Description
The Church of Santa Maria in Portico is a Baroque church in Chiaia, Naples, in the widening that closes the vista of the street of the same name. It has a dome covered in yellow and turquoise tiles, a bell tower with a bear-shaped weathervane and one of the oldest nativity scenes in the Neapolitan tradition.
It was commissioned in 1632 by the Duchess of Gravina, Felice Maria Orsini, on the model of Rome's Santa Maria in Campitelli, to a design by Nicola Longo. The duchess is buried in the middle of the nave, under a slab of 1647.
The most recognizable feature is the dome, with its cap covered in scale-shaped yellow and turquoise tiles, on a tall octagonal drum with eight windows. Beside it rises the bell tower of 1645, topped by an iron weathervane in the shape of a bear, emblem of the dukes of Gravina.
The façade is by Arcangelo Guglielmelli, from 1682, often wrongly attributed to Cosimo Fanzago. It has two orders, rusticated pilasters in piperno and an exposed-brick finish uncommon in Neapolitan Baroque, which loved stucco.
Inside is a single nave with three chapels on each side. The vault has stuccoes of 1634 with putti and figures of virtues, while the seventeenth-century terracotta floor, in a taste close to Fanzago, has marble panels.
At the high altar, the altarpiece frame by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (1732), with three marble angels holding up a drapery, surrounds the image of the Virgin, a copy of the thirteenth-century enamel original of Santa Maria in Campitelli, which arrived here in 1638.
Among the paintings are an Adoration of the Magi and an Adoration of the Shepherds by Giovanni Battista Benaschi, an Annunciation by Fabrizio Santafede and, in the sacristy, the Glory of the Name of Mary by the same Benaschi. In the Chapel of Saint Anne are stuccoes by Giacomo Colombo and angels by Vaccaro.
The seventeenth-century nativity scene, with life-size statues, was begun in 1647 by Pietro Ceraso, master of the "figurari", with hollowed-out wooden mannequins and a special paste for the faces. In 1690 Giacomo Colombo added characters from Neapolitan life: two old men, the "foritana", a young gentleman.
Giuseppe Picano then created figures of strong impact, the poor man in adoration and the shepherd of the announcement. When the church was closed in 1862, the nativity scene was set aside and deteriorated; it was restored in 1872 by Vincenzo Reccio, damaged again in the Second World War and restored once more in 1961. Today it has found a place in a side room of the church.
Don't miss
• The seventeenth-century nativity scene.
• The dome of yellow and turquoise tiles.
• Guglielmelli's façade.
• Vaccaro's altarpiece frame at the high altar.
Did you know?
• In 1683 the convent complex hosted for a time the viceroy, the Marquis del Carpio.
• Of the nativity scene's fifteen original figures, only a few remain.
It was commissioned in 1632 by the Duchess of Gravina, Felice Maria Orsini, on the model of Rome's Santa Maria in Campitelli, to a design by Nicola Longo. The duchess is buried in the middle of the nave, under a slab of 1647.
The most recognizable feature is the dome, with its cap covered in scale-shaped yellow and turquoise tiles, on a tall octagonal drum with eight windows. Beside it rises the bell tower of 1645, topped by an iron weathervane in the shape of a bear, emblem of the dukes of Gravina.
The façade is by Arcangelo Guglielmelli, from 1682, often wrongly attributed to Cosimo Fanzago. It has two orders, rusticated pilasters in piperno and an exposed-brick finish uncommon in Neapolitan Baroque, which loved stucco.
Inside is a single nave with three chapels on each side. The vault has stuccoes of 1634 with putti and figures of virtues, while the seventeenth-century terracotta floor, in a taste close to Fanzago, has marble panels.
At the high altar, the altarpiece frame by Domenico Antonio Vaccaro (1732), with three marble angels holding up a drapery, surrounds the image of the Virgin, a copy of the thirteenth-century enamel original of Santa Maria in Campitelli, which arrived here in 1638.
Among the paintings are an Adoration of the Magi and an Adoration of the Shepherds by Giovanni Battista Benaschi, an Annunciation by Fabrizio Santafede and, in the sacristy, the Glory of the Name of Mary by the same Benaschi. In the Chapel of Saint Anne are stuccoes by Giacomo Colombo and angels by Vaccaro.
The seventeenth-century nativity scene, with life-size statues, was begun in 1647 by Pietro Ceraso, master of the "figurari", with hollowed-out wooden mannequins and a special paste for the faces. In 1690 Giacomo Colombo added characters from Neapolitan life: two old men, the "foritana", a young gentleman.
Giuseppe Picano then created figures of strong impact, the poor man in adoration and the shepherd of the announcement. When the church was closed in 1862, the nativity scene was set aside and deteriorated; it was restored in 1872 by Vincenzo Reccio, damaged again in the Second World War and restored once more in 1961. Today it has found a place in a side room of the church.
Don't miss
• The seventeenth-century nativity scene.
• The dome of yellow and turquoise tiles.
• Guglielmelli's façade.
• Vaccaro's altarpiece frame at the high altar.
Did you know?
• In 1683 the convent complex hosted for a time the viceroy, the Marquis del Carpio.
• Of the nativity scene's fifteen original figures, only a few remain.