The Matter of Miracles : Neapolitan Baroque Architecture and Sanctity

This book investigates baroque architecture through the lens of San Gennaro’s miraculously liquefying blood in Naples. This vantage point allows a bracing and thoroughly original rethink of the power of baroque relics and reliquaries. It shows how a focus on miracles produces original interpretations of architecture, sanctity and place which will engage architectural historians everywhere. The matter of the baroque miracle extends into a rigorous engagement with natural history, telluric philosophy, new materialism, theory and philosophy. The study will transform our understanding of baroque art and architecture, sanctity and Naples. Bristling with new archival materials and historical insights, this study lifts the baroque from its previous marginalisation to engage fiercely with materiality and potentiality and thus unleash baroque art and architecture as productive and transformational. Front matter 1 Dedication 6 Contents 8 List of plates 9 List of figures 14 Acknowledgements 21 Introduction: openings 24 Prologue: the analogous relic 62 Part I The miracle 86 The matter of miracles: San Gennaro’s blood and the Treasury Chapel 88 Blood, bronze, Vesuvius: material transformations 146 Miraculous witness: exclusive affects 197 Part II Patrons and protectors 236 The machinic chapel and the production of protectors 238 From prayer to presence 293 Part III The choreography of sanctity 340 Niche and saints: folding the wall 342 Saints on the move and the choreography of sanctity 374 Holiness and history: relics and gender 409 Heads and bones: face to face 433 Silver saints: between transformation and transaction 469 Conclusion: the miraculous chance 502 Bibliography 520 Plates and figures 560 Index 647