[citation needed] The principal work in the church is the semi-pagan tomb of the poet, represented on the pedestal under the name of Actius Sincerus and being crowned by Fame in a fresco by Niccolò Rossi, a follower of Giordano.

The statue, with its complex pagan iconography (1537), is set in the choir behind the altar and was built by the sculptors Bartolomeo Ammannati, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Francesco Ferrucci, although initiated by Girolamo Santacroce[2] Marble was purchased in 1537.

[3][4] The niche is inspired by the environment of Arcadia, also has depictions of Neptune with his trident, Pan and the nymph Syrinx, all in dancing and singing the praises of our poet, and a satyr which gazes in amazement.

[9] Other significant works of the building are the two statues sculpted by brothers heirs of Jacopo and Sannazaro the youth figure with a book in hand, the worm-eaten (but restored) residues of the Nativity scene by Giovanni da Nola.

In the first chapel on the right of the altar is the image of St Michael Archangel spearing the throat of a serpentine Lucifer, commonly known as the Devil of Mergellina, traditionally believed to depict an infamous young Neapolitan woman who had tempted Diomede Carafa, then bishop of Ariano.