The Assumption

The magnificent sculpture depicting the Assumption, still carried in procession during the patronal feast of August 15th, was commissioned by the Chapter of the Cathedral to one of the most important silversmith masters of the city of Naples: Biagio Guariniello. The paternity of the work is confirmed by a rich documentation present in the administration registers of the Altamura major ecclesia which certifies, among other things, the total cost of the work - 6138 ducats and 94 grana - and the arrival in the Murgian city the August 16th, 1698. Another written testimony reveals instead that, just because of its importance and the high cost of the realization, the Assunta was evaluated before being given by some experts who were the silversmiths Francesco d'Angelo and Antonio Avitabile for part of Guariniello, Nicola d'Aula and Giacomo Antonio Parascandolo on behalf of the Chapter. The experts established the weight of the Madonna in 137 pounds and 4 ounces of silver. However, if the documentation unequivocally leads the sculpture to the hand of the Neapolitan silversmith, the use of the BV punches - which among other things are also present on the silver frontal of the crypt of the cathedral of Acquaviva delle Fonti, realized by the same Guariniello in 1692 - raises a big question about the real paternity of the work, so much that Elio Catello hypothesized that it had been contracted to the Neapolitan silversmith and made by one of his workshop partners. These conjectures do not remove charm and exceptionality to the statue of the Assumption whose body is built with a magnificent and solid vestment finely chiselled with small floral motifs, rests her feet with gracefulness on a blanket with lively putti, while she opens her arms and slightly raises her face smiling towards the sky. The right leg of the Virgin, slightly advanced, and the mantle that, thanks to its wraparound motion around the dress, almost seems to have to fly away at any moment, help the movement of the composition. Guariniello, despite the baroque accents in the movement and the eccentricity of emotions, created a monumental statue in full harmony with the contemporary marble and wooden sculpture of Lorenzo Vaccaro - of which the silversmith often used the drawings - in line with the cultural Neapolitan environment of those years.