Naples - Naples, Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast - page 105

Beyond the mosaics, the Gabinetto Segreto (Secret Chamber) contains a small but
much-studied collection of ancient erotica. Guarding the entrance is a marble statue of a
lascivious-looking Pan draped over a very coy Daphne. Pan is then caught in the act, this
time with a nanny goat, in the collection's most famous piece - a small and surprisingly
sophisticated statue taken from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum. There is also a series
of nine paintings depicting erotic positions - a menu of sorts for brothel clients.
Originally the royal library, the enormous Sala Meridiana (Great Hall of the Sundial)
on the 1st floor is home to the Farnese Atlante , a statue of Atlas carrying a globe on his
shoulders, as well as various paintings from the Farnese collection. Look up and you'll
find Pietro Bardellino's riotously colourful 1781 fresco depicting the Triumph of Ferdin-
and IV of Bourbon and Marie Caroline of Austria .
The rest of the 1st floor is largely devoted to fascinating discoveries from Pompeii,
Herculaneum, Boscoreale, Stabiae and Cuma. Among them are breathtakingly vivid,
mythologically themed wall frescoes from the Villa di Agrippa Postumus and the Casa di
Meleagro, as well as a pair of gladiator's helmets, ceramics and glassware - even
eggcups. Rooms LXXXVI and LXXXVII house an extraordinary collection of vases of
mixed origins, many carefully reassembled from fragments. Also on this floor are various
engraved coppers and Greek funerary vases.
If you are set on seeing particular museum collections, it's worth calling ahead to en-
sure the galleries you want to see are open; unfortunately, staff shortages often mean that
sections of the museum close for part of the day.

Galleria di Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
Offline map
( 081 42 50 11; www.palazzozevallos.com ; Via Toledo 185; adult/reduced €4/3;
10am-6pm Tue-Fri & Sun, 10am-8pm Sat; R2 to Piazza Trieste e Trento) While the
19th-century stucco detailing and frescoes of the 17th-century Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano
are delightful, the protagonist here is Caravaggio's final masterpiece, The Martyrdom of St
Ursula (1610). Completed weeks before the artist's lonely death, it depicts the brutal
scene of a vengeful king of the Huns piercing the heart of his unwilling virgin bride-to-be,
Ursula.
Positioned behind the dying martyr is a haunted Caravaggio, an eerie premonition of
his own impending fate. The tumultuous history of both the artist and the painting is docu-
mented in the free, highly informative audioguide. Caravaggio's canvas is the centrepiece
of the palazzo's small art gallery , its other works of note including a fascinating pictorial
map of 17th-century Naples by Alessandro Baratta and 18th- and 19th-century landscape

GALLERY