The Royal Palace of Capodimonte was therefore born with a museum vocation. Only later, with Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies first and Joachim Murat afterwards, part of the large building was used as a residence. The visit to the Royal Palace should begin with the masterpieces of the Farnese Collection: in the first room, dedicated to Tiziano Vecellio, you can admire some of the most famous paintings by the Venetian artist, such as the “Portrait of Paul III with his nephews Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese” or the “Danae”.

The visit continues with one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of art: the “Crucifixion by Masaccio”, once part of a larger polyptych, now dismembered. It inaugurates the Renaissance pictorial style. A long sequence of rooms hosts the Farnese Collection, with names highlighting its prestige: Raffaello Sanzio, Sebastiano del Piombo, Botticelli, Parmigianino, the pictorial cycles of Agostino and Annibale Carracci, Pieter Bruegel the Elder. They are only some of the masterpieces shown in the museum, the result of the acquisitions made over time by the Farnese family.

On the second floor of the Palace is the large Gallery of the Arts in Naples from the ‘200 to the ‘700. A masterpiece stands above all: “The Flagellation” painted by Michelangelo Merisi, also known as Caravaggio. And then great artists such as Luca Giordano, Pinturicchio, Sodoma, Simone Martini and Artemisia Gentileschi, giving further prestige to the collection, mostly result of Bourbon acquisitions. The d'Avalos Collection, on the other hand, focuses mainly on the great names of Neapolitan Baroque painting: Luca Giordano, Mattia Preti and Francesco Solimena.

Finally, even contemporary art lovers will have a lot to see: the “Grande Cretto Nero” (“Great Black Crack”) by Alberto Burri still welcomes visitors to this section, together with the polychrome “Vesuvius” by Andy Warhol and the works of Pistoletto, Kounellis, Daniel Buren and Joseph Kosuth, just to give a few examples. Capodimonte, together with its wonderful wood and porcelain which have been the pride of Neapolitan manufacturing since the 18th century, is a journey that starts from medieval art and goes through 800 years of history.