Which sculptor created The Veiled Christ, the marble statue completed in Naples in 1753?

Giuseppe Sanmartino created The Veiled Christ, the marble statue completed in Naples in 1753.

The sculpture depicts the dead Christ lying beneath an extremely thin-looking veil. Sanmartino carved the work from a single block of marble, creating the illusion that the fabric rests directly over the body. The finely modeled face, wounds, and folds of the shroud are responsible for its extraordinary reputation.

The statue was commissioned for the Cappella Sansevero in Naples by Raimondo di Sangro, Prince of Sansevero. A persistent legend claims that the prince transformed real cloth into marble through alchemy, but the effect is the result of Sanmartino’s carving and polishing.

The work is sometimes attributed to Antonio Corradini because Corradini had first been commissioned for a veiled Christ. Corradini died before completing that project, after which Sanmartino produced the famous statue.