Dec.
2010
The Piazza & Church of Gesù Nuovo and the Church & Museum of Santa Chiara
The first five items appeared on separate pages in the original version of the Around Naples Encyclopedia on the dates indicated. They have been consolidated here onto a single page. Additionally, item six is an update from Sept. 2014.
(1) directly below (2) Church of Santa Chaira (3) Santa Chiara restored (4) Museum (5) musical notation
1.
Apr.
2003
Gesù
Nuovo, church & square; Santa Chiara, church; monument
spire
Piazza del Gesù
Nuovo may be considered the
bridge between the ancient Greco-Roman city of Neapolis
and the city of the Spanish vicerealm that expanded to
the west in the 1500s under the direction of the Viceroy
Don Pedro di Toledo. Under the
earlier Angevin rule, there had been a western gate to
the city at Piazza del Gesù that the Spanish
simply moved over to Largo Mercatello
(modern-day Piazza Dante), when they built the
grand avenue now known as via Toledo (or via
Roma).
The square, Piazza del
Gesù Nuovo, contains some remarkable structures.
First, there is the thirteenth-century Gothic
church/convent of Santa Chiara, marked most
obviously by the belfry (photo, left) that stands within
the grounds at the end of the square. The convent was
built between 1310 and 1328 by architect Gagliardo Primario at the behest of the wife of King
Robert of Anjou. It still retains the citadel-like walls
setting it apart from the outside world, walls that
contained a vast religious community—and today contain a
more modest one—made up of the Convent of the Poor
Clares and, beside it, a monastery of Grey Friars, both
dominated by the stark architecture of the church
itself. The complex was expanded along Baroque lines in
the 1700s. It was almost entirely destroyed by bombing
in WW II and was restored to its original Gothic form,
retaining only a few reminders of the Baroque. King’s
Robert’s tomb is within the church, and bears the
epitaph by Petrarch: Cernite Robertum regem virtute
refertum, reminding the people to “consider Robert
a King rich in virtue”.
The lovely monastic courtyard in the rear of the church is the result of renovation done by D.A. Vaccaro in the 1730s at the request of Maria Amalia di Sassonia, wife of Charles III of Bourbon, King of Naples. The colorful and delicate majolica tile work (photo, right) is characteristic of the school of Neapolitan ceramic from that period and was crafted by Donato Massa and his son, Giuseppe. The church was destroyed in WW2 and rebuilt by 1953. (See #3, below) for a recent item on the restoration of the courtyard.)
The most striking
building in the square other than the church of Santa
Chiara is the 15th-century residence built for Robert
Sanseverino, Prince of Salerno. It is now the Church of
Gesù Nuovo (photo, left) and has given its name to the
entire square. (It is one of those churches in Naples
that started out as something else. The word "new" in
the name of the church is to distinguish it from the
church of Gesù Vecchio
(old) about a half-mile away.) The unusual façade is
called "ashlar" in architectural terminology and is one
of the few examples of this characteristic 15th-century
façade in Naples.The building was finished in 1470 and
was a symbol of the baron's increasing power and favor
within the court of Ferrante of Aragon, ruler of the
Kingdom of Naples at the time. The architect was Novello
da San Lucano. [See this entry
for more on him and his connection with some peculiar
musical notation inscribed on the facade of the
building!] The baron died shortly thereafter and the
building passed to his son, Antonello. Young Tony,
however, quickly became enmeshed in conspiracy against
the throne and was forced to flee the city of Naples and
hole up in a fortress near Salerno. He was captured and
exiled to Senigallia (no, not Senegal—it's a town
on the Adriatic). His property was confiscated. He
eventually got the property back from the Spanish throne
when they took over the kingdom. The large residence
then passed to his son, Ferrante. In 1547, Ferrante
incurred the wrath of the Spanish viceroy, Don Pedro
Alvarez de Toledo, and fled the kingdom, dying in
Avignon, France, in 1568. His property was put up for
sale and the residence was bought by Niccolò Grimaldi in
1584 who, in turn, sold it to the Jesuit
order. It was transformed into a church, leaving
the original façade intact, and was consecrated in 1601.
The church passed to a Franciscan order when the Jesuits
were expelled from Naples in 1767. The Jesuits got the
church back in 1821.
The highly ornamental
interior of the church belies its solemn exterior. The
spectacular frescoes on the ceiling of the central nave
are by Belisario Corenzio
and Paolo de Matteis. Also,
the church has on display The Expulsion of Heliodorus
from the Temple (1725) one of the most noteworthy
works by Francesco Solimena,
the great painter of the Neapolitan Baroque. The building,
because of its checkered history, first as a residence,
then as a church—what with people getting exiled, dying,
etc. etc.—used to have somewhat the reputation of being
under an evil spell. Some students of the supernatural
have enjoyed attributing this
malevolent presence to the esoteric properties of the
stones in the unusual façade.
(update Dec. 2010: See
this link for an entry
on the symbols on the stones of the facade, now held to
be ancient musical notation!)
Literally
"topping off’ the square is the Spire of the Immaculate
Virgin, erected in 1750 with funds collected through
public subscription sponsored by Jesuit Father Francesco
Pepe. The spire replaced an earlier equestrian statue
erected in 1705 on the occasion of a visit to Naples by
Philip V of Spain. When the Spanish left the city and
were replaced by the Austrians, that statue was
destroyed by the populace.
Some of the finest
sculptors of the 1700s worked on the spire one sees today:
among others, Francesco Pagani and Matteo Bottiglieri.
Depicted on the spire, among other scenes, are the
Presentation of Jesus at the Temple; The Birth of the
Virgin Mary; and The Annunciation. The spire, itself,
represents the presence of the Jesuit Order in the city.
Its rich ornamentation is considered the epitome of
Neapolitan Baroque sculpture.
2. Church of Santa Chiara
Sept.
2003
Belfry of Santa Chiara
A ceremony was held in the city hall
the other day in memory of (1) the destruction of the
church of Santa Chiara in 1943 and (2) the rebuilding of
that church, completed over ten years later. (See items,
below.) That rebuilding is responsible for the odd
feeling you get when you stand in the courtyard and
stare at the plain masonry and stark Gothic architecture
of the church: Santa Chiara seems at once as old as it
is and, yet, much newer. It is both.
On August 4, 1943,
after 95 previous air raids on the city of Naples aimed
primarily at military installations near the port and
train station, the next attack accidentally hit the
church and, as they say here, “destroyed six centuries
in ten seconds.” (Robert of Anjou built the original
church in 1310.) The fire burned for 10 days; 159
persons were killed and 228 were wounded. The church was
left a burned-out shell. The belfry on the grounds
(photo, left) is the only part that escaped destruction.
A plaque (photo, below) on the front of the church,
itself, commemorates the reconstruction, finished in
1953.
The plaque reads:
After centuries
of glory
this temple
destroyed by war
rises as an altar of peace
in the heart of ancient Naples
and welcomes the names and memory
of those who shed blood
in the hope of love among nations
August 4, 1943 August 4, 1953
this temple
destroyed by war
rises as an altar of peace
in the heart of ancient Naples
and welcomes the names and memory
of those who shed blood
in the hope of love among nations
August 4, 1943 August 4, 1953
(added - 18 Nov 2016)
STAINED GLASS windows - The manufacture and coloring of glass is ancient. Both the Egyptians and the Romans excelled at making small colored glass objects. There is evidence of the use of colored glass for windows in Christian monasteries or churches from about the 7th century AD. The restored church of Santa Chiara (the building on the right in the top picture on this page) was restored to its original early 14th-century Gothic form. The restoration included the use of a stained glass window (pictured). Generally speaking, stained glass in the windows of Christian churches is more than just colored glass for the sake of ornamentation; it is meant to depict a story or episode from the Bible and to be 'read'. There is no unanimity of opinion among scholars as to whether the restoration of Santa Chiara with such a window is historically accurate--although it is plausible. A few other Gothic churches in Naples use stained glass to tell "stories" at least in the restored versions of the churches (San Pietro a Maiella, for example; also San Lorenzo Maggiore and, elsewhere, at the abbey at Montevergine. Much simpler (possibly tinted) glass in most churches is termed "cathedral glass".
[Also see The Old Crossroads of Santa
Chiara]
3.
May
2007
The Restoration
of the Santa Chiara
Courtyard (photos below text)
From
the above item:
“On August 4, 1943, after 95 previous air raids on the city of Naples aimed primarily at military installations near the port and train station, the next attack accidentally hit [Santa Chiara] and, as they say here, ‘destroyed six centuries in ten seconds’ (Robert of Anjou built the original church in 1310.) The fire burned for 10 days; 159 persons were killed and 228 were wounded. The church was left a burned-out shell. The belfry on the grounds is the only part that escaped destruction. A plaque on the front of the church, itself, commemorates the reconstruction, finished in 1953.”
The destruction of this, the second most important church in Naples (after the Duomo) was a terrible loss to the city, and the 1953 rebuilding marked the real beginning of the rebirth of Naples after WWII. The courtyard of the ancient monastic grounds was also greatly damaged. It had been famous, most notably, for the presence of the colorful majolica tilework on the benches and columns. Such tiles were characteristic of the school of Neapolitan ceramic in the mid-1700s. Upon commission of Charles III of Bourbon, the entire courtyard was redone by D.A. Vaccaro in the 1730s; the lovely tilework was the work of Donato Massa, a noted craftsman of the period.
Complete
restoration of the courtyard is still not complete, and—if
one considers the vast amount of work entailed (including
the restoration of the frescoes on the walls and ceilings
of the arched passageways around the perimeter of the
courtyard and the relandscaping of the gardens)—maybe it
never will be, but the work done since the year 2000 has
had significant results. Dozens of art restorers, masons,
and gardeners have been at work. Some of the results can
be seen in these photos.
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4. Museum
Nov. 2009
The grand church and
monastic complex of Santa Chiara continue to amaze.
Besides the restored 18th-century majolica tile-work in
the courtyard (see item, above), there is now a new museum
(photo, right) with a beautifully presented display on the
complex from its Angevin origins in the 1300s up to and
including current restoration. There are separate sections
devoted to history, archaeology, and the devastations of
WWII and subsequent restoration of what was once the
iconic church and monastery/convent of the Angevin rulers
of Naples. This is another pleasant example of what seems
to be a continuing upgrade in the entire museum structure
of the city: the new
naval section at San Martino, the new Farnese rooms at the National
Archaeological Museum, the special archaeology display of the
Museo metro station, the museum
at San Lorenzo plus a few others. The Santa Chiara
museum has the obligatory art & book shop, and on the
premises there is also a fine presepe
(Christmas manger scene) display. A curious sidelight is
that the vineyard, once supported by an extensive trellis
over many of the now restored majolica columns in the
courtyard, is gone. The moisture on the vines (1)
interfered with restoration, and (2) was detrimental to
the majolica tiles. Another sidelight is that the newly
restored tiles are already decaying in parts. This may
have to do with moisture or with idiots like me sitting on
the benches. It may also have to do with cagey tile
restorers setting themselves up for some more pay-days in
the future. Or maybe they just don't make'em like they
used to.5. For an item on the musical notation (!) inscribed on the face of the original Palazzo Sanseverino (now the church of Gesù Nuovo), see this entry.
6. update Sept. 2014 - The city has announced plans to rebuild the gardens and restore the belfry in front of the church. See this link.
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