Naples to Paris. The masterpieces of the Capodimonte Museum hosted by the Louvre – World

World – An unprecedented partnership for the year 2023 and over 70 masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum as guests of the Louvre, at the center of an unprecedented exhibition.
Naples arrives in Paris as the protagonist of an ambitious cultural program that includes music, cinema, shows, but above all which sees the most beautiful masterpieces of the Capodimonte Museum in dialogue with those of the Louvre, in three fascinating rooms.
From 7 June to 8 January in the prestigious Great Gallery a spectacular dialogue will take place between two collections of Italian paintings – that of Capodimente and that of the Louvre – among the most important in the world. This meeting will offer visitors a journey through Italian painting from the 15th to the 17th century.
“Royal palaces transformed into museums, rich in collections inherited from the greatest sovereigns, symbols of the historical ties between France and Italy, the Louvre and Capodimonte have a lot to share and a lot to tell – declares Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre – . I sincerely want to thank Sylvain Bellenger, director of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte who, in friendship, has done us the great honor of accepting our invitation”.

Tiziano Vecellio, Danae, 1545, Oil on canvas, 172 x 120 cm, Naples, National Museum of Capodimonte

For visitors to the Parisian museum it will be an opportunity to admire the Crucifixion by Masaccio, one of the major artists of the Florentine Renaissance, absent from the collections of the Louvre, and again The Transfiguration by Giovanni Bellini, of which the Louvre does not have a counterpart, and three of the most beautiful paintings by Parmigianino, including the enigmatic Before.

“The history of Capodimonte is inextricably linked to the Kingdom of Naples just as the history of the Louvre Museum is linked to the French Revolution – says Sylvain Bellenger, director of the Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte -. Numerous Capodimonte masterpieces, such as the Danae by Titian, the Portrait of Paul III Farnese also by Titian, theBefore by Parmigianino will not surprise visitors, because these are works that appear in many art history manuals, but the surprise will link them to Capodimonte, a museum famous for art lovers, but yet to be discovered for a longer large audience. Despite the historical link of the French with Naples, visitors to Pompeii do not always think of integrating their modern “Grand Tour” with a visit to this museum which ranks among the first museums in Europe”.

Farnese box

Until January 8th The Chapel room instead it will tell the origins and diversity of the Capodimonte collections, established and put together, before the unification of Italy, thanks to the dynasties of the Farnese, the Bourbons and the Bonaparte-Murats. The flagships of this room will be the Portrait of Pope Paul III Farnese with the nephews, by Titian, and the Portrait of Giulio Clovio by El Greco, next to spectacular sculptures and artefacts such as the Cassetta Farnese or the Salt Cellar by Benvenuto Cellini.

There will be time until 25 September to admire, in the clock room, four masterpieces of drawings from the ancient Farnese collection: the autograph cartoon of Michelangelo, that of Raphael and those of his collaborators in dialogue with the drawings of Raphael and his pupils conserved in the Louvre.

Guido Reni, Atalanta and Hippomenes, 1620-1625. Oil on canvas, 264 x 191 cm, Naples, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte

With over 30,000 works, in fact, the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of Capodimonte owes part of its treasures to the humanist Fulvio Orsini who set up one of the great Italian collections in which drawings were given their proper value. This passionate approach led him to acquire two cartoons, Moses before the burning bush by Raphael and the Group of armigers by Michelangelo, now recognized as autographed works. The carton of Our Lady of Divine Love is that of Venus and Cupid they are performed in the immediate entourage of the two masters. These extremely rare masterpieces in the Louvre will dialogue with famous drawings conserved in the Cabinet of Drawings of the French museum such as gave father per The Sacrament Dispute by Raphael or the recently restored cartoon de Moderation by Giulio Romano, Raphael’s closest pupil and close collaborator.
For the entire duration of the exhibition, the auditorium and the rooms of the museum will host concerts and shows, to celebrate the lively cultural past of the Neapolitan city, and at the same time its powerful inspiration for today’s artists.