Museum
of
Capodimonte
Park of Capodimonte - Tel.0817499111
Historical Signals
The king of Naples ,
Carlo di Borbone , that many important monuments wanted for his Italian capital,
had the idea of the construction of an hunting" casino " on
the lovely hill of Capodimonte , seven kilometers of secular forest ,
choiced as royal preserve. He charged Carasale , who was, already, engaged for
the Theatre of San Carlo , and gave the direction of the jobs
to Giovanni Antonio Medrano and Antonio Canevari . The first stone was placed in
1738 , but the construction continued for approximately twenty years
cause the enormous difficulty that represented the dug transport of the piperno
in the hollow ones of Pianura. Finally in 1758 the mistresses
Farnese collections , inherited from Carlo for maternal way, were arranged in
the wide building from the immense courtyards.
Ferdinand IV , successor of Carlo , entrusted the widening of the Reggia and the
cure of the park to the architect Ferdinando Fuga.
Its classical-stately style, typical of the great European courts, and its
solemn and grand structure show the celebrative and encomiastic intents of the
ruling dinasty.
From 1758 to 1806, the historical and artistic cores of the Farnese collection,
which Carlo di Borbone had inherited from his mother Elisabetta, the last
descendant of the Family, and that had reached Naples from the formerly Farnese
estates of Parma and Piacenza, and from the Roman palace of the family, were
placed in the Neapolitan palace.
With the transfer of all the collections of art in the Palace of the Studies,
current National Archaeological Museum , happened during French decade (
1806-15 ), the Reggia became residence of Giuseppe Bonaparte and of
Gioacchino Murat . The residential function comes confirmed from Ferdinand ,
returned from the sicialian exile in 1815 , that it undertakes new
jobs in the palace and the park. A formation of painters, scultori and craftsmen
are calls to decorate rooms of the Reggia , in particular the Hall of
the Festivities and to half century the palace finally is completed.
The destiny of the Reggia did not change with the accession of the
Savoia family, after the reunion of Italy. At the end of the eighteenth century,
a true Gallery of Modern Art, made up of paintings and sculptures by living
Neapolitan artists, was created in some halls of the palace.
In 1920, the palace passed from the Crown to the State property. The revival of
its exhibit function took place in 1957, when, after the necessary works of
restructure and functional adjustment, the Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di
Capodimonte opened to the public.
The Museum The Farnese collection The origin of the collection (1468-1549),
must to do to the political action and the cultural choices of Alessandro
Farnese (Pope with the name of Paul III) .
Comprehensive of the greater Italian and European works of painting, let alone
of noteful objects of limbs applied, is the fundamental axis of the collections
of the Museum . Inherited from Carlo di
Borbone it came placed
in the course of the 1700's in the Reggia of Capodimonte and transferred
at the beginning of the 1800's in the Real Museum , today National
Archaeological Museum, in 1957 itcame brought back to
Capodimonte . This had become rich in the course of approximately two
centuries of important acquisitions happened to the Borbone age.
The collections go therefore on two distinguished branches:
the Roman collection , comprehensive of more works that artists legacies to the
Farnese from relationships of customer ( Raffaello , Sebastiano Del Piombo ,
Tiziano , El Greco , the Carracci brothers,
Botticelli ) and conserved in the palace of Family near Campo dei Fiori ,
with to the great ancient statuea, currently in TheNational
Archaeological Museum ; and the Parmesan collection exposed at the end of
1600's in the palace of the Pilotta in Parma , with one important
presence of works of emilian school, let alone a great number of flemish
paintings.
The Roman collection At
the dead of Paul III in the 1549 politics of increment of the
collections come continued by the grandsons Alexander ( 1520-1589 ) and
Ranuccio ( 1530-1565 ), both cardinals. In particular, the first one
confers ulterior impulse to the collections, surrounding himself of a formation
of artists (from Michelangelo to Tiziano , from El Greco to Bertoja , Salviati
to Guglielmo Della Porta ), whose works today constitute the essence of the
collection. Cardinal Odoardo ( 1573-1626 ) carries out new acquisitions,
demands works of art from the Parmesans property , becomes in the 1600
beneficiary of the collection of Fulvio Orsini , librarian and artistic
councilman of the uncle Alexander . After its dead , in the 1626 , the
Palace slowly remains uninhabited and empty; remains the great statuaria , the
antiquity collections - than the cardinal Alexander it had legacy to the
building - let alone a residual number of paintings that thought of smaller
interest for the collection Parmesan who went itself constituting in the emilian
duchy in the second half of the 1600's.
The Parmesan collection With the duke Ranuccio the branch Parmesan of the
collection acquires greater thickness. The inventory of its assets, written up
in the 1587 , lists a group of forty pictures, for more than school
Parmesan between which " the Galeazzo Sanvitale " of the Parmigianino and
" the Zingarella " of the Correggio . A decisive increment happens with
the requisitions of the assets of feudatari rebels ( 1611 ), when they
reach in the collections of family painted of Giulio Romano , of the Correggio ,
and Bruegel While despoliation of the Roman collection continues , in the
palace of the Garden of Parma , of recent restored, meets a
considerable patrimony of art of extreme importance. In the last decade of the
century, Ranuccio II (1646-1694 ) matured the idea to transfer the best
pieces of this collection in " a Gallery " devised in the
cinquecento Palace of the Pilotta in Parma , where 329
paintings find placing . The successories of Ranuccio II , Francisco (
1694-1727 ) and Antonio ( 1727-1731 ), increased the collections with
one series of purchases carried out from the territory of the Duchy. Great part
of this material, constituted gives beyond 170 paintings , meets in
the Apartment of the Pictures , other expositive nucleus, distributed in six
rooms. Between the paintings, many burlaps of clear ecclesiastic origin. The
last one duke of Parma , Antonio , dies in 1731 . It succeeds
Carlo di Borbone , son of Filippo V king of Spain and Elisabetta Farnese . From
the mother he inherited, beyond to the title, the immense artistic patrimony of
family. Entered in Naples in 1734 , it arranges to the transfer
all the collections of family conserved in the palaces of the Ducato of Parma
and Piacenza , in the Capital of its new Reign.
The Borbone collection With the patrimony of art
inherited from the Farnese, the collectionistic activity of Carlo di Borbone is
not get exausted , of his son Ferdinand IV , and their descendants. A
Coleccionism that feeds various formulas second: or with a relationship of
directed customer to painters, at least to the not Neapolitan origin of
prevalence, which the task is demanded to furnish (with views, landscapes,
representation of customs and popular life, let alone portraits and celebrative
images of the reigning monarchy) the more real situated important, between which
the Reggia di Capodimonte ; or feeding, above all after the transfer of
all the collections of art and antiquity in the Real Borbonico Museum ,
the acquisition of works of the past, to integrate how much already were
possessed for hereditary right from the Farnese family . To Capodimonte ,
the collections entrusting to painters, of preference not Neapolitan, the
celebrative images of the dynasty increase. In the years of Carl ( 1734-1759
) and in those of Ferdinand they work for the Short artists like Giovanni
Paolo Pannini , Francisco Liani , Raphael Mengs , Philipp Hackert , Angelika
Kauffmann and Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun .
Beyond recovering to Rome the booty of art depredated from the French in
the Reggia di Capodimonte , during convulse the facts of 1799 ,
the Borbone has way to acquire a important number of paintings , between which "
the Atalanta and Ippomene " di Guido Kidneys and " the Landscape with the
nymph Egeria " from Lorrain . Sent to Naples , these works find
placing, between 1801 and 1805 , in the Gallery of the Palace
of Prince di Francavilla to Chiaia . During the French decade, re-united all
the collections of art and antiquity in the Palace of the Studies , the
greater increments later on have to the expropriations of the patrimony of
churches and convents deleted, with prevalence of works of artists of southern
school.
In 1814 the negotiation, defined in 1817 set offs then , for the purchase
of the articulated collections of the Cardinal Stefano Borgia (the so-called
Museum of Velletri ). With this acquisition art objects enter in the
borbonic western oriental collections and, archaeological and
medioevali hand-made and modern works, like the famous " Sant' Eufemia
" from Mantegna .
From the second borbonic Restoration until the continuous Unit, the increment of
the collections, with one series of acquisitions of single works, for more than
Neapolitan artists or flamish, and of entire collections. Worthy of meaning the
famous collection of Domenico Barbaja,1842 , manager of the Theatre of
San Carlo , from which he arrives, between the others, " the Sacred
Conversation " of Palma the Old one .
At the date of the 1799 the
Gallery of Capodimonte counts 1783paintings . To the original
nucleus of Farnese origin they were assistants, beyond to court paintings, also
a consisting number of works of Neapolitan artists, reached Capodimonte ,
probably through donations or purchases.
Other purchases, made during the expositions of the Real Istituto di
Belle Arti , went to the Gallery of Modern Art that Annibale Sacco ,
Director of the Real Casa Savoia, founded in the Palazzo di
Capodimonte between 1864 and 1884 .
At the Unit, the collections of Modern and Medieval Art of the Ancient Reign
of the Two Sicilies, are divided in two separated branches.
One the Reggia di Capodimonte , destined as residence of Casa
Savoia, where the manager of the Royal House, Annibale Sacco , organised a real
Museum costituted from the objects (weapons, biscuits, porcelains,
tapestries) coming from the borbonic palaces, and a Gallery of Modern
Art , constituted by paintings of lively artists most of them from Naples.
On the other side tha National Museum , ex Real Borbonic Museum ,
depending by the Minister of the Public Instruction, where the collection were
increased by purchases and legacy.
The famous "Crocefissione" by Masaccio and the wonderful "Ritratto
di Luca Pacioli "by Jacopo de' Barbari were bought in 1901 and in
1903.
In 1926, 138 paintings were removed to Parma as
a cpmpensation of the supposed "usurpations" done by Carlo di
Borbone two centuries ago. After the second world war there were more purchases
when Bruno Molajoli set up the Museum and the National Galleries
of Capodimonte . In 1862 Alfonso d'Avalos , the last descendant of
the branch of Vasto , Pescara , Francavilla , Troia
e Montesarchio , let his collection to the Pinacoteca Nazionale di
Napoli . A precious piece of the
collection is the sequence of seven Flemish tapestries from
Cinquecento, they show episodes from the "Battle of Pavia "
from 1525 , with the imperial troops of Carlo V , commanded by
Ferrante d'Avalos , victorious on the French army of Francesco I .
Other pieces of the collection are: paintings, embroideries, miniatures,
weapons, prints, works of the great Neapolitan seicentisti (
Ribera , Pacecco , Vaccaro , Giordano ), and Abraham Brueghel aswell as the familiar portraits collection. In 1957
thenew Museum were opend and, the year after, Mario De Ciccio
presented more than 1300 precious objects, porcelains and majolicas
that he had collected in more than fifty years. In 1960 the
rich collection of the Banco di Napoli were trasferred in Capodimonte,
there were wonderful pieces from the Neapolitan Ottocento Painters.
Borbone it came placed
in the course of the 1700's in the Reggia of Capodimonte and transferred
at the beginning of the 1800's in the Real Museum , today National
Archaeological Museum, in 1957 it came brought back to
Capodimonte . This had become rich in the course of approximately two
centuries of important acquisitions happened to the Borbone age.
At
the dead of Paul III in the 1549 politics of increment of the
collections come continued by the grandsons Alexander ( 1520-1589 ) and
Ranuccio ( 1530-1565 ), both cardinals. In particular, the first one
confers ulterior impulse to the collections, surrounding himself of a formation
of artists (from Michelangelo to Tiziano , from El Greco to Bertoja , Salviati
to Guglielmo Della Porta ), whose works today constitute the essence of the
collection. Cardinal Odoardo ( 1573-1626 ) carries out new acquisitions,
demands works of art from the Parmesans property , becomes in the 1600
beneficiary of the collection of Fulvio Orsini , librarian and artistic
councilman of the uncle Alexander . After its dead , in the 1626 , the
Palace slowly remains uninhabited and empty; remains the great statuaria , the
antiquity collections - than the cardinal Alexander it had legacy to the
building - let alone a residual number of paintings that thought of smaller
interest for the collection Parmesan who went itself constituting in the emilian
duchy in the second half of the 1600's.
With the duke Ranuccio the branch Parmesan of the
collection acquires greater thickness. The inventory of its assets, written up
in the 1587 , lists a group of forty pictures, for more than school
Parmesan between which " the Galeazzo Sanvitale " of the Parmigianino and
" the Zingarella " of the Correggio . A decisive increment happens with
the requisitions of the assets of feudatari rebels ( 1611 ), when they
reach in the collections of family painted of Giulio Romano , of the Correggio ,
and Bruegel While despoliation of the Roman collection continues , in the
palace of the Garden of Parma , of recent restored, meets a
considerable patrimony of art of extreme importance. In the last decade of the
century, Ranuccio II (1646-1694 ) matured the idea to transfer the best
pieces of this collection in " a Gallery " devised in the
cinquecento Palace of the Pilotta in Parma , where 329
paintings find placing . The successories of Ranuccio II , Francisco (
1694-1727 ) and Antonio ( 1727-1731 ), increased the collections with
one series of purchases carried out from the territory of the Duchy. Great part
of this material, constituted gives beyond 170 paintings , meets in
the Apartment of the Pictures , other expositive nucleus, distributed in six
rooms. Between the paintings, many burlaps of clear ecclesiastic origin. The
last one duke of Parma , Antonio , dies in 1731 . It succeeds
Carlo di Borbone , son of Filippo V king of Spain and Elisabetta Farnese . From
the mother he inherited, beyond to the title, the immense artistic patrimony of
family. Entered in Naples in 1734 , it arranges to the transfer
all the collections of family conserved in the palaces of the Ducato of Parma
and Piacenza , in the Capital of its new Reign.
With the patrimony of art
inherited from the Farnese, the collectionistic activity of Carlo di Borbone is
not get exausted , of his son Ferdinand IV , and their descendants. A
Coleccionism that feeds various formulas second: or with a relationship of
directed customer to painters, at least to the not Neapolitan origin of
prevalence, which the task is demanded to furnish (with views, landscapes,
representation of customs and popular life, let alone portraits and celebrative
images of the reigning monarchy) the more real situated important, between which
the Reggia di Capodimonte ; or feeding, above all after the transfer of
all the collections of art and antiquity in the Real Borbonico Museum ,
the acquisition of works of the past, to integrate how much already were
possessed for hereditary right from the Farnese family . To Capodimonte ,
the collections entrusting to painters, of preference not Neapolitan, the
celebrative images of the dynasty increase. In the years of Carl ( 1734-1759
) and in those of Ferdinand they work for the Short artists like Giovanni
Paolo Pannini , Francisco Liani , Raphael Mengs , Philipp Hackert , Angelika
Kauffmann and Elisabeth Vigée Lebrun .
At the date of the 1799 the
Gallery of Capodimonte counts 1783 paintings . To the original
nucleus of Farnese origin they were assistants, beyond to court paintings, also
a consisting number of works of Neapolitan artists, reached Capodimonte ,
probably through donations or purchases.
A precious piece of the
collection is the sequence of seven Flemish tapestries from
Cinquecento, they show episodes from the "Battle of Pavia "
from 1525 , with the imperial troops of Carlo V , commanded by
Ferrante d'Avalos , victorious on the French army of Francesco I .