Bust of St. Matteo

Salerno Cathedral (or duomo) is the main church of the city of Salerno in southern Italy. It is considered the main tourist attraction of the city. It is dedicated to Saint Matthew, one of the four Evangelists, whose tomb is inside the crypt.

After a month and a half of work by the two restorers, Cristina De Vita and Carlo Pagano, the statue of St. Matthew is back to its former glory: the bust, dating from the seventeenth century, it was made of silver plates chiseled and embossed and elsewhere performed melting process and depicts the saint in the act of writing the Gospel.

The Evangelist is represented as a mature man with a full beard, dressed in clothes very articulate and richly decorated, while holding the Gospel and an angel at his side gives him pen and ink. At the waist is located a belt that holds his clothes that are articulated in an elegant drapery where among the folds is housed the book of the Gospel, and it ends with a bordure richly refined.

On the breast of the Saint a small theca is visible, incorporated in silver, which contains a relic: a tooth of the saint. During the restoration, were also found dates, etched slightly, related to previous works of restaurations occurred respectively in 1896 thanks to a Gabriel, and in 1954, the year of the tragic flood that deeply marked the city.