Giuseppe Sanmartino

Giuseppe Sanmartino (1720–1793) was a Neapolitan sculptor whose Veiled Christ, completed in 1753, stands in Naples's Sansevero Chapel. Commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro, the sculpture represents the dead Christ beneath a shroud carved from the same block of marble as the body. The veil follows the figure's contours while its folds give the surface a delicate sense of movement. Sanmartino's treatment joins close observation of anatomy with the devotional feeling of late Baroque sculpture. Contemporary documents support the work's entirely sculpted construction, distinguishing the craftsmanship from later stories that attributed the veil to an alchemical process.