Museo di Capodimonte Naples art in the Louvre Paris

Asserting the importance of collaboration among European mus­eums, Musée du Louvre has formed a fine partnership with Museo di Capod­im­onte for 2023-4. The royal palace, which once served as a hunting lodge for Naples’s Bourbon monarchs, is now one of the largest museums in It­aly, as well as one of the best quality European galleries. Capodimonte is one of the few museums whose collection covers all schools of Italian painting plus a remarkable collection of porcelain. 

The Louvre noted that c60 major masterpieces from Capodimonte are exhibited in three different places in the Louvre: Salon Carré, Gran­de Galerie and Salle Rosa. The Musée du Louvre and the Museo de Capodimonte decided to join forces to mount a special exhib­it­ion show­casing masterpieces from the two museums. This exceptional event is providing a unique insight into Italian art from the C15th-17th and offer a fresh perspective on the two collections.

The display has 33 paintings from Museo di Capodimonte, some of the great Italian masterpieces. They appeal with the Louvre’s art collect­ion by artists like Titian, Caravag­gio, Annibale Car­racci and Guido Reni, and shed light on Italian schools that are rare in the Louvre, particularly the special Neapolitan school - the dramatic style of Jusepe de Ribera, Francesco Guarino and Mattia Preti.

Exhibition highlights include a poignant painting of The Cruc­if­ix­ion by Masaccio, a major artist of the Florentine Renaissance; the large history painting Transfiguration of Christ by Giovanni Bellini, without equivalent in the Louvre; and three of the finest paintings by Parmigianino, including his famously enigmatic Antea. The display of these works alongside the Louvre’s paintings by Correggio is one of the high points of the exhibition.

The diversity of artworks in the Museo di Capodimonte collection stems from its singular history. Before the unification of Italy with the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in 1861, Farnese, Bourbon and Bonaparte-Murat dynasties all contributed significantly to the creation of this impressive collection.

The fabulous loans on show in the Salle de la Chapelle introduce vis­it­ors to the diversity of the Capodimonte collection. They include major paintings as Titian’s Portrait of Pope Paul III and his Grand­sons and El Greco’s Portrait of Giulio Clovio, together with some spectacular scul­ptures and objets d’art. Among the latter are the Farnese casket which, like the golden salt cellar made by Benvenuto Cellini for King François I, is one of the most precious and refined artefacts by Renaissance goldsmiths. And see Filippo Tagliolini’s extraordinary biscuit porcelain group, The Fall of the Giants. The overall display reflects the various golden ages of the Kingdom of Naples.

The department of drawings in the Museo di Capodimonte boasts 30,000+ works of art. Some of these treasures once belonged to the humanist scholar Fulvio Orsini, librarian to the Great Cardinal Alessandro Farn­ese, a grandson of Pope Paul III. Orsini took a revolutionary approach to collecting art and compiled the first collection in the world to in­clude preparatory studies, among which are 4 remarkable cartoons done by Raphael and Michel­an­g­elo, preparatory cartoons for the decorations in the Vatican.Flagellation of Christ images always frightened me, although I understood that the church encouraged self-flagellation as a means by which the faithful might enter into the suffering of Christ. Caravaggio seemed to reduce the picture space and to make it darker. Despite this, or as a result, his painting presently a reality into the scene, as if the artist was there. Christ was hanging forward, stressing the element of torture and pain.Artemisia Gentileschi was just as brutal in her painting, showing Judith at the moment when she was beheading Holofernes, the blood gushing from the neck of the drunk Assyrian invader, staining the pillow and mattress. Clearly impressed by Caravaggio, Gentileschi depicted Judith drawing her weapon and striking a deadly blow.  I don't believe in capital punishment ever, but these paintings were so powerful, they took my breath away. Merci, Le Louvre!