Naples: In the Shadow of Pompeii
Paul Lay reflects on a recent trip to Naples, the closest thing Europe has to a living, breathing medieval city.
It is not everyday that one finds oneself alone in a room containing two Raphaels, four Titians and a Vasari, but that’s the situation I found myself in during a recent visit to Naples’ Museo di Capodimonte. The museum stands above the sprawl of the 3,000-year-old city, in cooler, healthier air, and was built in 1738 to house the immense collection that Charles VII of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies inherited from his mother, Elisabetta Farnese. Room after room is filled with masterpieces: a cartoon by Michelangelo and paintings, usually more than one, by Masaccio, Mantegna, Bellini, Botticelli, El Greco, Correggio and, of course, Caravaggio, who fled to Naples from Rome, where he had committed murder. There were many more paintings than people.
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