Museo di Capodimonte is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

located in the Palace of Capodimonte, a grand Bourbon palazzo in

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and

decorative art ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose aim is the design and manufacture of objects that are both Beauty, beautiful and functional. This includes most of the objects for the interiors of buildings, as well as interior design, but typical ...

, with several important works from other Italian schools of painting, and some important ancient Roman sculptures. It is one of the list of largest art museums, largest museums in Italy. The museum was inaugurated in 1957.

History

The vast collection at the museum traces its origins back to 1738. During that year King Charles VII of

and

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

(later

Charles III of Spain Charles III (; 20 January 1716 – 14 December 1788) was King of Spain in the years 1759 to 1788. He was also Duke of Parma and Piacenza, as Charles I (1731–1735); King of Naples, as Charles VII; and King of Sicily, as Charles III (or V) (1735� ...

) decided to build a hunting lodge on the Capodimonte hill, but then decided that he would instead build a grand palace, partly because his existing residence, the Palace of Portici, was too small to accommodate his court, and partly because he needed somewhere to house the fabulous Farnese Collection which he had inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese, last descendant of the sovereign ducal family of

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

. Over the years, the palace was enlarged and filled with more art. In 1787, on the advice of Jacob Philipp Hackert, a laboratory for the restoration of paintings was created. When the Parthenopaean Republic was declared in 1799, King Ferdinand IV fled to

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

on board Nelson's ''

Vanguard The vanguard (sometimes abbreviated to van and also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. ...

'', taking the most valuable items from the museum with him. What remained was looted by the French troops of General Jean Étienne Championnet who were billeted there during the short life of the Republic in 1799. Later on, during the nine years of French reoccupation (1806 to 1815), the art collection was transferred to the

Naples National Archaeological Museum The National Archaeological Museum of Naples (, ) is an important Italian archaeological museum. Its collection includes works from Greek, Roman and Renaissance times, and especially Roman artifacts from the nearby Pompeii, Stabiae and Hercu ...

. When King Ferdinand returned from Sicily in 1815, he employed many painters and sculptors to work on the redecoration of the palace. It was finally completed in 1840, and a gallery housing contemporary art was added. After the palace passed in 1861 to the

House of Savoy The House of Savoy (, ) is a royal house (formally a dynasty) of Franco-Italian origin that was established in 1003 in the historical region of Savoy, which was originally part of the Kingdom of Burgundy and now lies mostly within southeastern F ...

, further pieces were added to the art collections, appointing

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an Italians, Italian painter, who mainly produced historical and religious works. Morelli was immensely influential in the arts of the second half of the 19th century, both as director of the Ac ...

as consultant for new acquisitions. They also added an extensive collection of historic firearms and other weapons. In 1866, the ''

boudoir A (; ) is a woman's private sitting room or salon in a furnished residence, usually between the dining room and the bedroom, but can also refer to a woman's private bedroom. The term derives from the French verb ''bouder'' (to sulk or pout ...

'' of Maria Amalia of Saxony was transferred to Capodimonte from the Palace of Portici, and in 1877 a Roman era marble floor was brought in from a Roman villa on

Capri Capri ( , ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. A popular resort destination since the time of the Roman Republic, its natural beauty ...

. After the end of the monarchy, the palace became purely a national museum in 1950, with many of the exhibits being returned from the National Museum.

Collection

The first and second floors house the Galleria Nazionale (National Gallery), with paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries including major works by

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 29 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, ...

, Simone Martini,

Masaccio Masaccio (, ; ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great List of Italian painters, Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaiss ...

, Lorenzo Lotto,

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...

, Jacob Philipp Hackert and many others. The museum is by far the best place to see paintings of the Neapolitan School, often under-appreciated by the wider world, with large holdings of

Jusepe de Ribera Jusepe de Ribera (; baptised 17 February 1591 – 3 November 1652) was a Spanish painter and Printmaking, printmaker. Ribera, Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artist ...

, Luca Giordano, the Neapolitan Caravaggisti and many others (see List of works in the Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte). Much of the ground floor is taken up by part of the magnificent Farnese collection of classical, mostly Roman, monumental sculpture, which survives here and in the

largely intact. Elsewhere in the palace, the royal apartments are furnished with antique 18th-century furniture and a collection of

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

and

majolica In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery. Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, ''maiolica'' was a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...

from the various royal residences In 2022, art dealer Lia Rumma donated more than 70 works made by 30 prominent Italian artists – including Vincenzo Agnetti, Giovanni Anselmo,

Enrico Castellani Enrico Castellani (4 August 1930 – 1 December 2017) was an Italian artist. He was active in Italy from the early 1960s, and associated with Piero Manzoni and . From 1959 he made monochromatic geometric relief (art), reliefs using nails from a n ...

Luciano Fabro Luciano Fabro (November 20, 1936 – June 22, 2007) was an Italian sculptor, conceptual artist and writer associated with the Arte Povera movement. Life Fabro was born in Turin, and he moved to Udine, in the Friuli region after his father's d ...

, and

Michelangelo Pistoletto Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 23 June 1933) is an Italian painter, action and object artist, and art theorist. Pistoletto is acknowledged as one of the main representatives of the Italian Arte Povera. His work mainly deals with the subject mat ...

, and others – to the Italian government, to be displayed in the Museo di Capodimonte.Angelica Villa (20 June 2022)
Influential Dealer Lia Rumma Gifts Arte Povera Works to Italy
'' ARTnews''.

Collection highlights

File:Simone Martini. St. Louis of Toulouse Altarpiece. 1317. Mus.Capodimonte, Naples..jpg, '' Toulouse Altarpiece'' by Simone Martini, c. 1317 File:Masaccio - Crucifixion - WGA14199.jpg, ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Ancient Carthag ...

'' by

, c. 1426 File:Andrea Mantegna 111.jpg, '' Portrait of Francesco Gonzaga'' by

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...

, c. 1461 File:Sandro Botticelli 062.jpg, '' Madonna and Child and Two Angels'' by

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...

, c. 1470 File:Trasfigurazionedicristo.jpg, '' Transfiguration'' by

, c. 1480 File:Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 035-2.jpg, ''

The Misanthrope ''The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover'' (; ) is a 17th-century comedy of manners in verse written by Molière. It was first performed on 4 June 1666 at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal (rue Saint-Honoré), Théâtre du Palais-Royal, Paris by ...

'' by

Pieter Bruegel the Elder Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder ( , ; ; – 9 September 1569) was among the most significant artists of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaking, printmaker, known for his landscape art, landscape ...

, c. 1568 File:Rafael - Alessandro Farnese.jpg, '' Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese'' by

, c. 1509–1511 File:Притча о слепых.jpeg, '' The Parable of the Blind Leading the Blind'' by

, c. 1568 File:Parmigianino 1524-27-antea1.jpeg, '' Antea'' by

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, ...

, c. 1524–1527 File:Parmigianino 024.jpg, '' Portrait of Galeazzo Sanvitale'' by Parmigianino, c. 1524 File:CarracciHercules.jpg, '' The Choice of Hercules'' by

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci ( , , ; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother Agostino Carracci, Agostino and cousin Ludovico Carracci, Ludovico (with whom the Ca ...

, c. 1596 File:Titian – Portrait of Pope Paul III with his Grandsons – Google Art Project – edited.jpg, '' Pope Paul III and his Grandsons'' by

, c. 1546 File:CaravaggioFlagellation.jpg, '' The Flagellation'' by

, c. 1607–1608 File:Lorenzo Lotto - Madonna and Child with St Peter Martyr - WGA13648.jpg, ''Madonna and Child with Saint Peter Martyr'' by Lorenzo Lotto, c. 1503 File:Deus Pai - Retábulo de San Nicola da Tolentino-1.jpg, '' Baronci Altarpiece'' by

, c. 1500–1501 File:Parmigianino, sacra famiglia con san giovannino.jpg, ''Holy Family with St. John'' by

, c. 1528 File:Parmigianino, lucrezia romana, 1540.jpg, ''Lucretia'' by

, c. 1540 File:El Greco – Boy Blowing an Ember – Google Art Project – edited.jpg, '' A Boy Blowing on an Ember to Light a Candle'' by

, c. 1570–1572 File:Musée de Capodimonte - Le Gréco, portrait de Giulio Clavio, en 1571-572 -01.jpg, '' Portrait of Giulio Clovio'' by

, 1571 File:Titian - St Mary Magdalene - WGA22834.jpg, ''Mary Magdalena'' by Titian, c. 1550 File:Titian - Danaë - WGA22900.jpg, '' Danae'' by

, c. 1545 File:Titian - The Annunciation - WGA22821.jpg, ''The Annunciation'' by

, c. 1557 File:Portrait of Pope Paul III Farnese (by Titian) - National Museum of Capodimonte.jpg, '' Portrait of Pope Paul III'' by

, c. 1543 File:Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (by Titian).jpg, '' Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese'' by

, c. 1545–1546 File:Schedoni Carità.jpg, ''Charity'' by Bartolomeo Schedoni, c. 1611 File:Painting of the family of Ferdinando IV (Angelica Kauffmann, 1782).jpg, ''Ferdinando IV and His Family'' by

Angelica Kauffman Maria Anna Angelika Kauffmann ( ; 30 October 1741 – 5 November 1807), usually known in English as Angelica Kauffman, was a Swiss people, Swiss Neoclassicism, Neoclassical painter who had a successful career in London and Rome. Remembered prima ...

, c. 1783 File:Correggio 015.jpg, ''Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine'' by

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

, c. 1520 File:Lanfranco, Giovanni - Mary Magdalen Raised by Angels - c. 1616.jpg, Glory of Mary Magdalne by Giovanni Lanfranco, c. 1616

References

Bibliography

* * Le Guide di Dove - Campania, Corriere della sera, 2007. * Il Museo di Capodimonte, valori di Napoli, Pubblicomit, 2002.

External links