Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Another marble maestro was Giuseppe San-
martino (1720-93). Arguably the finest
sculptor of his time, his ability to breathe life
into his creations won him a legion of fans,
among them the city's Bourbon rulers and the
rumour-plagued prince, Raimondo di Sangro.
And it's in the di Sangro family chapel, the Cappella Sansevero, that you'll find Sanmar-
tino's astounding
Cristo velato
(Veiled Christ), completed in 1753. Considered the apogee
of his technical brilliance, it's quite possibly the greatest sculpture of 18th-century
Europe. Even the great neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova wished it was his own.
Topics include the Angevins' ambitious recon-
figuration of the city.
End of an Era
Canova may have wished the same of the Reggia di Caserta. Officially known as
Caserta's Palazzo Reale, the epic royal residence was one of several grand-scale legacies
of the Bourbon years. Designed by late-Baroque architect Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-73), son
of Dutch landscape artist Gaspar van Wittel (1653-1736), the Reggia not only outsized
Versailles, but it would go down in history as Italy's great baroque epilogue.
Ironically, while it does feature many of the genre's theatrical telltale hallmarks, from
acres of inlaid marble to allegorical statues set into wall niches, its late-baroque style
echoed a classicising style more indebted to contemporary French and Spanish models
and less to the exuberant playfulness of the homegrown brand. According to the Bourbon
blue bloods, the over-the-top Neapolitan brand of baroque was
plutôt vulgaire
(rather vul-
gar). And as the curtain began to draw on Naples' baroque heyday, a more restrained neo-
classicism was waiting in the wings.
