Titian, Caravaggio, Masaccio, Parmigianino, Artemisia Gentileschi, ending surprisingly with Andy Warhol: over sixty Capodimonte masterpieces have arrived at the Reggia di Venaria, on the outskirts of Turin, for an exhibition starting on 29 March.
It is the same exhibition that closed its doors at the Louvre in January, after having been inaugurated in June last year in the presence of presidents Emmanuel Macron and Sergio Mattarella.
Turin and Naples were brought into dialogue to recall the relationships between their respective kingdoms, as highlighted in the first room of the exhibition, 'Neapolitan artists for the Savoy court'.
The exhibition is significantly titled 'Capodimonte from Reggia to Museum, five centuries of masterpieces from Masaccio to Andy Warhol'.
Among the most beautiful pieces, a portrait of Pope Paul III and a Danae by Titian, a Crucifixion by Masaccio, a Portrait of a Young Woman by Parmigianino, an Annunciation by Artemisia Gentileschi.
There are also some ceramics and silver, but the real final surprise is precisely the explosion of colors of Vesuvius by Andy Wahrol, acrylic on canvas from 1985.
The Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano and the governor of Piedmont Alberto Cirio spoke at the presentation today , welcomed by the president of the Royal Palace of Venaria Michele Briamonte and the director Guido Curto, also in the presence of the director of the Museum and Royal Bosco of Capodimonte, Eike Dieter Schmidt.
"That of Capodimonte - said Sangiuliano - is one of the most valuable collections in the world, I am enthusiastic about this initiative. Museums are the identity geography of the Nation and today we create a great vertical between Naples and Turin, two great historical realities divided over the centuries past, which come together here. When I accompanied President Mattarella to the Louvre I had the idea of then bringing the exhibition to Venaria for a cultural marriage between two great Italian realities".
The minister underlined "the continuous exchange of ideas with Cirio", and his decision to bring the Royal Museums of Turin "to the first tier", which means, he observed, "more resources, more autonomy, and more managerial management" : the right recognition, he noted, for museums which in recent years have reached almost two and a half million euros in takings.
"Being in the highest range of the Italian museum system - said Cirio - gives us important tools to promote our cultural heritage. But for tourism we need infrastructure and now, with the opening of the fundamental railway connection that unites the Royal Palace of Venaria with the city and the airport, we have made sure that visitors can reach our art places more comfortably. For the first time in the last year, 52% of Piedmontese tourism arrived from abroad, and for us this means say having achieved the objective of 10% of GDP originating from tourism".
The exhibition, which will close on September 15, involves the Ministry of Culture, the Savoy Royal Residences, the Capodimonte Museum and the Royal Museums of Turin.
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