Right nave Most of the chapels on the right side were completed by the mid- to late 16th century, but their ownership passed through various hands. The first chapel, belonging in 1550 to the cavalier Annibale Mastrogiudice, became property of the Genoese Cristofaro Grimaldi in 1576. The second chapel was bought in 1545 by Giancarlo Casanova, then passed to Prospero Tuttavilla in 1591. The third chapel, initially owned by 1541 by Marino Mastrogiudice (aristocrat and lawyer from
Sorrento and president of a Royal Advisory panel, the
Regia Camera della Sommaria). From Mastrogiudice it passed to the Saliceti Family in 1551, and then to Fabio Giordano by 1568; The fourth chapel in 1559 belonged to Giannandrea and by 1561 to Ottaviano de Curtis. The fifth chapel was assigned to the jurist Teano Gianfelice Scalaleone and by 1598 to the Genoese jurist consult Francesco Massa The sixth chapel was assigned to Francesco Albertini, juristconsult of
Nola in 1549; Below the church is the tomb of Giovan Battista Cicaro (c. 1507–1512), with an epitath written by
Jacopo Sannazaro: . Construction of the tomb monument itself has been attributed once to either
Giovanni da Nola or a Spanish sculptor by the name of Pietro della Plata, but later scholarship seems to attribute them to Andrea Ferrucci da Fiesole and Bartolomé Ordóñez.
Left nave The Chapel of Medici di Gragnano, which holds the tomb of ''Camillo de' Medici'' (1596), was decorated in a sumptuous
Tuscan style, the first of its kind in Naples, using polychrome inlay not only in pavement but also in walls. The chapel and monument are works by
Girolamo D'Auria and
Fabrizio di Guido. This chapel is off the left nave.
The apse chapels The
Sanseverino chapel and the chapel of Girolamo Gesualdo, flank the main altar. They were decorated in the mid-1500s, before the completion of the church in 1567. The Sanseverino Chapel, dedicated to the body of Christ, was conceived by
Ippolita de Monti, wife of Ugo and Countess of
Saponara, as a pantheon of the family. Over the years, in addition to house the tomb of the founder and also three of her young children (who had been murdered). The chapel was enriched with shields, medallions and inscriptions, commemorating members of the family: the warrior Alessandro de Monti, (died 22 June 1622); Julia de Monti, placed in the tomb (1715) by son Geronimo de Monti-Sanfelice, Duke of Lauriano, who lived in the first half of the 18th century; Salvatore Capua-Sanseverino, Prince of Riccia and Marquis of Raia, who died in 1858. With its classic architecture the arches of the chapel imitates lateral chapels of the church of
Sant'Anna dei Lombardi, where just two years later Florentine artists introduce in the Tuscan taste for sumptuous decoration in fresco and stucco motifs. On the 16th century pavement, many tombs are found, including that of
Belisario Corenzio, who died in a fall from the scaffolding while he frescoed the vault of this church. After much of the ceilings collapse in the 1731 earthquake, they were refrescoed by
Francesco De Mura, who also painted the counterfacade (1739) and
Giovanni Paolo Melchiorri, who painted the choir ceiling with a
Glory of St Benedict. The stucco of the nave was completed by
Giuseppe Scarola. The Sacristy conserves a complete cycle of frescoes by
Onofrio De Lione, brother of
Andrea and student of
Corenzio. Onofrio painted the
Old Testament Scenes (1651). The
Trinity fresco was painted by
Corenzio The church has three cloisters: • The first, called the
Chiostro del Platano, was so called due to a plantain tree which legend holds was planted by
St. Benedict and whose leaves had healing powers. The plant was demolished in 1959, when the trunk measured 8.45 m in circumference. In the portico, originally stood upright columns, then replace of pilasters, and frescoed by
Solario, with scenes of the life of
St. Benedict; • The second, called the
Chiostro del Noviziato was built in the 15th century, in a rectangular plan, supported by thirty arches resting on pillars Piperno rock. In 1803, the upper floor was converted into a two-story building, designed in part to the accommodate a school. At the center stands a bust of Bartolommeo Capasso; • The third, called the Marble Cloister (
Chiostro di Marmo), was built between the 1500s. The arches of the cloister are supported by columns in white
Carrara marble. ==See also==