Italian Sculptor Creates A Marble Masterpiece Over 7 Years And Even The Net Is Marble

The Cappella Sansevero is a 16th-century chapel located in Naples, Italy that is home to some of the most beautiful pieces of art created by 18th-century Italian artists. Standing out among them are a number of amazingly detailed sculptures that will make you wonder how the talented sculptors managed to turn cold blocks of marble into such intricate works of art.

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One of the most incredible sculptures inside the chapel is the Release from Deception, or Il Disinganno, by Genoese sculptor Francesco Queirolo. The sculpture depicts a man untangling himself from a woven net. The net is where the breathtaking talent of the sculptor is unveiled – from afar, it looks like a simple net draped onto a marble statue but upon closer inspection, you can see that the net is actually carved from marble too.

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The museum’s website describes the sculpture as a man who has been set free of sin. The small spirit next to the man symbolizes the human intellect, helping him free himself while pointing at the globe by his feet, symbolizing worldly possessions. “An open book rests on the globe; it is the Bible, a sacred text, but also one of the three “great lights” of Masonry. The bas-relief on the pedestal, with the story of Jesus restoring sight to the blind, accompanies and strengthens the meaning of the allegory.”

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“In his book Istoria dello Studio di Napoli (1753-54), Giangiuseppe Origlia rightly defines this statue as ‘the last and most trying test to which sculpture in marble can aspire.’ The reference is naturally to the virtuoso work on the net, which amazed famous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century travelers, and continues to astound tourists today,” says the museum.

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“In this regard, the story goes that – as had already happened to Queirolo years before, when he was working on another statue – the sculptor had to burnish the sculpture with pumice personally, as the craftsmen of the period, though specialized in the burnishing phase, refused to touch the delicate net in case it broke into pieces in their hands.”

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The Cappella Sansevero has a total collection of 28 art pieces from various 18th-century Italian artists, including The Veiled Truth by Antonio Corradini and The Veiled Christ by Giuseppe Sanmartino.

Modesty

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Education

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The Statue

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Image credits: museocappellasansevero

Be sure to visit the Cappella Sansevero next time you’re in Naples and if you enjoy these sculpture, check out the Veiled Virgin by Giovanni Straza here!