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诗人赵四The most popular attraction in Naples is to visit the statue "The Veiled Christ" at the Church of San Severo. However, you need to make an appointment to buy tickets, which are 12€ per ticket for adults. You are not allowed to take photos or videos after entering. You are also not allowed to use your mobile phone to capture pictures and read and translate... I can only translate the introduction outside the door with AI (the pictures here are just borrowed from the Internet): "The masterpiece "The Veiled Christ" by Neapolitan artist Giuseppe Sanmartino is located in the center of the nave of the San Severo Chapel. This sculpture shows Jesus removed from the cross and wrapped in a sacred shroud. The artist uses a transparent veil carved from marble to enhance the texture of every detail of the body. Many features of the statue - the slightly tilted head, the protruding blood vessels on the forehead, the folds of the veil slightly inhaled by the nose, the left hand that is not completely relaxed in death, and the stiff legs - give the work amazing realism and dramatic tension. The sculpture, completed in just a few months in 1753, was commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, VII Prince of Sansevero. A pioneer of the early European Enlightenment, the prince was a fierce soldier, scholar, publisher, and first Grand Master of the Naples Freemasonry, but more importantly, a prolific inventor and an enterprising patron of the arts. Raimondo’s reputation as an alchemist and experimenter has spawned many legends, one of which concerns the veil of Christ carved by Sanmartino. For centuries, countless travelers, tourists, and even scholars have mistaken the amazing transparency of the shroud for a miracle achieved by the prince through some kind of alchemical "marble transmutation." However, rigorous research and contemporary documents confirm that the Veiled Christ is carved entirely from a single block of marble, without the help of any extraordinary means. More than 250 years later, when viewers gaze at this statue, they still cannot resist the thrilling visual illusion. In the end, Sanmartino, with his superb carving skills, realized the ultimate ambition that the prince had pursued throughout his life - to create eternal wonder.
Naples art tour
