Author of the entry: Mariano Saggiomo

The six bas-reliefs depict the six cardinals of the House of Di Sangro who lived between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries, some shown in profile, others in three-quarter view, and accompanied by brief inscriptions recording their names, their respective titles, the years of their creation to the cardinalate, and the popes who appointed them: Teodino I, created cardinal by Alexander II in 1070; Teodino II, created by Urban II in 1100; Leone, created by Paschal II in 1100; Oderisio II, created by Callistus II in 1121; Rinaldo, created by Innocent II in 1140; and Gentile, created by Urban VI in 1380.

Oderisio de Sangro (1991, pp. 148–150) has rightly drawn attention to the questionable accuracy of the dates of appointment engraved in the inscriptions, which are often incorrect by several years (Urban II, for example, who, according to the inscription, is said to have created Teodino II cardinal in 1100, died on 29 July 1099). This is a frequent defect in such ‘genealogical’ series, where what mattered was less the precision of the information or the recognisability of the figures portrayed than the broader aim of documenting the remote existence of forebears capable of ennobling the house, particularly when, as in this case, they belonged to the highest ranks of the Church. The more ancient the ancestor, the greater the prestige derived from him; with the evident consequence that, the further back in time one looked, the scarcer reliable information became, sometimes leading to the construction of entirely fictitious biographies.

Although the complete survival of such cycles, whether sculpted or painted, is not especially common, their presence in aristocratic residences was widespread. A well-preserved example is the painted cycle of the Sanseverino di Bisignano family, now in the Museo Filangieri in Naples: thirteen octagonal canvases depicting illustrious men and women, and ten oval panels with the effigies of cardinals, the work of a modest artist active in Naples in the early eighteenth century (Saggiomo 2021, p. 96, and pp. 101–103, entry DS.43; for the octagons cf. Puca 2021, pp. 97–100, entry DS.42).

The six medallions discussed here belong among the earliest works executed in the Chapel by the Genoese sculptor Francesco Queirolo and may therefore be dated between the closing months of 1752 and 1754. According to Giangiuseppe Origlia Paolino (1754, p. 366), the artist arrived in Naples on 4 September 1752 to replace the late Antonio Corradini as director of works in the Di Sangro Chapel; and by 1754 the same author (ibid.) already lists the ovals among the works completed.

Trained in his native city and subsequently in Rome, where he distinguished himself as a pupil of Giuseppe Rusconi (1688–1758), Queirolo came to Naples ‘to satisfy the requests of the distinguished patrons who had invited him’ (Ratti 1769, p. 308), most evidently Prince Raimondo, who engaged him under contract on 4 November 1752, exactly two months after his arrival in the city (a coincidence that may point to an error by Origlia Paolino, whose reference to September may in fact refer to November; for the contract cf. Chartulae desangriane 2006, pp. 68, 71–75).

Little explanation as to why, in a setting as exceptional as the Sansevero Chapel, both early sources and later scholarship have devoted scant attention to these bas-reliefs is needed. Even the detailed description of the Chapel drawn up after Raimondo’s death mentions only two (Inventario 1771: Rinaldo, at fols. 88v–89r; and Oderisio, at fols. 93v–94r), subsequently omitted from the modern edition published in extracts (cf. Attanasio 2011, pp. 129–156). Periegetic literature is no more revealing: the silence is broken only by Raffaele D’Ambra and Achille de Lauzières in the mid-nineteenth century (1855, p. 221), who describe them immediately after the saints painted at the base of the vault: ‘Large, finely carved medallions with bas-relief busts of family cardinals appear at the centre of the arches around the cornice’. Positioned at the keystones of the arches of the side chapels, three on each side, the cardinals function as a link (also at a semantic level) between Raimondo’s direct ancestors in the lower part of the Chapel and the family saints painted on the vault as they participate in the staging of Paradise.

Despite the limited attention they have received, the favourable judgement expressed by D’Ambra and De Lauzières is justified when one considers Queirolo’s ability to vary physiognomic types and to render them convincingly, with that ‘realistic manner in the sharply chiselled features, clearly set against the ground’ highlighted in Marina Picone’s perceptive description (1959, p. 67). She also rightly emphasises the sculptor’s skill in animating the marble ‘with liveliness and freedom of conception, through that incisive modelling of form which remains the most distinctive feature of his work’ (ibid.; cf. also Cioffi 1994, pp. 37–38). The same variety is evident in the pairs of angels flanking each oval, which Picone (1959, p. 67) deems superior to those later placed beside the altars of Santa Rosalia and Sant’Oderisio.

It is worth noting, lastly, that the figure rendered most precisely (Gentile) is also the one regarding whom the most reliable information survives. This may suggest the existence of a painted portrait as a model for the sculptor (for the hypothesis that the entire cycle derives from pictorial sources, cf. Cioffi 1994, p. 38). Berardo Candida Gonzaga (1876, p. 210) provides the relevant information on Gentile, ‘cardinal and legate of Pope Urban VI’: ‘in his name he had all the priests who, at the instigation of Queen Joanna I, had taken part in the election of the antipope Clement VII, imprisoned. He deprived Leone da Giffone and Iacono da Itri of the cardinal’s hat and deposed Masello Brancaccio from the bishopric of Chieti, since all three had been raised to those offices by Clement VII. […] When Charles of Durazzo ascended the throne, Gentile met Queen Margaret with great pomp in the church later known as Santa Maria Incoronata. Later, however, when Pope Urban came to suspect that he was conspiring with other cardinals against his life, he had him imprisoned with them and subsequently put to death’.

Essential bibliography on the work

Origlia Paolino Giangiuseppe, Istoria dello Studio di Napoli…, II, Naples, Giovanni di Simone, 1754, p. 366.

Ratti Carlo Giuseppe, Delle vite de’ pittori, scultori ed architetti genovesi. Tomo secondo… in continuazione dell’opera di Raffaello Soprani, Genoa, in the printing house Casamara dalle cinque lampade, 1769, p. 308.

D’Ambra Raffaele and de Lauzières Achille, Un mese a Napoli. Descrizione della città di Napoli e delle sue vicinanze divisa in XXX giornate…, I–III, Naples 1855–1857, I, 1855, p. 221.

Candida Gonzaga Berardo, Memorie delle famiglie nobili delle province meridionali d’Italia, I–VI, Naples 1875–1882, III, 1876, p. 210.

Picone Marina, La Cappella Sansevero, Naples 1959, p. 67.

de Sangro Oderisio, Raimondo de Sangro e la Cappella Sansevero, Rome 1991, pp. 148–150.

Cioffi Rosanna, La Cappella Sansevero. Arte barocca e ideologia massonica, first edition: Salerno 1987; edition cited: Salerno 1994, pp. 37–38.

Comparative bibliography

Chartulae desangriane. Il Principe committente, exhibition catalogue, Bruno Crimaldi (ed.) (Naples, Museo Cappella Sansevero, 28 March 2006), Naples 2006, pp. 68, 71–75.

Attanasio Sergio, In casa del Principe di Sansevero. Architettura, invenzioni, inventari, Naples 2011, pp. 129–156.

Puca Luisa Sefora Rosaria, in Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri Napoli, I–III, Isabella Valente (ed.), II, Le Collezioni. 1, Rome 2021, pp. 97–100, entry DS.42.

Saggiomo Mariano, in Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri Napoli, I–III, Isabella Valente (ed.), II, Le Collezioni. 1, Rome 2021, p. 96, and pp. 101–103, entry DS.43.

DOI: 10.82049/CATALOGO27