A surge of Neapolitan treasures at the Louvre
About the exhibition "Naples in Paris - The Louvre invites the Capodimonte Museum", on view until 8 January 2024.
The Capodimonte Museum in Naples did well to close for renovation and enter into an exceptional partnership with the Louvre: Pending its reopening, it is now combining its treasures with those of the emblematic Parisian museum in an exhilarating tour, a pictorial whirlwind that illuminates the mythical Grande Galerie with works of art by Bellini, Masaccio, Raphael and Titian, leaving the dark works of Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and Jusepe de Ribera to provide the shade necessary for all life. In the summer issue of Beaux Arts Magazine, Daphné Bétard takes us on a fascinating guided tour of the exhibition "Naples in Paris - The Louvre invites the Museum of Capodimonte", on view until 8 January 2024.
"Vaulted in the open air in the simplest of garb, his sex hidden by a ridiculous little vine leaf, drunken Silenus shamelessly offers his fat flesh and alcohol-worn body to the gaze of the spectator, whom he superbly ignores, preoccupied by the action of a satyr pouring wine into his shell cup. Not far away, Cain commits the irreparable and murders Abel in a sultry homoerotic scene, where the tangle of muscular bodies in struggle plays with the movements of the draperies in a very tight framing full of contrasts. The dramatic intensity of this singular use of chiaroscuro reaches its climax in a biblical scene in which, after seducing and intoxicating him, Judith beheads Holofernes, aided by her maid, her facial features frozen in a calm, determined expression that is perhaps even more chilling than the blood that stains the sheets. Ebriety, obscenity, tragedy and ambivalence in the representation of violence: breathtakingly powerful, these three Caravaggesque paintings, executed respectively by Jusepe de Ribera, Lionello Spada and Artemisia Gentileschi a few years apart in the early 17th century, have come to shake the walls of the Grande Galerie in the Louvre.
The historic heart of the Louvre, this incredible art gallery devoted entirely to Italian painting, has completely overhauled its display of works of art to include 70 jewels on loan from the Capodimonte museum, also housed in a former royal palace in Naples. The Italian museum's breathtaking collection comes from the Farnese collection that Charles de Bourbon, son of Philip V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, received as an apanage when he was placed at the head of the new Kingdom of Naples in 1734. It's hard to imagine what these masterpieces could have fetched on the contemporary art market of the time!
"The sovereign then decided to have a Reggia (a palace) worthy of this prestigious ensemble built on the heights of Capodimonte", explains the Beaux Arts Magazine journalist. "The long and complex project, caught up in the upheavals of history, was not completed until a century later, after having exhausted architects and engineers and seen kings fall, without deviating from its initial project, an imposing three-storey structure bringing together paintings by Masaccio, Mantegna, Filippino Lipi, Raphael, Pieter Bruegel, Greco, Parmesan, Bronzino, Bellini... Transformed into a museum in the aftermath of the Second World War, Capodimonte hosted major exhibitions in the 1970s highlighting, among other things, the great masters of the Renaissance and the Neapolitan school, which had long been neglected in favour of Italian art from north of Rome. "
Once the hunting residence of the Bourbon sovereigns, the palace (or Reggia in Italian) now houses one of Italy's largest museums and one of Europe's most important art galleries, in terms of both the number and exceptional quality of the works it houses. Capodimonte is one of the few museums in Italy whose collections cover all the schools of Italian painting. It also houses the second largest cabinet of drawings in Italy after the Uffizi, as well as a remarkable collection of porcelain. So the Louvre has pulled out all the stops to cope with this flood of treasures! The Neapolitan museum's greatest masterpieces are on display in three different locations.
In the Salon Carré, the Grande Galerie and the Salle Rosa (Denon wing, 1st floor), thirty-three paintings from Capodimonte, among the greatest of Italian painting, interact with the Louvre's collections (works by Titian, Caravaggio, Carracci and Guido Reni, to name but a few), or complement them by presenting schools that are little or not at all represented - in particular, of course, the singular Neapolitan school, with artists of dramatic and expressive power such as Jusepe de Ribera, Francesco Guarino and Mattia Preti. There will also be an opportunity to discover the deeply moving Crucifixion by Masaccio, a major artist of the Florentine Renaissance who is missing from the Louvre's collections; a major history painting by Giovanni Bellini, The Transfiguration, of which the Louvre has no equivalent; and three of the most magnificent paintings by Parmigianino, including the famous and enigmatic Anta. The confrontation of these works with the Correggio paintings in the Louvre is undoubtedly one of the highlights of this exhibition.
The Chapel Room (Sully Wing, 1st floor) contains such important paintings as Titian's Portrait of Pope Paul III Farnese with his Nephews and Greco's Portrait of Giulio Clovio, as well as spectacular sculptures and objets d'art on exceptional loan, including the Cofanetto Farnese, The Cofanetto Farnese is one of the most precious and refined works of Renaissance goldsmithery, along with Benvenuto Cellini's Saltcellar of Francis I and Filippo Tagliolini's extraordinary biscuit, The Fall of the Giants. The collection reflects and bears witness to the various golden ages of the Kingdom of Naples.
In the Salle de l'Horloge (Sully Wing, 2nd floor), rare works are displayed alongside famous cartoons from the Louvre's Cabinet des Dessins, such as Raphael's Saint Catherine and the recently restored cartoon of The Moderation by Giulio Romano, Raphael's closest pupil and collaborator.
With more than 30,000 works, the Capodimonte Prints and Drawings Department owes some of its treasures to Fulvio Orsini, humanist, great scholar and librarian to Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, known as the Grand Cardinal and grandson of Pope Paul III. Orsini built up the first collection in the world to consider study drawings and preparatory drawings. This new and revolutionary approach led him to acquire four fabulous cartoons that were then considered to be by Raphael and Michelangelo. Moses before the Burning Bush by Raphael and the Group of Soldiers by Michelangelo were preparatory drawings for the Vatican decorations and are now recognised as rare autograph works. The cartoons for the Madonna of Divine Love and Venus and Love are considered to have been executed in the immediate circle of the two masters.
Illustration: Francesco Mazzola, known as Parmigianino or Parmesan (1503-1540)
Portrait of a young woman called "Antea" (details), circa 1535.
Oil on canvas. H. 138; W. 86 cm.
Naples, Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte.
Photo Luciano Romano.