In vitro humanitas is the title of the exhibition that can be visited from Wednesday 16 November at the Sansevero Chapel Museum : two works by the Venetian artist Mauro Bonaventura will be on display, in dialogue with the anatomical machines kept in the baroque jewel designed by Raimondo di Sangro VII prince of Sansevero.

In the underground cavea of the Sansevero Chapel , Mauro Bonaventura exhibits for the first time in Naples, the installations of his glass bodies: Homo erectus , a complex sculpture in polychrome glass, and Flying , a suspended figure that recalls the Diver of Paestum (5th century BC). Both works are intentionally set up near the two anatomical machines , products of very fine craftsmanship and works of art, the result of the scientific interests of the prince of Sansevero and the Palermo doctor Giuseppe Salerno who created them in the mid-eighteenth century.

The network that forms the great human figures of the glass sculptor replicates the tangle of blood vessels of the anatomical machines . A tribute to the Prince of Sansevero, to his multifaceted personality and his love for all kinds of experimentation including the use of glass. From the sources we learn, in fact, that, tired of having to use the glassworks of Naples for some of his physical-chemical experiments, Raimondo di Sangro set up in the basement of Palazzo Sansevero " a furnace in the shape of that of the glassmakers, but with a particular costruttura ” and also tried his hand at coloring glass, obtaining excellent results.