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The original Baroque church of the Jesuits was built in 1588. At the beginning of the eighteenth century it underwent a complete modernization, including the building of a new church. This longitudinal structure, begun in 1713 after a design by Arcangelo Guglielmelli, was provided with opulent interior decoration under the direction of the painter and architect Ferdinando Sanfelice (1675-1748). The frescoes in the apse were executed by Francesco de Mura. The unified and splendid nature of the decor is considered to be the most imposing example in Naples of the transition between the Baroque and the Rococo.
After the suppression of the Jesuit order the complex around the church became the Royal Military College (Scuola Militare Nunziatella) and the church became the chapel of military institute. Originally the church was dedicated to the Virgin of the Annunciation, but it is popularly known as the Nunziatella to distinguish it from the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata Maggiore.
Francesco de Mura began painting the apse calotte in the Nunziatella in 1731 which he completed next year. He began the second phase in the fresco painting of the Nunziatella in 1749, one that had been envisioned since 1726. In this phase he painted the vault.
The iconographic concept on which the decoration is based is distinctly Jesuit in character. In the apse calotte the Adoration of the Kings, on the nave vault the Assumption of the Virgin are represented. In the half-lunettes flanking the façade-wall window appear the Rest on the Flight into Egypt and The Holy Family at Work.
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