ItalyTraveller experience.

6 thematic exhibitions, 51 cultural itineraries, 500 works spanning 150 years of art history. The "Back to Baroque" exhibition is an event which involves not only the city of Naples but the whole of the Campania region. With this exhibition, Nicola Spinosa, the project's curator, aims to reveal the baroque soul of Naples - that intriguing mixture of legend and history, vice and virtue, reality and fantasy, poverty and excess with which the city enchanted Italian and international travelers from the 17th to 19th century. Back to Baroque is an exhibition but also a collective experience, involving six of the city's museums and a great number of baroque sites in the region, including churches, palazzi and monasteries.

The exhibition covers the period of time which commences in 1606, with the arrival of Caravaggio in Naples, and concludes in 1759, with the departure of Charles III to Spain. Charles' departure brought to an abrupt close a period of great cultural ferment. This era was animated by figures such as of Luigi Vanvitelli and Ferdinando Fuga, artists who were appointed by the King to embellish the capital of his Kingdom with great works of art and architecture.

The Capodimonte Museum is the most important of the exhibition sites. Displayed here is an impressive collection of sacred and secular works, dating from the early 1600's to the mid 1700's, which were created by artists influenced by the naturalism of Caravaggio (such as Battistello Caracciolo and Jusepe de Ribera), and others working in Baroque spirit (including Mattia Preti and Francesco Solimena). Two sections are devoted to drawings by painters working in Naples during the city's Baroque period, many of which are on public display for the first time.

Castel Sant'Elmo houses a display of paintings and devotional objects and an interesting photographic exhibition by Luciano Pedicini, capturing the baroque details hidden amongst the streets of Naples, on film. The Charterhouse of San Martino, with its ancient pharmacy frescoed by Paolo de Metteis, is the epitome of baroque magnificence. The Charterhouse contains a fascinating collection of sculptures, portraits of famous historical figures, and city landscapes.

Four rooms in Villa Floridiana's Duca di Martina Museum have been staged to illustrate the sumptuous interior decoration favored by the Neapolitan aristocracy, and contain paintings, furnishings and textiles dating back to the city's baroque period.

The Pignatelli Museum is devoted to the "still life" genre, with paintings by artists such as Luca Forte and exuberant works by Paolo Porpora and Giovan Battista Ruoppolo.

At Palazzo Reale the exhibition deals with the themes of architecture, town planning and cartography, displaying projects by Vanvitelli, Sanfelice and Fuga; all of which testify to the evolution of the baroque city. In the Cappella Reale a 18th century crib scene, with more than 200 shepherds, and a selection of works based on the theme of the nativity are displayed as part of the "Nativity: Scenes of Family Life" exhibition.

Guided tours of Naples are organized every weekend during the four months of the exhibition. The tours take visitors to those sites in which the greatest concentration of Neapolitan baroque works can be found. Sites such as Palazzo Zavallos, home to Caravaggio's last painting, the Pio Monte della Misericordia, and the Cappella Sansevero. Itineraries with a baroque theme have also been created beyond Naples, and throughout the Campania region. Other activities linked to the exhibition include specialized courses held in the museums, and entertaining guided visits devised especially for families with young children.

Back to Baroque. From Caravaggio to Vanvitelli.
Naples, December 12th 2009 - April 11th 2010
www.ritornoalbarocco.it