How nice it is to return to the Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte and find pleasant and interesting news! First of all, the Porta Piccola car park, completely repaved and made usable again for the disabled. Then what is the mission of Capodimonte, that is to say art in all its manifestations; this time we have enjoyed three exhibitions, all interesting and stimulating, each in its own way, and we will talk to you about it right away. Let's start with an exhibition that was supposed to take place already in 2020, but which was postponed due to Covid. We are talking about the exhibition dedicated to Salvatore Emblema, which is divided between the Reggia and the Cellaio, the former food warehouse of the building for some years used as an exhibition venue, and which will be open until 30 October 2022. To introduce it, we read on the Capodimonte website: https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it/mostra/salvatore-emblema/ Salvatore Emblema (Terzigno, 1929 - 2006), born on the slopes of Vesuvius, was able to combine the scenario of his origins with the abstract language of American origin. Known for the use of common materials, such as the jute with which he composed the large paintings marked by geometric figures, lesser known works are also presented on display, including some environmental installations, investigations on the relationship between work and environment, action and context . The success that characterized the 1950s up to the early 1980s was followed by a period of public misunderstanding. This is why Capodimonte strongly wanted to dedicate a large exhibition to Salvatore Emblema, spread between the second and third floors of the Museum, Cellaio and Real Bosco, retracing the phases of his research, both in a chronological and thematic sense. Here are some images, specifying that most works are untitled and that in the paintings, in addition to jute, there are often lapilli from Vesuvius and other materials, such as fascine and chestnut boards:
And the other two exhibitions? They are very important, one because it throws a beam of light on an artist less known than he deserves, the other because it reorganizes an entire historical period of Neapolitan figurative art, developing throughout the second floor of the Palace. Let's start with the latter:
Beyond Caravaggio. A new tale of painting in Naples
Capodimonte Museum, second floor, 24 rooms
https://capodimonte.cultura.gov.it/mostra/oltre-caravaggio-un-nuovo-racconto-della-pittura-a-napoli/
Closing: January 7, 2023
200 works on display, all from the museum's permanent collections, without external loans. An exhibition, created in collaboration with the Amici di Capodimonte Ets and American Friends of Capodimonte associations, which aims to relaunch the debate by presenting another reading of the Neapolitan 1600s, which has become the century of Caravaggio for amateurs and historians.
And the most significant painting of this exhibition, rightly housed in a room dedicated to him, is this:
The other exhibition we visited is this:
The bronze patriarch of the Caravaggeschi: Battistello Caracciolo (1578 - 1635)
Capodimonte Museum, Raffaello Causa Room
Closing: 2 October 2022
Born in Naples in 1578, where he died in 1635, Giovan Battista Caracciolo known as Battistello is the first and greatest of the southern Caravaggesque painters. If Battistello was the closest to a pupil Caravaggio (1571 - 1610) had had, it must be recognized that he was a very unfaithful Caravaggesque. Unlike the master, he draws, frescoes and engraves. Some of Caracciolo's most demanding works of the last time, in the 1630s, are among the masterpieces of mural painting in southern Italy. Battistello, in fact, trained as a fresco painter between the end of the 1500s and the early 1600s and, as a fresco painter, he concluded, with the help of a workshop, his journey in some of the major churches in the city. The exhibition in the Causa room of the Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte includes about 80 works in dialogue between those already present in the museum and the others arrived here thanks to major loans from public, national and foreign collections, ecclesiastical collections and private collectors.
And this is one of the most significant works among those exhibited:
And we close with the latest news: in front of the Royal Palace we find the Palazzina dei Principi, the elegant and sober building which in 1826 was destined by Francis I to house the Royal Princes; adjacent to the building, the Stufa dei Fiori was opened, the ancient nineteenth-century greenhouse, restored and redeveloped as a Tisaneria-Bistro, on whose terrace you can refresh yourself, even if there are no bathrooms equipped for us (we find them on the ground floor, first and second floor of the Palace):
