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THE Veiled Christ
  • The statue
  • The masterpiece
  • The legend of the veil
The statue
Giuseppe Sanmartino, 1753.

Placed at the centre of the nave of the Sansevero Chapel, the Veiled Christ is one of the most famous and impressive works of art in the world. It was the Prince’s wish that the statue be made by Antonio Corradini, who had already done Modesty for him. However, Corradini died in 1752 and only managed to make a terracotta scale model of the Christ, which is now preserved in the Museo di San Martino.

So Raimondo di Sangro appointed a young Neapolitan artist, Giuseppe Sanmartino, to make “a life-sized marble statue, representing Our Lord Jesus Christ dead, and covered in a transparent shroud carved from the same block as the statue”.

Sanmartino paid little heed to the previous scale model made by the Venetian sculptor. Both in Modesty, and in the Veiled Christ, the original stylistic message is in the veil, but Sanmartino’s late baroque feeling and sentiment permeate the shroud with a movement and a meaning far removed from Corradini’s rules. The modern sensitivity of the artist sculpts and divests the lifeless body of its flesh, which the soft shroud mercifully covers, on which the tormented, writhing rhythms of the folds of the veil engrave deep suffering, almost as if the compassionate covering made the poor limbs still more naked and exposed, and the lines of the tortured body even more inexorable and precise.

IL CRISTO VELATO

The swollen vein still pulsating on the forehead, the wounds of the nails on the feet and on the thin hands, and the sunken side finally relaxed in the freedom of death are a sign of an intense search which has no time for preciosity or scholastic canons, even when the sculptor meticulously “embroiders” the edges of the shroud or focuses on the instruments of the Passion placed at the feet of Christ. Sanmartino’s art here becomes a dramatic evocation, that turns the suffering of Christ into the symbol of the destiny and redemption of all humanity.

the Veiled Christ
Museo Cappella Sansevero
Museo Cappella Sansevero
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© Museo Cappella Sansevero – Official Website, 2018 – All rights reserved
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© Museo Cappella Sansevero – Official Website, 2018 – All rights reserved

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  • THE SANSEVERO CHAPEL
    ▼
    • Cappella Sansevero – Progetto iconografico
    • Cappella Sansevero – Origini
    • Cappella Sansevero – Fasto settecentesco
  • THE VEILED CHRIST
    ▼
    • Cristo Velato – The masterpiece
    • Cristo Velato – The legend of the veil
  • Raimondo di Sangro
    ▼
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Altre Opere
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Hanno Detto Di Lui
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Life – Childhood and youth
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Life – His last years
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Life – Maturity
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Myth
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Opere letterarie e scientifiche
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Popular legends
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Rapporto Con Gli Artisti
    • Raimondo Di Sangro – Sperimentazioni
  • the Statues
    ▼
    • Statue delle Virtù – Decorum
    • Statue delle Virtù – Disillusion
    • Statue delle Virtù – Education
    • Statue delle Virtù – Liberality
    • Statue delle Virtù – Modesty
    • Statue delle Virtù – Religious Zeal
    • Statue delle Virtù – Self-control
    • Statue delle Virtù – Sincerity
    • Statue delle Virtù – Sweetness of the marital yoke
  • the Anatomical Machines
  • OTHER WORKS OF ART
    ▼
    • Altre opere – Dipinti – Madonna and Child
    • Altre opere – Dipinti – Pietà
    • Altre opere – Dipinti – Portrait of Vincenzo di Sangro
    • Altre opere – Dipinti – Ritratto di Raimondo di Sangro
    • Altre opere – Sacristy
    • Altre opere – Tomb of Raimondo di Sangro
    • Altre opere – Vault
    • Altre Statue – Monument to Alessandro di Sangro, Patriarch of Alexandria
  • Multimedia
    ▼
    • Multimedia – Video
    • Multimedia – Floor Labyrinth
  • Projects
  • News
  • Info
    ▼
    • Museo Cappella SanSevero – Altre Informazioni
    • Museo Cappella SanSevero – Dove Siamo
  • FAQ
  • Online Tickets
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Orari di apertura
Tutti i giorni: 9.00 - 19.00 Chiuso il martedì Ultimo ingresso
30 min. prima della chiusura
Opening times
Daily: 9.00 am - 7.00 pm Closed on Tuesdays Last entry 30 mins before closing
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