Veiled Christ
Sculpture by Giuseppe Sanmartino
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Through Jesus
The 18th-century sculptor Antonio Canova tried to acquire the work, stating that he would willingly give ten years of his life to have produced something of similar quality.
History and description
In 1753, a rich nobleman named Raimondo di Sangro was funding the restoration of a church in Naples called the Cappella Sansevero. He commissioned the sculptor Antonio Corradini to produce the centrepiece of the church: a realistic, life-sized marble tomb effigy of Jesus covered by a shroud. Corradini produced a terracotta bozzetto model, now in the Museo Nazionale di San Martino, but died shortly after.
The commission passed to a young Italian sculptor named Giuseppe Sanmartino. He was charged with producing "a marble statue sculpted with the greatest realism, representing Our Lord Jesus Christ in death, covered by a transparent shroud carved from the same block of stone as the statue."
Adapting Corradini’s model, Sanmartino produced a sculpture of the dead Jesus lying on a couch and covered by a veil which adheres perfectly to his body. The mastery of the Neapolitan sculptor lies in the way the veil reveals the suffering that Jesus had undergone during the crucifixion. Signs of Jesus's pain can be seen on his face and body.
Sanmartino carved the instruments of the passion at Jesus's feet, including pliers, shackles, and the crown of thorns.
The new sculpture was placed in the centre of the nave, where it still lies. It was highly praised, and helped launch Sanmartino's career.
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Legend of the veil being produced by alchemy
When the sculpture was put on display many visitors to the Cappella were amazed by the illusion of the veil which transformed solid marble into a medium which seemed both wet and transparent. The man who commissioned the work, Prince Raimondo di Sangro, was a writer, soldier, and scholar intrigued by the mysteries of the cosmos. He was also a student of alchemy, an ancient and secretive philosophical tradition which focused on the search for eternal life and for the means to transmute base metals into gold.
Some visitors surmised that the prince had draped the underlying figure with a real veil which he then transformed into marble by means of a secret alchemical process.
In fact, this sculptural effect was an old one: the earliest “veiled statues” date from classical times. Indeed, the technique was prized in European high-art circles in the 1700s when di Sangro was rebuilding the chapel.