The memorial chapel of the Sansevero family is dominated by
sculpture commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero
(1710-71), the strange soldier, amateur scientist, artist and
Grand Mason of Naples. Note the bravura carving of Corradini's
misnamed Modesty, a scantily clad, erotic female nude, Sammartino's
Dead Christ and Queirolo's extraordinary Enlightenment, where
a man attempts to escape from a enveloping net. Di Sangro was
regarded with intense suspicion by his contemporaries who believed
that he had poisoned the two embalmed figures in the crypt and
that he had tasted the blood of St Januarius (see Duomo) and
pronounced it to be bat's urine.
Address
Via Francesco de Sanctis 19
Telephone
0039 (081) 551 8470
Getting
there
Bus R3 to Piazza del Gesu or Piazza Duomo; Metro to Montesanto
Opening
times
Summer-10am-6.40pm; Winter 10am-4.30pm.
Closed Tuesdays; Sunday open 10am-1.10pm!
