Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum’s collection will soon be joining their co-national star, the Mona Lisa, at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
About 60 works from the Capodimonte Museum — known for being a great repository of the under-studied Neapolitan school of painting — will take up residence at the Louvre between June 2023 and January 2024.
Scattered throughout the Denon wing (in the Salon Carré and Grande Galerie) and the Sully wing (in the Salle de l’Horloge and Salle de la Chapelle), about half of the treasures on loan are paintings by such Italian greats as Titian, Caravaggio, Carracci and Guido Reni. Artworks by underrepresented artists from the Neapolitan school, such as Jusepe de Ribera, Francesco Guarino and Mattia Preti, will also dialogue with the Louvre’s collections.
Notably, the exhibition will also include a Crucifixion by Masaccio, a Florentine Renaissance master who is absent from the Louvre’s collections, as well as three pieces from Parmigianino, the noted Mannerist.
Other highlights to look forward to are rare cartoons by Raphael (Moses before the Burning Bush) and Michelangelo (Group of Soldiers), both preparatory sketches for works in the Vatican.
A Neapolitan season at the Louvre
To complement the exhibition of artworks, a rich program of concerts, shows and events is planned during the same period. Slated to perform is an orchestra of young singers from Naples’ Teatro San Carlo opera house. Though dates are yet to be announced, the Louvre will also host a film festival dedicated to Naples, inviting an international cadre of filmmakers, writers, directors and actors.
About the Capodimonte
A former hunting residence of Bourbon rulers, the ornate palace is the home of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte (Capodimonte for short). Regarded as one of the most important art galleries in Europe, it’s the only museum on the Italian peninsula presenting collections from all the schools of Italian painting.
In thanking the President-Director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, for the invitation to work together, General Director of the Capodimonte Sylvain Bellenger said, “The history of Capodimonte is inseparable from the history of the Kingdom of Naples, just as the history of the Louvre Museum is inseparable from the French Revolution.”
Naples in Paris: The Louvre Hosts the Capodimonte Museum
June 2023-January 2024–Musée du Louvre, Paris
