MUSEO DI CAPODIMONTE, Farnese Collection

The Galleries of Capodimonte not only offer a fantastic review of Neapolitan art, but also Italian and international art from the Middle Ages up to present day. Their most prestigious nucleus is the so-called Farnese Collection, which includes a thousand paintings and numerous objects of incomparable beauty. As Charles of Bourbon personally decided three centuries ago, today the works are still exhibited in the rooms overlooking the Mediterranean garden and the sea of ​​Naples.

Elisabeth Farnese was the Duchess of Parma and Piacenza, and her firstborn son Charles of Bourbon became the King of the Two Sicilies in 1734. The Farnese palaces in Parma and Piacenza held all the paintings from the family's Lazio residences, including some Titian masterpieces, and were completely emptied of their artwork, furniture, and furnishings. Once the collection reached Capodimonte, it took years for all the paintings to be unpacked and exhibited in the palace's most beautiful halls.

After Charles III left for Spain and became its king in 1759, some artwork and a lot of furniture was moved to the new Royal Palace in Caserta.

During the revolutionary period of 1799, about 300 works were stolen and wound up in France; only part of them have been recovered....