Bringing new life to the Capece Minutolo Chapel in the Cathedral of Naples, one of the most prestigious monuments of medieval art in southern Italy, is the aim of the restoration project promoted by the Friends of Naples Association under the supervision of the Superintendence for the Architectural, Landscape, Historical and Artistic Heritage of Naples.

The interventions, begun at the end of December 2020 and financed by the Friends of Naples Association and the Patronage of the Capece Minutolo family, have restored the monument’s decorative elements. The legibility of the artistic artifacts has been revived with a conservative restoration of the Cosmatesque floor – probably realized by the same artisans who worked on the floors of Westminster Abbey in London – as well as of the 14th-century lateral tombs of Orso and Filippo Minutolo and the 13th-century frescoes attributed to Montano d’Arezzo, the first significant example of the diffusion in southern Italy of the new pictorial language conceived by Cimabue in the Franciscan Basilica of Assisi.

The interior, prevalently Gothic, presents signs of an evolution to a new style, found above all in some details of the funeral monuments. The chapel, rectangular in shape, is divided into three spans with cross vaults, of which the last, constituting the tribune, was erected between 1387 and 1412 and requested by Enrico Minutolo to house his funeral monument.