Discover Top Posts Tagged with #veiled christ

frodo baggins, elijah wood, 2003

veiled christ, giuseppe sanmartino, 1753

#250 years separates these two works of art #Giuseppe Sanmartino #frodo baggins #elijah wood #veiled christ

The Veiled Christ ("Cristo Velato" ) is a sculpture completed in 1753 AD, originally (mis) attributed to Antonio Corradini and considered one of world’s most remarkable pieces of art.

In fact, the great neoclassical maestro Antonio Canova (1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822), who tried to buy the work, said he would gladly give up ten years of his life to produce such masterpiece.

Although Corradini was in fact commissioned with the job in the first place, he died having only produced a clay model for what would later be a definitive piece sculpted in marble.

It was Giuseppe Sanmartino (1720-1793), then, who ended up producing the astonishing sculpture of a dead Jesus, covered by a transparent shroud carved out of the very same marble block shared with the rest of the statue.

Sanmartino’s mastery — the veil covering the figure of Jesus being in fact “transparent” — didn’t only gain him a well-deserved place in the history of Western art but also turned his artwork into the stuff of legend.

Some stories claim Sanmartino covered his sculpture with a linen veil he managed to transform into marble by means of complex chemical-alchemical processes.

Those very same legends would also claim that Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero (30 January 1710 – 22 March 1771), commissioner of the sculpture, was himself an alchemist who taught Sanmartino the mysteries of his pseudo-science. Of course, these are but legends.

The statue is today preserved in the Capella Sansevero in Naples, Italy.

#Veiled Christ #Cristo Velato #Antonio Corradini #Giuseppe Sanmartino #Capella Sansevero #sculpture #art #transparent veil #marble sculpture #1700s #18th century #Late Baroque #Rococo period #Rococo

The Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino

#sculptor #sculpture #italy #veiled christ #giuseppe sanmartino

#veiled christ #Cappella Sansevero Museum

Oh sure, when Giuseppe Sanmartino puts Saran Wrap on a sculpture it's called "art," but when I do it it's an invitation to please leave the museum.

#veiled christ #1753

Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino (1753)

The Veiled Christ (Italian: Cristo velato) is a marble sculpture made by Giuseppe Sanmartino and preserved in the Cappella Sansevero, Naples.

Produced in 1753, it is considered one of the world’s most remarkable sculptures. Antonio Canova who once tried to acquire the work declared that he would willingly give up ten years of his own life to produce a similar masterpiece.

Veiled Christ’s production was originally assigned to the sculptor Antonio Corradini, who specialized in veiled statues. However, Corradini died a short time later, having produced only a terracotta bozzetto (today displayed at the Museo nazionale di San Martino. The job thus passed to Giuseppe Sanmartino, who 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.”

Sanmartino produced a work with the dead Christ laid on a couch, covered by a veil which adheres perfectly to his form. The mastery of the Neapolitan sculptor lies in his successful depiction of the suffering that Christ had undergone during the crucifixion through the veil, under which signs of his pain can be seen on his face and body.

At the sculpture’s feet, finally, the artist also carves the instruments of his torture: the crown of thorns, pliers, and some shackles.

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The great writer Matilde Serao (She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in four different years.) caught “a glimpse of a smile, an indefinite hope” on the lips of Sanmartino’s Christ. She commented the work saying, “pain, it’s true, has passed from the body to the soul; the soul is saddened, but not desperate nor desolate. The soul has been given gall to drink, but has had a taste of consolation. The whole figure of Christ expresses the highest pain, but also the highest hope”, in such a way that “the only thing the faithful can do is fall to the ground weeping his death, and cover his feet with tears and kisses”.

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