A small but extraordinary baroque oratory tucked beside the Basilica of San Severo fuori le Mura in the Sanita district of Naples, the Cappella dei Bianchi is the meeting chapel of the Confraternity of the Bianchi di Sant Antonio, a lay brotherhood founded in 1621 that bought the chapel from local friars to serve as the burial place of its members. The interior is a richly stuccoed, single-room oratory whose walls and ceiling are densely covered with paintings. Twelve canvases along the side walls tell stories from the life of Saint Anthony of Padua, while four large canvases on the ceiling depict the Eternal Father, the Virgin with Child and saints, the Immaculate Conception and Saint Francis, the work of major seventeenth-century Neapolitan painters. Among the artists represented are Luca Giordano, Francesco Fracanzano and Andrea Vaccaro, three of the most important figures of the Neapolitan baroque, whose presence in such a small chapel reflects the wealth and ambition of the confraternity at the height of its power. The chapel acquired its decoration over many decades through commissions and donations. In 2019 a striking contemporary marble sculpture was installed in the chapel and has since become a major draw. The Veiled Son, by the New York-based Italian sculptor Jago, depicts a child swathed in a veil and is carved from a single block of marble in a clear homage to the eighteenth-century Veiled Christ in the nearby Sansevero Chapel. The work is dedicated to the memory of innocent children, particularly the migrants who have died crossing the Mediterranean. The chapel sits in the heart of the Rione Sanita, one of the most distinctive and historically rich quarters of Naples, with the Sansevero chapel, the basilica of Santa Maria della Sanita and the catacombs of San Gennaro all within easy walking distance, making the Cappella dei Bianchi a natural stop on any wider walking tour of the district. For visitors fascinated by the Neapolitan baroque or by the rising profile of contemporary Italian sculpture, the chapel offers a powerful intersection of seventeenth-century painting and twenty-first-century sculpture in a single small room, and the dialogue between Sammartino veiled Christ and Jago veiled son is one of the more affecting cultural exchanges in the city.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Piazzetta San Severo a Capodimonte 44, Naples, Italy

Opening Date: 01/01/1740