The Piazza Gesù Nuovo is a good spot to admire the church of Santa Chiara and its freestanding bell-tower. Naples is a densely built city, the whole complex of Santa Chiara is walled and the aforementioned square is one of the very few places that offers a relatively uninhibited view. The Piazza Gesù Nuovo is, moreover, interesting for other reasons as well. We for instance find the church of Gesù Nuovo here, a Jesuit church in a former palazzo (which explains the conspicuous façade). Opposite Gesù Nuovo stands another church, which is a lot less striking. This is the church of the Poor Clares with the complicated name Gesù Redentore e San Ludovico d’Angiò. The narrow and very deep church is also part of the complex of Santa Chiara. On the Piazza Gesù Nuovo we furthermore find one of the needles or spires of Naples, in this case the guglia dell’Immacolata. Lastly, adjoining the square is one of the tourist offices of Naples. All in all, there is enough to see and do, but this post will focus exclusively on the complex of Santa Chiara. Church and cloisters are among the most famous in Naples, but during the Second World War the whole complex came within an inch of total destruction.
History
Santa Chiara is a project of King Robert of Anjou and his second wife Sancha of Mallorca. In 1310 they gave the orders to build a Gothic church and associated convents, plural. What is special about Santa Chiara is that both a convent of male Friars Minor and a nunnery of female Poor Clares were associated with the complex. Both orders are Franciscan, and Robert of Anjou had a special bond with the Franciscans. In 1284, while still crown prince of Naples, his father Charles II of Anjou had been taken prisoner in the war with Aragon. He was only released in 1288, on the condition that he sent his three eldest sons as hostages to Spain. Robert, who was born in 1276, was the third son. During their captivity the brothers were under the care of Franciscans, who were also responsible for their education. Their contacts with these Friars Minor left a deep impression on the brothers. Robert later basically became King of Naples by chance. His eldest brother Charles Martel (1271-1295) died of the plague and his second brother Louis (1274-1297) renounced his right to the throne. He joined the Franciscan Order and died as bishop of Toulouse at the tender age of 23. Louis of Toulouse was canonised in 1317.
When in 1309, upon the death of his father Charles, Robert of Anjou inherited the throne of the kingdom of Naples, it was already clear that the church he was planning to build would be a Franciscan church, a Franciscan church that would, moreover, serve as a mausoleum for members of the House of Anjou. To improve diplomatic relations with Aragon, he had initially married Yolande of Aragon, but she had passed away in 1302. His second marriage with Sancha of Mallorca (ca. 1281-1345) did not produce any offspring, but this meant that the couple had plenty of time for religious activities. Sancha was a deeply religious woman and Santa Chiara must be seen as a joint project of the two spouses. Robert would go on to rule the kingdom for almost 34 years. He died in 1343, found his final resting place in the Santa Chiara (see below) and would be remembered by posterity as Robert the Wise (Il Saggio). Sancha survived her husband by a mere two years. In 1344 she entered the convent of Santa Maria della Croce in Naples as a nun, where she passed away the next year. Her remains were later taken to Santa Chiara, but unlike her husband she was never granted a splendid funerary monument.
As was already mentioned, the construction of the Santa Chiara started in 1310. The names of two of the architects involved are known: Gagliardo Primario (died 1348) and Leonardo di Vito. Tuscan artists were hired to decorate the church. King Robert had excellent ties with the city of Florence, which enabled him to summon the great Florentine painter Giotto (ca. 1266-1337) and his assistants to Naples. We know that Giotto lived in Naples between December of 1328 and December of 1333.[1] The job to decorate the church with sculptures was entrusted to another Tuscan artist, Tino di Camaino (ca. 1285-1337), who was originally from Siena. The construction of the cloister of the Poor Clares started in 1312. In the end no fewer than four cloisters had been built around the church. In 1340 the complex of Santa Chiara was complete, with the exception of the freestanding bell-tower. Construction had started during the reign of King Robert, but upon his death it was discovered that all financial resources had been exhausted. Ultimately the tower was not completed until 1604. Only its lower part dates from the fourteenth century.
The church of Santa Chiara lost its Gothic appearance in the eighteenth century. From 1742 onward the church was remodelled in Baroque style by the architect Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (1678-1745). The open roof was replaced with a vault, which was frescoed by painters such as Sebastiano Conca (1680-1764). The marble floor of the church, laid between 1761 and 1763, is the work of Ferdinando Fuga (1699-1782). The Baroque church was almost completely destroyed by an Allied bombardment on 4 August 1943. In this case photos speak louder than words. On Wikimedia Commons one can find a dozen photos of the interior of the church before the bombardment. Take a look at these photos and then compare them to photos taken after the bombardment. It will instantly become clear that the damage was huge. The vault and almost all of the frescoes in the church were lost forever. During the restorations that were launched after the Second World War it was decided that the Santa Chiara was to become a Gothic church again. On 4 August 1953, exactly ten years after the catastrophic bombardment, the rebuilt church was once again opened to the public.
Exploring the church
The exterior of the church of Santa Chiara is not that spectacular. We see a stern façade made of piperno and tuff, with the coat of arms of Sancha of Mallorca above the central Gothic pointed arch. The church still has its original Gothic rose window, which is very beautiful. It is composed of six smaller circular windows and a large number of trefoils. Walk around the left side of the church and you will arrive at the cloister of the Poor Clares, which is currently part of the museum of the complex and can be visited after buying a ticket. We will enter the cloister in just a moment. Let us explore the church first.
The Santa Chiara has a single nave. The church does not have an apse or transept, but there is a nuns’ choir behind the back wall. Although Poor Clares and Friars Minor shared the complex, they were obviously kept strictly separate. When attending mass, the nuns were not supposed to mingle with the friars or lay people. The nuns’ choir allowed them to celebrate mass without being seen by others. Unfortunately this choir is not accessible to the public. This is really a pity, as the walls of the choir contain the remnants of frescoes by Giotto and his assistants. It is probably a small comfort for Giotto enthusiasts that not much is left of the frescoes anyway, and that many of them will have been painted by his co-workers. When he came to Naples, Giotto was already in his sixties and in charge of a large workshop. Although he certainly still painted himself, he also left a lot of work to his assistants.
The church choir has also been roped off, but we can nevertheless admire the three large funerary monuments that have been erected there from a distance. All three were made for members of the House of Anjou. In the centre we see the immense tomb of King Robert of Anjou. The monument was unfortunately damaged during the 1943 bombardment and had to be restored after the war. Although the restoration was done quite competently, it is crystal clear that the monument is no longer fully intact; a large chunk of the baldachin is for instance missing. The funerary monument was commissioned by Joanna I of Naples, granddaughter of King Robert, who was Queen of Naples between 1343 and 1381. Joanna would no doubt have asked Tino di Camaino to design the monument, had he not died in 1337. She therefore hired two other Tuscan sculptors, the brothers Giovanni and Pacio Bertini from Florence. They completed the tomb in 1345.
We see the effigy of the king lying on his deathbed in the habit of a Franciscan monk, a demonstration of his lifelong devotion to the monastic order founded by Saint Franciscus of Assisi. The top part of the monument has another sculpture of the king, this time sitting on his throne. Below the throne we read the Latin words:
CERNITE ROBERTVM REGEM VIRTVTE REFERTVM
(“See King Robert, full of virtue!”)
The tomb of King Robert stands behind a fourteenth-century altar and a crucifix that also dates from the fourteenth century. The monument of the king is flanked by two other funerary monuments. The one on the right was made for Robert’s son Charles of Anjou, Duke of Calabria (1298-1328). It was executed by the aforementioned Tino di Camaino. Tino also made the funerary monument of Charles’ first wife Catherine of Austria (1295-1323), which can be found in the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore in Naples. After the death of Catherine, Charles married Marie of Valois (1309-1331). Her funerary monument is also in the Santa Chiara, directly to the right of the choir. This monument is a work by Tino di Camaino as well.
The Duke of Calabria was set to succeed his father Robert as King of Naples, but unfortunately he died in 1328, just thirty years old. King Robert was deeply affected by the death of his son, if only because Charles was his last legitimate child (a second son, Louis, had died in 1310). As a consequence, upon his death in 1343, King Robert was succeeded by his granddaughter, the aforementioned Joanna I of Naples, who would rule the kingdom until she was deposed in 1381. Joanna was the oldest surviving daughter of Duke Charles, but after his death another daughter was born posthumously, Maria (1329-1366). She married Charles, Duke of Durazzo, and is therefore also known as Maria of Durazzo. Her funerary monument stands to the left of that of her grandfather King Robert. The monument is attributed to the so-called Durazzo Master (Maestro Durazzesco).
Chapels on the left
The church of Santa Chiara has ten chapels on either side of the nave. These once again contain many beautiful and interesting funerary monuments. In the Cappella di Santa Maria Francesca on the left side we for instance find a sarcophagus from Antiquity that was reused in 1632 for a certain Giovan Battista Sanfelice, Duke of Rodi Garganico. The scenes on the sarcophagus are evidently non-Christian. They tell the story of the Greek hero Protesilaus and his wife Laodamia. Protesilaus was the first Greek warrior to die in the Trojan war. Laodamia was unable to cope with the loss and commissioned a bronze statue of her husband, which she worshipped every day. When her father melted down the statue, the grief-stricken widow also jumped into the fire and thus ended her life.
A bit further on, and also on the left side, the Cappella di San Francesco d’Assisi betrays Tuscan influences. The fourteenth-century funerary monuments on the left and right side of the chapel, made for Raimondo and Isabella del Balzo, are in any case attributed to Tuscan sculptors. Both Raimondo and his third wife Isabella died in 1375, so it seems logical to assume that the two monuments were sculpted more or less simultaneously. They were explicitly intended to be each other’s mirror image, although the information panel in the chapel claims that Isabella’s monument is of greater quality. Opinions are apparently divided on the attribution of the statue of Saint Franciscus of Assisi in the chapel. The information panel states that it is a work by a follower of the local sculptor Annibale Caccavello (1515-1595), but online we also find an attribution to Michelangelo Naccherino (1550-1622), a sculptor from Florence.
Still on the left side, we arrive at the Cappella del Sacro Cuore di Gesù. Here a remarkable tomb with the reclining effigy of a knight has been positioned against the left wall. The knight has his hands folded in front of his chest and is wearing chainmail armour with a coif. At his feet we see small dogs, while Christ, the Virgin Mary and Saint John have been depicted on the sarcophagus. There is a Latin text on the lid of the sarcophagus which I found hard to read. Apparently the full text is:
HIC IACET RAIMUNDUS DE CABANIS MILES REGII HOSPITII SENESCALLUS QUI OBIIT ANNO DOMINI MCCCXXXIV DIE XXV OCTOBRIS III INDICT
This allows us to identify the deceased as Raimondo de’ Cabanni. Raimondo is mentioned in a collection of biographies by the poet Boccaccio entitled De casibus virorum illustrium. Raimondo was a former slave from North Africa; Boccaccio called him an Ethiopian. His Neapolitan owner was impressed by his talents and decided to set him free. The freedman thereupon took on the name of his former master: Raimondo de’ Cabanni, Raymond of Campania. Raimondo subsequently rose through the ranks at the court of King Robert. The king made him a knight (miles) and appointed him as seneschal (senescallus). And so a former slave acquired one of the most powerful offices in the Kingdom of Naples. According to the text on the sarcophagus Raimondo de’ Cabanni died in October of 1334. He had been married to Philippa of Catania, a Sicilian woman who had served as Yolande of Aragon’s wetnurse. One of their sons was Perotto, who died in 1336 and also lies buried in the chapel. More than ten years after the death of her husband, Philippa and one of her granddaughters were accused of the murder of Andrew, Duke of Calabria, in 1345. Andrew was the first husband of Joanna I of Naples. Philippa was almost certainly innocent, but she died in prison the next year and her family almost instantly lost its prominent position in the kingdom.
Lastly I would like to mention the Cappella dei Miracoli Antoniani, where we find the tombs of Drugo and Niccolò Merloto. Drugo, who died in 1339, was granted a splendid funerary monument, made by a follower of Tino di Camaino who may possibly be equated to the Durazzo Master. The effigy of the deceased lies slightly tilted on the sarcophagus, in full armour and with a short sword or dagger on the hip. Above him Jesus Christ, Franciscus of Assisi and Louis of Toulouse have been depicted. As was already mentioned, the latter was the older brother of King Robert. Drugo Merloto is again depicted on top of the funerary monument, where we see him kneeling before the Madonna and Child. The standing figures are two unknown saints. Compared to the tomb of Drugo that of Niccolò Merloto is a bit simpler. The sarcophagus nevertheless has nicely sculpted reliefs. From left to right we see Saint Peter, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (with a wheel), the Madonna and Child with angels, Saint Agnes (with a lamb) and Saint Paul. I have unfortunately not been able to establish who Drugo and Niccolò Merloto were exactly, but their family was no doubt important enough to have a chapel in this “royal” church.
Counter-façade and chapels on the right
Directly to the left of the entrance of the church we find a remarkable object. I am referring to the baldachin of the funerary monument of Antonio Penna. This monument was made between 1407 and 1411 on the orders of Antonio’s uncle Onofrio Penna. The maker was the sculptor Antonio Baboccio da Piperno (ca. 1351-1435). The baldachin itself is not that interesting, but the two frescoes that we see on the counter-façade certainly are, especially now that we are in a church where most of the other frescoes were lost. The upper fresco was once part of the funerary monument. It represents a standing Madonna and Child who are venerated by Antonio and Onofrio Penna. In the lower fresco the Holy Trinity has been depicted. The frescoes are not a matching pair and the bottom fresco is clearly older. For some reason the sarcophagus of Antonio Penna was relocated to the Cappella di Sant’Agnello Abate, which is the second chapel on the right. The sarcophagus has striking sculpted reliefs: of the six saints flanking the Madonna and Child five are bearded.
To the right of the entrance stands the funerary monument for the sisters Agnes and Clementia of Durazzo. They were the older sisters of Margaret of Durazzo (1347-1412), whose husband Charles of Durazzo deposed Joanna of Naples in 1381. Charles subsequently ruled as King of Naples between 1382 and his death in 1386. In the history books we find his name as Charles III the Short (il Breve). Agnes, Clementia and Margaret were all members of the Neapolitan royal family. Their mother Maria of Durazzo has already been mentioned above as the daughter of Duke Charles of Calabria and the granddaughter of King Robert. But the line of their father – who rather confusingly was also called Charles of Durazzo, just like Margaret’s husband – also went back to the Kings of Naples. This father was a son of John of Durazzo (ca. 1294-1336), the youngest son of King Charles II of Anjou and a younger brother of King Robert, eighteen years his junior. John of Durazzo had a second son named Louis, who was the father of Charles III the Short. And so the Charles who ascended the throne of Naples in 1382 could also bolster his claim to that throne with family ties.
In the aforementioned Cappella di Sant’Agnello Abate we find, apart from the aforementioned sarcophagus of Antonio Penna, the tomb of a knight who is called the Cavaliere del Nodo, the “knight of the knot”. This is more than a funny name; it is in fact a reference to a chivalric order, founded in 1352, the Ordine del Nodo. The founding father of this order was Louis of Taranto (1320-1362), the second husband of Queen Joanna I of Naples (as a grandson of King Charles II he was also a distant relative of the queen). Unfortunately the name of the knight in the Cappella di Sant’Agnello Abate has not been recorded. The same is true with regard to the noblewoman who found her final resting place in a splendid sarcophagus in the Cappella di San Pietro. The sarcophagus is again attributed to the Durazzo Master. Below the effigy of the deceased we see, from left to right, Saint Franciscus of Assisi, the Madonna and Child and Saint Clare of Assisi.
The last chapel on the right is the Cappella Borbone. This is a royal chapel, but it has nothing to do with the kings from the House of Anjou. In the middle of the fifteenth century this house was replaced by Aragonese and then Spanish kings. As of 1713 Naples was ruled by Austrians from the House of Habsburg, and then from 1734 onwards by Spanish Bourbons.[2] The Cappella Borbone was fitted out in 1742 on the orders of King Charles VII of Bourbon. The chapel survived the 1943 bombardment and is stylistically very different from the other chapels in the church. Near the chapel we find a wonderfully preserved fresco of the Madonna and Child from the fourteenth century. The fresco is known as the Madonna del Cucito, the Madonna of the Embroidery. That is what the Virgin Mary is doing: she is sewing. It is a rather unusual image and I do not know any other examples.
Cloister
The cloister of the Poor Clares is the largest of the four cloisters of the complex. From this we may conclude that these female Franciscans were more numerous and more important for the Santa Chiara than the Friars Minor. The large cloister was designed in the eighteenth century by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro, already mentioned above. It is alternatively called the chiostro maiolicato, after the majolica tiles made by the brothers Giuseppe and Donato Massa that were used to decorate the columns and benches. It is a wonderful place to go for a stroll, where visitors are warned in four languages not to sit on the benches. Just imagine the cloister surviving the 1943 bombardment, only to fall victim to the horrors of mass tourism…
The rooms on the east side of the cloister are used for temporary exhibitions and those on the west side house the museum of the complex. The museum opened its doors in 1995 and focuses on the history of the complex, with a lot of emphasis on the 1943 bombardment and its aftermath. The museum also gives access to the excavations next to the complex, where the remains of a Roman bathhouse from the first century CE have been found. In the museum itself one can admire, among other things, statues of Robert of Anjou and Sancha of Mallorca, a sculpted relief with parts of a Crucifixion by Tino di Camaino and a beautifully sculpted element of a pulpit with scenes of the martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The scenes are attributed to a follower of Giovanni and Pacio Bertini.
My Capitool travel guide for Naples (2018 edition, p. 70-71) served as a base for this post. The Santa Chiara and its museum have many information panels with detailed information. Additional information came from Basilica di Santa Chiara (Napoli) – Wikipedia and from the source in the footnotes.
Notes
[1] See Francesca Flores d’Arcais, Giotto, p. 346-351.
[2] Between 1700 and 1713 there was also a Spanish Bourbon on the throne of Naples, i.e. Philip IV, who was also Philip V of Spain.
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