In the summer of 2024, the big church of San Lorenzo Maggiore was covered in scaffolds. Judging by the images that I found on Google Street View, these scaffolds have been there for years and restoration work seems to progress just slowly. Sadly the orange façade designed by Ferdinando Sanfelice (1675-1748), a local architect, is invisible now, but the church behind it is fortunately normally open. The San Lorenzo can be counted among the oldest churches in Naples. There may have been a church at this site as early as the first half of the sixth century, which was built over a Roman market (macellum). The remains of this market are open to the public. The present church of San Lorenzo dates from the thirteenth century and is a good example of the Angevin-Gothic style in the city. The apse of the building is especially striking: it has an ambulatory and nine radial chapels.
History
The San Lorenzo Maggiore is a Franciscan church. The old San Lorenzo from the sixth century had been assigned to members of this monastic order in 1235. Construction of the current church started around 1270 on the orders of King Charles of Anjou. Charles had been crowned King of Sicily in early 1266, at a time when the Kingdom of Sicily also comprised all of Southern Italy, with Naples as the most important city. Now unfortunately for Charles Sicily already had a king named Manfred, but Charles managed to defeat him on 26 February 1266 at the battle of Benevento. Two years later Manfred’s young nephew Conradin tried to depose Charles, but on 23 August 1268 the latter defeated him at Tagliacozzo. Conradin was taken prisoner, and on 29 October 1268 he was beheaded on the Piazza del Mercato in Naples. He was just sixteen years old (see Naples: Santa Maria del Carmine). Now that all his rivals had been eliminated, the throne of Charles of Anjou was finally secure. It was now time for an ambitious program of church and castle building. The rebuilding of the San Lorenzo Maggiore was part of this program.
Construction of the new church started at the apse. The builders then slowly but surely worked their way towards the façade. It was a process that must have taken them several decades. Unfortunately I have not been able to establish when the San Lorenzo Maggiore was completed, but there was certainly still much work to do when Charles died in 1285. The project was continued under his successors Charles II (1285-1309) and Robert (1309-1343). The apse with the radial chapels is typically French and extremely rare, if not unique, in Italy (although I do think I have found a similar construction in Bologna). In the sixteenth century the apse was separated from the rest of the church and no longer used for the next three centuries. It seems likely that the structural condition of this part of the building was pretty bad, which may also be the reason that most of the apse and radial chapels were roped off when I visited the church in July of this year. The Angevin-Gothic church must have been richly decorated with frescoes showing the influences of Roman and Tuscan masters such as Pietro Cavallini and Giotto. It is sad to see that many of these frescoes survive in a fragmentary state only.
From the sixteenth century onward the church was embellished with first Renaissance and then Baroque elements. A good example of a Renaissance element is the high altar from ca. 1530, a work by the sculptor and architect Giovanni da Nola (1488-1558). The three statues of the altar represent – from left to right – Saints Franciscus of Assisi, Lawrence and Antonius of Padova respectively. The reliefs below the statues tell important stories from their lives: Franciscus befriends a wolf, Lawrence is martyred on his gridiron and Antonius speaks to the fish. In the seventeenth century Cosimo Fanzago (1591-1678) fitted out two chapels in Baroque style. These chapels are the Cappella Cacace on the right side and the Cappellone di Sant’Antonio in the left transept. Together with the aforementioned façade of Sanfelice these chapels are the rare surviving Baroque elements in the church. There were certainly more Baroque decorations once, but starting in the early twentieth century these were systematically removed to give the church back its medieval, Gothic appearance.
Funerary monuments
In the church we find many beautiful funerary monuments of people with ties to the House of Anjou. By far the most spectacular monument must be that of Catherine of Austria (1295-1323), which stands to the right of the high altar. See the images to the right and above. Catherine was the wife of Duke Charles of Calabria (1298-1328), the son of King Robert of Anjou, nicknamed “the Wise”. The marriage of Catherine and Charles failed to produce any offspring. After her death the Duke married Maria of Valois (1309-1331). The funerary monuments of Charles and Maria are in the church of Santa Chiara in Naples, but Catherine found her final resting place in the San Lorenzo Maggiore. Her tomb is the work of the Tuscan sculptor Tino di Camaino (ca. 1285-1337). It is his first work in Naples and a fine example of Tuscan influences in the city. The baldachin of the monument is supported by four twisted columns with beautiful Cosmatesque decorations, which in their turn are supported by four lions. On the baldachin we see, among other things, a relief of Saint Franciscus of Assisi receiving the stigmata. Below the canopy rests the effigy of the deceased, while her sarcophagus is held by statues of Hope and Charity.
In the left transept stands the tomb of Charles of Durazzo (1323-1348). This Duke of Durazzo was married to Maria (1329-1366), a posthumous daughter of Charles of Calabria and therefore a granddaughter of King Robert the Wise. On the other side we find the double tomb of Joanna of Durazzo (1344-1387) and her husband Robert of Artois (1356-1387). This tomb dates from 1399 and is the spitting image of Charles’ tomb. This is easily explained, as Joanna of Durazzo was a daughter of Charles. She and her husband died on the same day, the lamentable result of an assassination. Both were poisoned in 1387 by Margaret of Durazzo, the younger sister of Joanna. She was the widow of King Charles III the Short of Naples (1382-1386). In 1381 this Charles had deposed Joanna I of Naples, the granddaughter of Robert the Wise and the older sister of Maria. These were tough times, and people did well not to trust even their own relatives. A bit further on is a third tomb. It is beautiful, but once again it comes with a sad story. This is the tomb of Maria of Durazzo, a daughter of Charles III. She died in 1371 aged three. Unfortunately we do not know who made the three monuments.
In the right transept we can admire the remains of the tomb of a certain Ludovico Caracciolo. According to the information sign this monument dates from 1335. What is remarkable is that we do not see just one, but two effigies on the sarcophagus. The two men are wearing chainmail and a surcote, have daggers at their hips and dogs at their feet. In the relief of the sarcophagus the same two men have been depicted kneeling. Here we also see a kneeling king, perhaps Robert the Wise, who after all ruled until 1343. Perhaps this too is a double tomb, belonging to the aforementioned Ludovico Caracciolo and his brother or son.
The first chapel on the right has a conspicuous tiled floor, but the object that really catches the eye is the funerary monument of Ludovico Aldomorisco from 1421. It was made by the sculptor Antonio Baboccio da Piperno (ca. 1351-1435). The deceased was a Neapolitan admiral and advisor to King Ladislaus of Naples, who sat on the throne between 1386 and 1414. Ladislaus was the son of the aforementioned King Charles III and the murderous Margaret of Durazzo. His advisor got a splendid tomb that is supported by four warriors.
The sarcophagus was provided with reliefs that show how the deceased is first introduced to the Virgin Mary and then to Jesus Christ. The figure in the reliefs with the royal crown must be Ladislaus; he had passed away in 1414 at the tender age of 37. As the king had no legitimate offspring, he was succeeded by his sister Joanna. When the childless Joanna died in 1435, the direct line of descent of the House of Anjou was extinct (although we may note that her successor René of Anjou was a scion of the House of Valois-Anjou and a descendant of the French king Louis IX, the older brother of the Charles I of Anjou who had become King of Sicily in 1266).
Younger funerary monuments can be found in the last chapel on the left side of the nave. Here stand the tombs of Vito Pisanelli from 1528 and Giacomo Pisanelli from 1514. Both are the work of Romolo Balsimelli, a sixteenth-century sculptor from Tuscany. More work by this sculptor can be found in the Cappella di San Rocco on the right side of the nave. However, much more than Balsimelli’s creations it is the altarpiece here that draws our attention. It was made in the middle of the fifteenth century by an unknown artist and was entirely painted once.
Frescoes and paintings
Although sadly very little remains of the various fresco cycles in the church, the San Lorenzo Maggiore does still have a thing or two to offer. The best frescoes are those of the Nativity of Christ and the Dormition of the Virgin (Dormitio Virginis). Both are located in the right transept, that of the Nativity right above the aforementioned tomb of Ludovico Caracciolo. The two frescoes were once part of a larger fresco cycle that presumably had the life of the Virgin Mary as its theme. The cycle is attributed to Montano d’Arezzo. Montano was a Tuscan painter who had worked in Assisi and Rome and had thus become acquainted with the work of Giotto and Pietro Cavallini. He subsequently used his experience in Naples, where he worked for kings Charles II and Robert. His frescoes in the San Lorenzo Maggiore date from ca. 1300. Unfortunately very little is known about the life of Montano d’Arezzo.
On the same side of the church, in the Cappella della Santissima Annunziata, we find a few more traces of frescoes, including a fragmentary Nativity. Much better, however, are the fresco fragments in the first radial chapel of the apse. Initially I only spotted a piece of fresco of a monk reading a book here, but when I did a second tour of the church I fortunately noticed the three scenes from the life of Mary Magdalene. The frescoes are very good and clear evidence of Giotto’s influence in Naples, but unfortunately the light in this part of the church is far from ideal. On the other hand, it is good enough to see that we are looking at the Supper in the House of the Pharisee, the Raising of Lazarus and the Penitent Magdalene. The frescoes are dated to ca. 1295-1300. The name of the painter has not been recorded. He is simply called the Maestro delle Storie della Maddalena.
On the right wall of the sixth radial chapel I noticed three scenes from the life of the Virgin. Unfortunately I had to admire these frescoes from a large distance. As I already mentioned above, much of the apse is not accessible to the public. Nevertheless, in spite of the distance I could still see that – from top to bottom – the Nativity of the Virgin, the Marriage of the Virgin and the Nativity of Christ have been painted. The style is again that of Giotto. Especially the fresco of the Marriage is very good. Note the buildings in the background and the people (including the priest) standing behind each other. It looks as if the anonymous painter was experimenting with perspective here. According to the apocryphal Gospel of James, Mary was just twelve years old when she married Joseph, but here we see a mature Neapolitan woman looking at Joseph full of self-confidence.
In the Cappella Pignone on the left side we find a panel painting of the local painter Angiolillo Arcuccio (died ca. 1492). It represents five Franciscan missionaries who were martyred in Morocco in 1220, so still during the lifetime of Franciscus of Assisi. By adding arrows, lances, rocks and saws, the painter shows us how the five men met their violent end. The altarpiece in the Cappellone di Sant’Antonio is a panel painting from 1438 by Leonardo da Besozzo, the son of the more famous Michelino da Besozzo. The painting represents Saint Antonius of Padova with six angels. Later in the fifteenth century the image of Saint Antonius was painted over by an unknown painter. A miracle that occurred in 1623 is attributed to this altarpiece. A young man who was completely innocent had been condemned to death and the Spanish viceroy refused to consider petitions to pardon him. The young man’s wife then left her petition on the high altar in the chapel. The next morning her husband was released. Saint Antonius had personally pleaded his case with the viceroy.
My Capitool travel guide for Naples (2018 edition, p. 84) served as a base for this post. Additional information came from the many information panels in the church, from Basilica di San Lorenzo Maggiore – Wikipedia and from Napoli (NA) | Chiesa di San Lorenzo Maggiore (chiesacattolica.it).
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