tondo at the top of the statue, suggesting that they may perhaps be by Queirolo, since they ‘stand out on account of their loftier register’ compared with others in the church (ibid., p. 68).

Dedicated, therefore, to the first and second wives of Giovan Francesco di Sangro, third Prince of Sansevero, the monument is inspired by the model proposed in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, the late sixteenth-century emblematic repertory in which, as has been widely demonstrated (cf. Mâle 1927; Panfili 2015; and, most recently, Forgione 2022, pp. 47–49), Raimondo consistently showed great interest, even financing its substantial eighteenth-century edition in five volumes, edited by Cesare Orlandi between 1764 and 1767. Raimondo drew heavily on this catalogue to establish the iconography of the works in his family chapel. In the present case, however, this did not suffice to satisfy the Prince’s expectations; he in fact listed the Decoro among the works deemed ‘expendable’, that is, replaceable, should a more capable sculptor be found to adapt them to his own artistic taste (Testamento 1770, fols. 46r–v; cf. also Chartulae desangriane 2006, p. 107).

Corresponding to Ripa’s description (1765, pp. 125–126), the Decoro is a ‘youth of fair and honourable appearance’ wearing the leonté, symbol of the strength of virtue. The lifeless head of the animal rests on a short, fluted column (absent in Ripa), which simultaneously serves as a base for the cartouche bearing the motto sic floret decoro decus, indicating that beauty is a reflection of decorum. The two different items of footwear worn by the figure, the aristocratic coturno on the right foot and the humble soccus on the left, similarly follow Ripa’s model, signifying that ‘each person, in matters of dress, must have regard for the observance of decorum according to his age and station’ (ibid., p. 136).

Limiting ourselves to the principal divergence between sculpture and engraving, and, bearing in mind that, as is customary with the Di Sangro family chapel, the work need not be read as a precise transposition of the literary model but merely as inspired by it, it should be observed that the youth in the illustration is not semi-nude as in the statue, but clothed in a tunic with floral motifs, an iconographically significant detail, since it is decorated with leaves of the amaranth, ‘a flower which blooms at all times and preserves the decorum of its beauty’ (ibid., p. 128). The twig of the same plant shown in the figure’s left hand may correspond to the ‘branch of fruit’ which, according to the inventory of the remaining goods in Raimondo di Sangro’s estate drawn up in 1771, the statue bore in its left hand (Inventario 1771, fol. 106v; cf. also Attanasio 2011, p. 145; Colapietra 1986, p. 74), but is now lost. The same document further records that the inscription was ‘to the right of the said statue’, that is, according to the well-founded interpretation of Oderisio de Sangro (1991, p. 214), on the same flat slab still appearing to the right of the figure in a lithograph by Franz Wenzel (probably dated 1839), examined by de Sangro but currently untraceable. The slab, formerly in the sacristy (ibid.), is now in the Chapel’s storerooms.

Following damage to the inscription during the nineteenth-century collapse, it was recopied onto the pedestal of the statue, filling the gap left by the bas-relief of Susanna and the Elders, mentioned by Origlia (1754, p. 365). Picone (1959, p. 72) suggests that the relief was removed by Raimondo himself in order to deflect accusations ‘directed against the curious decorative character of the chapel’, whereas, for Colapietra (1986, pp. 74–75), the piece was originally joined to the Pudicizia, which, in a reconstruction bordering on the fanciful, would have formed a single group with the Mestizia and the Decoro, the latter defined by the scholar as ‘no more than an accompanying statue’. Given that several works underwent alterations even before Wenzel’s survey (see, for example, entries 15 and 17 on the holy water stoups), it is legitimate to ask whether the inscription of the Decoro may originally have been located in the empty cartouche above the monument to the third Prince of Sansevero in an arrangement that would have physically joined the monuments of the relatives as well.

In conclusion, in 1838, Stanislao D’Aloe (p. 24) recorded the presence of the statue of the Decoro in the sacristy, ‘having been removed from the chapel because the southern wall was threatening collapse’. The structural problems of the wall that eventually collapsed at the end of the century (see, especially, Colonna di Stigliano 1895), and which Chiarini described in 1858 as ‘closed off with masonry’ (p. 444), must therefore date from considerably earlier.

Essential bibliography on the work

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

Testamento di Raimondo di Sangro, Naples, notary Francesco de Maggio, 1770, copy of the document held at the Archivio Storico del Pio Monte della Misericordia di Napoli, d’Aquino di Caramanico collection, provisional shelfmark A.160, fol. 46r–v.

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, fol. 106v.

Sarnelli Pompeo, Nuova guida de’ forestieri…, Naples, Saverio Rossi, 1772, p. 133.

Sigismondo Giuseppe, Descrizione della città di Napoli e suoi borghi…, II, [Naples,] Terres, 1788, pp. 37–38.

D’Aloe Stanislao, Tesoro lapidario napoletano, II, Naples 1838, p. 24.

Galante Gennaro Aspreno, Guida sacra della città di Napoli, Naples 1872, p. 161.

Riccoboni Alberto, ‘Sculture inedite di Antonio Corradini’, in Arte Veneta, VI, 1952, pp. 151–156, esp. pp. 155–156.

Picone Marina, La Cappella Sansevero, Naples 1959, pp. 68, 71–72.

Colapietra Raffaele, ‘Raimondo di Sangro e il Templum sepulcrale della Cappella Sansevero (I)’, in Napoli nobilissima, ser. III, XXV, 1986, pp. 62–79, esp. pp. 74–75.

de Sangro Oderisio, Raimondo de Sangro e la Cappella Sansevero, Rome 1991, pp. 212–214, no. 23.

Cioffi Rosanna, La Cappella Sansevero. Arte barocca e ideologia massonica, first edition: Salerno 1987; edition cited: Salerno 1994, p. 29.

Cogo Bruno, Antonio Corradini scultore veneziano. 1688–1752, Este 1996, pp. 321–323, no. 49.

Chartulae desangriane. Il Principe committente, exhibition catalogue, Bruno Crimaldi (ed.) (Naples, Museo Cappella Sansevero, 28 March 2006), Naples 2006, p. 107.

Attanasio Sergio, In casa del principe di Sansevero. Architettura, invenzioni, inventari, Naples 2011, p. 145.

Panfili Veronica, ‘L’iconologia nelle statue della Cappella Sansevero a Napoli’, in BTA, Bollettino Telematico dell’Arte, 2015, no. 789, online only: .

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. 24, 52–53, 62–65.

Comparative bibliography

Iconologia del cavaliere Cesare Ripa perugino, notabilmente accresciuta d’immagini, di annotazioni e di fatti dall’abate Cesare Orlandi, patrizio di Città della Pieve accademico augusto. A Sua Eccellenza don Raimondo di Sangro…, I–V, Perugia, Piergiovanni Costantini, 1764–1767, II, 1765, pp. 125–140.

Colonna di Stigliano Fabio, ‘La cappella Sansevero e D. Raimondo di Sangro’, in Napoli nobilissima, IV, 1895, 3, pp. 33–36.

Celano Carlo, Notizie del bello, dell’antico e del curioso della città di Napoli… Con aggiunzioni de’ più notabili miglioramenti posteriori fino al presente, estratti dalla storia de’ monumenti e dalle memorie di eruditi scrittori napolitani, Cavalier Giovanni Battista Chiarini (ed.), III, Naples 1858, p. 444.

Mâle Émile, ‘La clef des allégories peintes et sculptées au XVII et au XVIIIe siècle. I. En Italie’, in Revue des Deux Mondes (1829–1971), XXXIX, 1927, 1, pp. 106–129.

Cogo Bruno, Antonio Corradini scultore veneziano. 1688–1752, Este 1996, pp. 296–301, no. 40.

Panfili Veronica, ‘L’iconologia nelle statue della Cappella Sansevero a Napoli’, in BTA, Bollettino Telematico dell’Arte, 2015, no. 789, online only: .

Forgione Gianluca, I simulacri delle cose. La Cappella Sansevero e il barocco romano, Turin 2022, pp. 47–49.

DOI: 10.82049/CATALOGO14