Author of the entry: Mariano Saggiomo
A ‘wax model, together with other pieces made in clay and then fired, for the funerary monument to the Dominio di sé stesso’ is listed among the bozzetti that Francesco Queirolo (1704–1762) was obliged to return to Raimondo di Sangro following the dispute that arose between them from 1759 onwards (cf. Chartulae desangriane 2006, pp. 65–97, especially p. 81). If the hypothesis is accepted that these bozzetti were originals by Queirolo, then the conception of the Dominio now in the Chapel should be attributed to him; and the date on the inscription, ‘1759’, appears to support this view. The matter may, however, be more complex if one accepts Rosanna Cioffi’s thesis (1994, pp. 22–23) regarding a possible resemblance between the soldier in the group catalogued here and the allegory of Valore in the Valier monument in San Giovanni e Paolo in Venice (1705–1708), probably known to Antonio Corradini (1688–1752) as a Venetian. On this basis, Corradini may have executed the model, plausibly reworked by Queirolo (cf. also Cogo 1996, p. 326). Marina Picone (1959, pp. 101–103) is firmly convinced of Queirolo’s hand in the bozzetto, among other reasons, ‘on account of the psychology of the figures […] and the accentuation of their physiognomic features’ (p. 102), as well as the Roman origin of the monument’s typology. In her view, however, whatever is effective in the Genoese sculptor’s conception is undermined by the executor of the project, namely Francesco Celebrano.
It is certain that this is the work of Celebrano, whose signature appears on the rear of the group, together with the date 1767. Indeed, Celebrano himself must have reworked the design in question (whether by Queirolo alone or already by Corradini), at least in an attempt to bring it into accord with the ‘twin’ group of the Zelo, then recently designed by Fortunato Onelli, albeit under Celebrano’s own supervision. Be that as it may, the two groups facing one another along the sides of the nave are not well matched, and this may have contributed to Raimondo’s negative opinion of the Dominio: in his will, the Prince provided that the work might be replaced by one more congenial to the other monuments in the church and to his own taste on condition that (and this was the decisive factor) its meaning remained unchanged, i.e., the virtue it was intended to represent (Testamento 1770, fols. 46r–v; cf. Chartulae desangriane 2006, p. 107).
To convey the concept of Dominio di sé stessi, identified as the principal quality of Geronima Loffredo, Raimondo’s adored grandmother to whom the funerary monument is dedicated, the Prince draws on Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1765, p. 267) (a late sixteenth-century text whose important eighteenth-century edition was dedicated to him) for the symbolism of the lion as a representation of the human soul and its strength, restrained, or rather tamed, only by reason. The intellect is embodied in the young soldier who holds the animal’s bridle, now more like a docile great cat seeking a look of understanding from its master than a ferocious beast. The inventory drawn up at Raimondo’s death in 1771 (fol. 8r; cf. Attanasio 2011, p. 139) records that, unlike its present appearance, the soldier held the chain in his left hand, while in the other he bore ‘a spur by which he restrains the said animal’; this arrangement had already changed by the late 1830s, as shown in a lithograph by Franz Wenzel (pl. XVI) depicting the sculptural group. The idea of intelligence is again clearly suggested by the gesture of the putto on the right, and his companion enters from above bearing the oval containing the dedicatee’s profile portrait.
Since, as noted, the work is signed, all the historical periegetic literature is in agreement as to Celebrano’s name; in the words of Stanislao D’Aloe (1838, p. 24), he could not have ‘better expressed in this most beautiful work of his, dominion over the passions, of which anger and love are the strongest’.
Essential bibliography on the work
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, fols. 105r–106v.
D’Aloe Stanislao, Tesoro lapidario napoletano, II, Naples 1838, p. 24.
Wenzel Franz, pl. XVI representing the ‘Monumento di Gironima Loffredo’, belonging to a group of 32 lithographs of the sculptures of the Sansevero Chapel in Naples drawn by various authors and engraved by Wenzel c. 1839: the copy identified (lacking six lithographs) is held at the Biblioteca Nazionale di Napoli, shelfmark PALATINA Banc. 03.
Picone Marina, La Cappella Sansevero, Naples 1959, pp. 101–103.
de Sangro Oderisio, Raimondo de Sangro e la Cappella Sansevero, Rome 1991, pp. 189–191, no. 16.
Cioffi Rosanna, La Cappella Sansevero. Arte barocca e ideologia massonica, first edition: Salerno 1987; edition cited: Salerno 1994, pp. 22–23, 42.
Cogo Bruno, Antonio Corradini scultore veneziano. 1688–1752, Este 1996, p. 326, section of no. 51.
Chartulae desangriane. Il Principe committente, exhibition catalogue, Bruno Crimaldi (ed.) (Naples, Museo Cappella Sansevero, 28 March 2006), Naples 2006, p. 81.
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. 56–58, 78–81.
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. 267–268.
Chartulae desangriane. Il Principe committente, exhibition catalogue, Bruno Crimaldi (ed.) (Naples, Museo Cappella Sansevero, 28 March 2006), Naples 2006, pp. 65–97, 107.
DOI: 10.82049/CATALOGO22