The Royal Chapel of the Treasure of St. Januarius, or the Reale cappella del Tesoro di San Gennaro, is a chapel located in the Cathedral of Naples, Italy, and dedicated to St. Januarius, patron saint of the city. This is the most lavishly decorated chapel in the cathedral, and contains contributions by the premier Baroque artists in Naples.
In the years 1526 to 1527, Naples endured a siege by the French, a resurgence of the plague, and a volcanic eruption by Vesuvius with its accompanying earthquakes. The surviving Neapolitans pledged to erect a chapel to their patron saint, St. Januarius. In 1527, the population of the elected city in a notarized document pledged a thousand ducats for the tabernacle, and 10,000 ducats to build the new chapel. [1] On February 5, 1601, the "elect of the city" appointed a committee of twelve lay members, called on the "Deputation" to build of the new chapel. Work began in 1608, ended in 1646. The cost exceeded 480,000 scudi. Work was temporarily delayed because the cardinal Archbishop Francesco Boncompagni strongly opposed the exemption of the Deputation from the jurisdiction of the diocesan order, even though the church did not fund its construction; however in 1605, the Deputation, in fact, won the papal bull by Pope Paul V to begin on the construction of the sacred place. Centuries later, after the Naples joined the Kingdom of Italy, the chapel was exempted from lists of those religious structures confiscated by the state.
Thanks to various papal bulls, the real Treasury Chapel of San Gennaro does not belong to the diocesan curia, but to the city of Naples, and represented by an ancient institution, which still exists today, the "Deputation", elected from diverse zones of Naples.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, the chapel was also used for musical activities, with the presence of masters such as Cimarosa, Paisiello, Francesco Provenzale Francesco Durante, Scarlatti and Charles Broschi.
The selection and deployment of the pictorial decoration was a saga that involved many of the premier painters of early 17th century Rome and Naples. The Deputation in charge of construction and decoration of the chapel, initially entrusted the pictorial decoration of the chapel to Giuseppe Cesari, also called Cavalier d'Arpino. [2] The painter was popular in Rome under Pope Clement VIII Aldobrandini and remained so under Pope Paul V Borghese . A request was forwarded in 1616, and a contract was signed on March 7, 1618 [3] But Cesari was slow to move to Naples, and the Deputation in 1620, revoked his contract and instead offered the position to Guido Reni. Reni, after much haggling about payments, refused the assignment, [4] and finally the commission was offered to painter Fabrizio Santafede, who collaborated with Battistello Caracciolo and the Bolognese pupil of Reni, Francesco Gessi, to propose a design. The Deputation, however, was not satisfied with the plan. Soon after, Santafede died, and the team of Caracciolo and Gessi were fired.
On December 2, 1628, they sent out requests for a new proposals, this time also including local Neapolitan painters. None of the submissions were satisfactory. In 1630, the deputation commissioned a sample painting from the painter Domenico Zampieri (Domenichino), who like Reni, had been a pupil of Carracci in Rome. They asked him to submit a painting depicting the Martyrdom of San Gennaro (now in the museo del tesoro di San Gennaro). Pleased with the submission, he was hired in 1631.
Domenichino completed the majority of the frescoes in the chapel. He painted the four pinnacles: Pledge made by the Neapolitans in 1527,Meeting of Saint Gennaro with Christ in the Heavenly Glory, Virgin intercedes for Naples and Patronage of Saints Gennaro, Agrippina and Agnello Abate. He also painted the story of the life of San Gennaro in the three lunettes (1633) and in the arches. The four large altarpieces painted with oil on copper by Domenichino represent: the Beheading of Saint Januarius, the Miracle of the infirm healed by the oil lamp, the Infirm at the tomb of the Saint and Resurrection of a dead man. Domenichino died suddenly on April 6, 1641. A few months later, he was replaced by another follower of Carracci who was then in Rome, the Emilian, Giovanni Lanfranco. [5] However, the Deputation on June 6, 1646, decided to ask the local painter Massimo Stanzione, to complete the altarapiece of Miracle of the Obsessed, left incomplete by Domenichino. Ultimately, Stanzione's submission was not acceptable, and they entrusted the work to Jusepe de Ribera, who painted San Gennaro emerges unscathed from the furnace of Cimitile .
The design of the chapel was entrusted to the Theatine priest and architect Francesco Grimaldi, who had been active in designing other churches including the church of Santa Maria della Sapienza, the Basilica of San Paolo Maggiore, and the church of Sant'Andrea delle Dame.To complete the chapel of San Gennaro, several buildings were demolished, including some houses, some chapels, and the small church of Sant'Andrea. The chapel has a Greek cross plan with a dome.
In the interior, Francesco Solimena created the porphyry altar (1667) that frames the silver front (1692–1695) by Giovan Domenico Vinaccia. Behind the altar, two niches with silver doors donated by Charles II of Spain in 1667 guard the vials of the blood of San Gennaro. The reliquary bust of Saint Gennaro in gold and silver was made by three goldsmiths Provençal, and donated by Charles II in 1305. The largest bronze sculptures, including a St Peter and Paul flanking the entrance, were made by Giuliano Finelli, a student of Bernini. The chapel's marble decoration began in 1610 under plans of Grimaldi, and completed under the direction of Christopher Monterosso. The brass gates of the chapel were designed by Cosimo Fanzago in 1630 [7] replacing the one built by Giovanni Giacomo Conforto in 1628.
There are also fifty-four reliquary busts, all in all silver. The frescoes are by Domenichino, Lanfranco and Ribera.
Guido Reni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, although his works showed a classical manner, similar to Simon Vouet, Nicolas Poussin, and Philippe de Champaigne. He painted primarily religious works, but also mythological and allegorical subjects. Active in Rome, Naples, and his native Bologna, he became the dominant figure in the Bolognese School that emerged under the influence of the Carracci.
Januarius, also known as Januarius I of Benevento, was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, later sources and legends claim that he died during the Great Persecution, which ended with Diocletian's retirement in 305.
Domenico Zampieri, known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.
Belisario Corenzio was a Greek-Italian painter, active in Venice and Naples. He is one of few Greek painters that did not belong to the Cretan Renaissance like his contemporaries of the time. He escaped the maniera greca completely. He adopted the Venetian style. Other similar Greek painters were Marco Basaiti, Ioannis Permeniates, Antonio Vassilacchi and El Greco. He was sometimes referred to as Il Greco. His teacher was prominent Venetian painter Tintoretto. In 1590, at age 32 Corenzio settled in Naples. Corenzio was influenced by Cavalier d'Arpino. He continued to flourish in the region. His apprentices included: Luigi Rodriguez, Andrea di Leone, Onofrio De Lione and Massimo Stanzione. Corenzio painted many frescos that survived today. Some of his works are in the Church of San Severino and Certosa di San Martino. His style resembles Caravaggio. An Italian legend in Naples exists involving Corenzio, Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera, and Battistello Caracciolo. They were referred to as the Cabal of Naples. The three painters were rumored to have poisoned their competition for painting contracts. The rumors lack documented evidence. The three painters were very popular in Naples. Corenzio frescoed the Crypt that holds the remains of Matthew the Apostle at Salerno Cathedral and it depicts scenes from the Gospel of Matthew. Corenzio was one of the most celebrated fresco painters in Naples during his time. His drawings can be found all over the world namely at the Metropolitan Museum, Museo di Capodimonte and Louvre. More recently, his life and work was studied by the Greek art historian Panayotis K. Ioannou in a comprehensive monograph.
Jusepe de Ribera was a Spanish painter and printmaker who, along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, is regarded as one of the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referring to a series of Ribera exhibitions held in the late 20th century, Philippe de Montebello wrote "If Ribera's status as the undisputed protagonist of Neapolitan painting had ever been in doubt, it was no longer. Indeed, to many it seemed that Ribera emerged from these exhibitions as not simply the greatest Neapolitan artist of his age but one of the outstanding European masters of the seventeenth century." Jusepe de Ribera has also been referred to as José de Ribera, Josep de Ribera, and Lo Spagnoletto by his contemporaries, early historians, and biographers.
Giuseppe Cesari was an Italian Mannerist painter, also named Il Giuseppino and called Cavaliere d'Arpino, because he was created Cavaliere di Cristo by his patron Pope Clement VIII. He was much patronized in Rome by both Clement and Sixtus V. He was the chief of the studio in which Caravaggio trained upon the younger painter's arrival in Rome.
Francesco Albani or Albano was an Italian Baroque painter who was active in Bologna (1591–1600), Rome (1600–1609), Bologna (1609), Viterbo (1609–1610), Bologna (1610), Rome (1610–1617), Bologna (1618–1660), Mantova (1621–1622), Roma (1623–1625) and Florence (1633).
Sant'Andrea della Valle is a minor basilica in the rione of Sant'Eustachio of the city of Rome, Italy. The basilica is the general seat for the religious order of the Theatines. It is located at Piazza Vidoni, at the intersection of Corso Vittorio Emanuele and Corso Rinascimento.
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
San Carlo ai Catinari, also called Santi Biagio e Carlo ai Catinari, is an early-Baroque style church in Rome, Italy. It is located on Piazza Benedetto Cairoli, 117 just off the corner of Via Arenula and Via dei Falegnami, a few blocks south of the church of Sant'Andrea della Valle.
Lorenzo de Caro was an Italian painter, active in the late Baroque style in his native city of Naples.
The Naples Cathedral, or Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, is a Roman Catholic cathedral, the main church of Naples, southern Italy, and the seat of the Archbishop of Naples. It is widely known as the Cathedral of Saint Januarius, in honour of the city's patron saint.
Santa Maria la Nova is a Renaissance style, now-deconsecrated, Roman Catholic church and monastery in central Naples. The church is located at the beginning of a side street directly across from the east side of the main post office, a few blocks south of the Church and Monastery of Santa Chiara. Today the adjacent monastery is a meeting site and hosts the Museo ARCA of modern religious art.
San Francesco di Paola is a prominent church located to the west in Piazza del Plebiscito, the main square of Naples, Italy.
Bernardino Cesari was an Italian painter of the late-Mannerist and early Baroque period, active mainly in Rome and Naples, where he assisted his brother Giuseppe Cesari.
Aspren or Asprenas was a 1st-century Christian saint and venerated as the first Bishop of Naples.
Christianity and religion in general has always been an important part of the social and cultural life of Naples. It is the seat of the Archdiocese of Naples, and the Catholic faith is highly important to the people of Naples and there are hundreds of historic churches in the city. The Cathedral of Naples is the most important place of worship in the city, each year on September 19 it hosts the Miracle of Saint Januarius, the city's patron saint. In the miracle which thousands of Neapolitans flock to witness, the dried blood of Januarius is said to turn to liquid when brought close to relics said to be of his body: this is one of the most important traditions for Neapolitans.
The Cabal of Naples was a notorious triumvirate of painters in the city of Naples that operated during the early Baroque period from the late 1610s to the early 1640s. It was led by the Spaniard Jusepe de Ribera, who had established himself in Naples after fleeing creditors in Rome in 1616, and also consisted of the Neapolitan Battistello Caracciolo and Greek Belisario Corenzio. Its primary goal was to prevent competition from artists from other parts of Italy, particularly the masters. Its activities often targeted the followers of Annibale Carracci, but also any artist not native to Naples. It involved the triumvirate in leading the painters of the city to harass, expel, or poison any non-native painter, and only ended with the death of Caracciolo in 1641.
Francesco Ruschi was an Italian painter born in Rome around 1610. He studied in Rome under Giuseppe Cesari, Francesco Albani and Pietro da Cortona. His work also shows the influence of Caravaggio. He settled in Venice before 1629. He became a friend of the writer Giovan Francesco Loredan, for whom he drew the cover pages of several works. He moved to Treviso from 1656, and died there in 1661.
Giulio Cesare Fontana was an Italian architect and engineer, mainly active in Naples and its surroundings.
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