In the Pappacoda Chapel in Naples, a familiar Madonna can be lifted away to reveal something harder to look at: a photograph of Gaza. Italian artist Eduardo Castaldo has built 'Holy Mothers of Gaza' around that act of peeling back, asking those who stand before it to pass through the sacred image to the lives it has been holding. It is one more way in which artists, in this long and painful season of war, are carrying the suffering of distant places into the quiet rooms where people go to pray.
Italian Artist Peels Back Madonna Paintings to Reveal Gaza Photographs in Naples Exhibit
In the Pappacoda Chapel in Naples, a familiar Madonna can be lifted away to reveal something harder to look at: a photograph of Gaza. Italian artist Eduardo Castaldo has built 'Holy Mothers of Gaza' around that act of peeling back, asking those who stand before it to pass through the sacred image to the lives it has been holding. It is one more way in which artists, in this long and painful season of war, are carrying the suffering of distant places into the quiet rooms where people go to pray.
In the Pappacoda Chapel in Naples, a painting of the Madonna can be peeled back, and beneath it lies a photograph taken in Gaza. This is 'Holy Mothers of Gaza', the work of Italian artist Eduardo Castaldo, now unveiled inside the chapel.
The piece depends on a reveal. Castaldo has reworked paintings in the tradition of the Madonna so that their outer layer can be pulled away, exposing a real photograph by the Palestinian photojournalist Omar El Qattaa rather than another painted scene.
The chapel itself shapes how the work is felt. By placing images of Gaza within a religious space, and using the familiar figure of the Madonna as the surface to break through, the title links the sacred image of motherhood to the people of Gaza.
Much remains unsaid. The source does not state how many paintings are included, what the photographs show, how long the exhibit will stay, or whether El Qattaa took part. Neither artist nor photographer speaks in the account. What comes next is how visitors and the Neapolitan public respond, and whether either of them chooses to speak about the work.
In a chapel in Naples, a painting of the Madonna can be peeled back. Underneath is a photograph taken in Gaza. That is the core of 'Holy Mothers of Gaza', a work by the Italian artist Eduardo Castaldo, now unveiled inside the city's Pappacoda Chapel.
The piece is built around a reveal. Castaldo reworked paintings in the tradition of the Madonna, and the outer layer of each can be pulled away. What lies beneath is not a second painting or an imagined scene but a real photograph from Gaza, taken by the Palestinian photojournalist Omar El Qattaa.
The setting matters to how the work reads. The Pappacoda Chapel is a religious space in Naples, and the work places images of Gaza within it, using the familiar figure of the Madonna as the surface the viewer must break through. The title joins the sacred image of motherhood to the people of Gaza, and the act of peeling is meant to expose the pain the work points to.
The source describes the work in few words, and several things are not stated in it. It does not say how many paintings are in the installation, what exactly the El Qattaa photographs show, or how long the exhibit will stay in the chapel. It also does not say whether El Qattaa took part in the project or how the photographs were obtained, and it offers no comment from the artist or the photographer in their own words. What is confirmed is the artist, the title, the location, the peel-back mechanism, and the photographer whose work is revealed.
The installation joins a growing set of cultural responses to the war in Gaza, in which artists carry images of suffering into public and religious spaces. Here the method is physical: the viewer, or the artist, has to remove the painted layer to reach the photograph.
What to watch for next is how the chapel, visitors and the wider Neapolitan public respond, and whether Castaldo or El Qattaa speak about the work and its origins.
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