The Sanfelician portal in neapolitan architecture of XVIII century

Since old times the portal assumed a dual function. Concretely its represents opening, a passage that allows the physical movement from one place to another, from a public space to a private one. Symbolically, its genesis can be traced back to Roman triumphal arch, erected to be crossed as a sign of victory and supremacy, also, in philosophical meanings its represents the knowledge. Specifically in the Neapolitan historical residential buildings, from the XV century, the portal has always been subject to an architectural experimentation geometric-configurative, but in the Baroque period it becomes the protagonist of the urban scene. To rename it is without doubts was one of the main architects members of the Neapolitan Baroque: Ferdinando Sanfelice. Will be analyzed below, the architectural production of the Sanfelician' residential building portals, through the examples of noble representation that we will return the critical reading of the genesis of forms and matrices that are typical of Ferdinando Sanfelice.