The Sansevero Chapel Museum in Naples will allow dozens of visually impaired visitors to participate in a rare tactile experience, allowing them to touch the celebrated works of art, including the Veiled Christ, widely considered one of the most striking masterpieces in the history of sculpture.
On March 17, the museum will host an initiative called La meraviglia a portata di mano – Wonder within reach – organized in collaboration with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired in Naples, which will offer around 80 blind and visually impaired visitors the opportunity to encounter the marble masterpieces.
Visitors will be guided through the chapel by guides who are also visually impaired in a program designed to place accessibility at the center of the museum experience.
The protective barrier surrounding the sculptures will be removed, allowing participants, wearing latex gloves, to explore by touching the intricate marble surface of the sculptures, including Giuseppe Sanmartino’s Veiled Christ, which depicts Jesus covered by a transparent shroud made from the same block as the statue. The tactile route will also extend to the reliefs at the foot of the sculptures La Pudicizia and Il Disinganno.
Chiara Locovardi, a guide, told state agency Ansa: “The veil covering Christ is extraordinary. It is impossible to understand how Sanmartino managed to create it. The veil defies explanation, both for those who can see and those who cannot. When you touch it, you can feel the veins throbbing underneath.”
Completed in 1753, the Veiled Christ is one of the most astonishing achievements in marble. The transparency of the shroud covering Jesus’ body seems so real that many still believe it must be the result of some lost alchemy capable of turning the cloth into stone.
Maria Alessandra Masucci, president of the Sansevero Chapel Museum, said: “This initiative is part of our broader program to create a cultural space that is inclusive and accessible through specific avenues and tools adapted to the different needs of museum visitors.”
Giuseppe Ambrosino of the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired said the project reflected a broader principle: that the enjoyment of beauty should be a universal right.
“Art should not be a privilege reserved for the eye,” he said. “Accessibility projects like this transform a museum into a place of genuine inclusion, affirming that art belongs to everyone. In this case, visitors will not only be able to touch the marble sculpture; the beauty itself will be able to flow through the hands and directly to the heart.”
