Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The
Galleria delle Cose Rare
(Gallery of Rare Objects) is home to Cardinal Alessan-
dro Farnese's gold-embossed, blue majolica table service. The nifty centrepiece depicting
Diana the huntress can be used as a goblet by taking off the stag's detachable head.
A study in regal excess, the 1st-floor
Appartamento Reale
(Royal Apartment) occu-
pies rooms 31 to 60. Sumptuous rooms positively heave with valuable Capodimonte por-
celain, heavy curtains and shiny inlaid marble. The Salottino di Porcellana (Room 52) is
an extraordinary example of 18th-century chinoiserie, its walls and ceiling crawling with
whimsically themed porcelain 'stucco'. The Appartamento Reale is also home to Volaire's
Eruzione del Vesuvio dal Ponte Maddalena
(Eruption of Vesuvius from the Bridge of
Maddalena).
The 2nd floor is packed to its elegant rafters with works produced in Naples between
the 13th and 18th centuries. The first room you come to, however, is lined with a series of
epic 16th-century Belgian tapestries depicting episodes from the Battle of Pavia. Simone
Martini's work
San Ludovico di Tolosa
(1317) is brilliantly displayed in Room 66. Con-
sidered the museum's finest example of 14th-century art, Martini's golden work portrays
the canonisation of Ludovico, brother of King Robert of Anjou.
The piece that many come to Capodimonte to see,
Flagellazione
(Flagellation;
1607-10) hangs in reverential solitude in Room 78, at the end of a long corridor. Caravag-
gio's arresting image of Jesus about to be flogged was originally painted for the de
Franchis family chapel in the Chiesa di San Domenico Maggiore. And, like his other great
Neapolitan work
Le sette opere di misericordia
(The Seven Acts of Mercy), its intensity
and revolutionary depiction of light were to have a huge influence on his contemporaries.
The 28 rooms that remain on the 2nd floor contain works by Ribera, Giordano,
Solimena and Stanzione. Admittedly, your attention span may be seriously waining by
this stage. If so, simply pop into the small gallery of modern art on the 3rd floor to see
Andy Warhol's poptastic Mt Vesuvius before taking in Giuseppe de Ribera's
San Giro-
lamo e l'angelo
(St Jerome and the Angel) back on the 2nd floor (Room 90). This floor
also houses works from the Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe (Drawing and Print Room), in-
cluding several sketches by Michelangelo and Raphael.
Mercifully, the Giovanni Antonio Medrano-designed palace is set in the rambling,
130-hectare
Parco di Capodimonte
(admission free; 9am-1hr before sunset; R4 to
Via Miano)
, its lakes, wood, and various 18th-century buildings (including former royal
porcelain workshop Palazzo Porcellane) a soothing antidote for any cultural OD.
Certosa e Museo
MUSEUM, MONASTERY
di San Martino
