Giuseppe Sanmartino or Giuseppe Sammartino (1720–1793) was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 sculptor during the Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

 period.

Sanmartino was born in Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

. His first dated (1753) work is The Veiled Christ or Christ lying under the Shroud, commissioned initially from the Venetian sculptor Antonio Corradini

Antonio Corradini

Antonio Corradini was a Venetian Rococo sculptor.Corradini was born in Este and worked mainly in the Veneto, but also completed commissions for work outside Venice, including Naples....

 who did not live to complete the work. Sammartino interpreted his sketches freely to create a masterful sculpture which can be seen in Sansevero Chapel (also called Capella Sansevero de' Sangri or Pietatella) in Naples. Other contributors to this chapel were Francesco Celebrano and the Genoese

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 sculptor Francesco Queirolo

Francesco Queirolo

Francesco Queirolo was an Italian Genoese-born sculptor, active in Rome and Naples during the Rococo period.He trained with Giuseppe Rusconi in Rome. Here he executed the statues of St. Charles Borromeo and St...

.

The statue of Christ under the shroud is elaborately artificial (Wittkower labels this a hypertrophic effort) by reproducing in stone, the effect of a thin veil. In the same chapel, Corradini's antecedent statue of Chastity (also called Modesty) is present. The Chapel in Naples has three Rococo

Rococo

Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...

 sculptural masterpieces, commissioned by Raimondo di Sangro

Raimondo di Sangro

Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero was an Italian nobleman, inventor, soldier, writer and scientist, best remembered for his reconstruction of the Chapel of Sansevero in Naples.-Early life:...

, Prince of Sansevero . The elaborate sculptures celebrate his family and for each a guiding virtue. The subjects of the tombs included Sincerity, Religious Zeal and Charity, but the most remarkable works are Sammartino's, Corradini's Chastity, and Queirolo's Release from Deception, conceived as monuments to the patron's mother and father respectively.

Successful completion of this commission earned Sammartino further commissions.