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. It might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions in place. Although primarily con ...

located in the

Palace of Capodimonte The Royal Palace of Capodimonte ( it, Reggia di Capodimonte) is a large palazzo in Naples, Italy. It was formerly the summer residence and Jagdschloss, hunting lodge of the House of Bourbon, Bourbon kings of the Two Sicilies, one of the two royal ...

, a grand Bourbon

palazzo A palace is a grand residence, especially a royal residence, or the home of a head of state or some other high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome which ...

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. The

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

is the prime repository of Neapolitan painting and decorative art, with several important works from other Italian schools of painting, and some important ancient Roman sculptures. It is one of the

largest Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (o ...

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

Naples and Sicily The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies ( it, Regno delle Due Sicilie) was a kingdom in Southern Italy from 1816 to 1860. The kingdom was the largest sovereign state by population and size in Italy before Italian unification, comprising Sicily and all ...

(later

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. He was the longest-serving heir apparent and Prince of Wales and, at age 73, became the oldest person t ...

, king of

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

) 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 The Royal Palace of Portici (''Reggia di Portici'' or ''Palazzo Reale di Portici''; nap, Reggia ‘e Puortece) is a former royal palace in Portici, Southeast of Naples along the coast, in the region of Campania, Italy. Today it is the home of t ...

, was too small to accommodate his court, and partly because he needed somewhere to house the fabulous Farnese art collection which he had inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese, last descendant of the sovereign ducal family of

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

. Over the years, the palace was enlarged and filled with more art. In 1787, on the advice of

Jacob Philipp Hackert Jacob Philipp Hackert (15 September 1737 – 28 April 1807) was a landscape painter from Brandenburg, who did most of his work in Italy. Biography Hackert was born in 1737 in Prenzlau in the Margraviate of Brandenburg (now in Germany). He t ...

, a laboratory for the restoration of paintings was created. When the

Parthenopaean Republic The Parthenopean Republic ( it, Repubblica Partenopea, french: République Parthénopéenne) or Neapolitan Republic (''Repubblica Napoletana'') was a short-lived, semi-autonomous republic located within the Kingdom of Naples and supported by th ...

was declared in 1799, King Ferdinand IV fled to Palermo on board

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

's ''Vanguard'', taking the most valuable items from the museum with him. What remained was looted by the French troops of General Championnet who were billeted there during the short life of the Republic in 1799. Later on, during the ten years of French reoccupation (1806 to 1815), the art collection was transferred to the Naples National Archaeological Museum. 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, further pieces were added to the art collections, appointing

Domenico Morelli Domenico Morelli (4 August 182313 August 1901) was an 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 Accademia di ...

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

boudoir A boudoir (; ) 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 ...

'' of

Maria Amalia of Saxony es, María Amalia Cristina Francisca Javiera Flora Walburga , spouse = Charles III of Spain , issue = , issue-link = #Issue , house = Wettin , father = Augustus III of Poland , mother = Maria Josepha of ...

was transferred to Capodimonte from the

, and in 1877 a Roman era marble floor was brought in from a Roman villa on Capri. 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,

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

, El Greco, Giovanni Bellini,

Simone Martini Simone Martini ( – 1344) was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style. It is thought that Martini was a pupil ...

, Masaccio,

Lorenzo Lotto Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480 – 1556/57) was an Italian painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He painted mainly altarpieces, religiou ...

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

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 (1591 – 1652) was a painter and printmaker, who along with Francisco de Zurbarán, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and the singular Diego Velázquez, are regarded as the major artists of Spanish Baroque painting. Referring ...

Luca Giordano Luca Giordano (18 October 1634 – 3 January 1705) was an Italian late-Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence, and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain. Earl ...

, the Neapolitan

Caravaggisti The Caravaggisti (or the "Caravagesques") were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio. His influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from Mannerism was profound. Caravaggio never establi ...

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

porcelain Porcelain () is a ceramic material made by heating substances, generally including materials such as kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to other types of pottery, arises main ...

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, was ''maiolica'', 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 . Castellani is known for his "paintings of light". He studied at the Ecole Nationale S ...

, Luciano Fabro, 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 ma ...

, 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 ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

''.

Collection highlights

File:Simone Martini. St. Louis of Toulouse Altarpiece. 1317. Mus.Capodimonte, Naples..jpg, ''Toulouse Altarpiece'' by

. c. 1317 File:Masaccio - Crucifixion - WGA14199.jpg, ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagi ...

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

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in orde ...

. c. 1461 File:Madonna and Child and Two Angels (Botticelli).jpg, '' Madonna and Child and Two Angels'' by Botticelli. c. 1470 File:Trasfigurazionedicristo.jpg, '' Transfiguration'' by Giovanni Bellini. c. 1480 File:Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 035-2.jpg, ''

The Misanthrope ''The Misanthrope, or the Cantankerous Lover'' (french: Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire amoureux; ) 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, Paris b ...

'' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. c. 1568 File:Rafael - Alessandro Farnese.jpg, ''

Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese The ''Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese'' is a portrait of cardinal Alessandro Farnese (the future Pope Paul III) by Raphael, executed ''circa'' 1509-1511. The cardinal posed near a window with a bright foreground, leading into a dark hall. ...

'' by

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

. 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. c. 1596 File:Titian, Pope Paul III with his Grandsons Alessandro the young and Ottavio Farnese.jpg, '' Pope Paul III and his Grandsons'', by

. c. 1546 File:CaravaggioFlagellation.jpg, '' The Flagellation'' by Caravaggio. c. 1607–1608 File:Lorenzo Lotto - Madonna and Child with St Peter Martyr - WGA13648.jpg, ''Madonna and Child with Saint Peter Martyr'' by

. 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 El Greco. c. 1570–1572 File:Julije Klovic 2.jpg, ''Portrait of Giulio Clovio'' by El Greco. c. 1571–1572 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, ''

'' 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. 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 the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

. 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

* {{authority control National museums of Italy Art museums and galleries in Naples Capodimonte Art museums established in 1757 1757 establishments in Italy Palace of Capodimonte 1757 establishments in the Kingdom of Naples