Sant'Angelo a Nilo is a Roman Catholic church located on the Decumano Inferiore (Spaccanapoli street) in Naples, Italy. It stands diagonally across from San Domenico Maggiore in Naples. It is known for containing the monumental Renaissance-style

tomb of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci The Tomb of Cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci (or Brancaccio) is a sculptural work in the church of Sant'Angelo a Nilo in Naples, southern Italy, executed by Donatello and Michelozzo around 1426-1428. Built in marble, partly gilt and polychrome, it ha ...

(Italian: ''Sepolcro del Cardinale Brancacci'') by Donatello and

Michelozzo Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi (1396 – 7 October 1472) was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the great pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance, Michelozzo was a favored Medici architect who was extensively empl ...

, one of the major sculptural works in the city.

Description

The church is located in the core of the ancient Greek-Roman city: it takes its name from the Egyptian Nile, which was venerated here by the Egyptian merchants. It was begun in 1385 as a chapel, dedicated to Sts. Angel and Mark, by will of cardinal Rainaldo Brancacci, whose family had a palace nearby. The current appearance dates from a 1709 rebuilding, under the direction of

Arcangelo Guglielmelli Arcangelo Guglielmelli (1723) was an Italian architect and painter, active in his native Naples, Italy, in a late-Baroque style. He was involved in the building and reconstruction of churches, many of which had been damaged by the earthquakes of ...

. Remains of the original Catalan-Gothic structure include the main portal, with an architrave featuring angels, and a fresco in the

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

with ''The Virgin Mary and Saints Michael and Baculus with Cardinal Brancaccio'' (15th century). A sculpture of St. Michael from another portal has been moved in the interior. Artworks in the interior include the tomb of cardinal Brancaccio, canvasses from Luca Giordano school, a 16th-century altarpiece by the Sienese painter

Marco Pino Marco Pino or Marco da Siena (1521–1583) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance and Mannerist period. Born in Costalpino and first trained in Siena, he later worked in Rome and in Naples, where he died. He was putatively a pupil of the pain ...

and a marble tabernacle in the sacristy.

Antonio Valente Antonio Valente ( fl. 1565–80) was an Italian Renaissance organist and composer. He was blind from childhood and served as organist of Sant'Angelo a Nilo in Naples in 1565–80. During that time he published two collections of keyboar ...

, the first major keyboard composer of the Neapolitan school, was organist here in 1565–80.

Sources

External links

Angelo a Nilo Roman Catholic churches completed in 1709 Baroque architecture in Naples 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy 1709 establishments in Italy {{Campania-geo-stub