Royal Palace of Caserta, an exhibit in the Council Chamber recounts the Bourbon dynasty in the Restoration

Starting today, Wednesday, May 27, the Council Chamber of the Royal Apartments of the Royal Palace of Caserta is hosting a new exhibit dedicated to works that tell the story of the prestige and official image of the sovereigns. Celebrations of the Bourbon dynasty in the age of the Restoration thus find new space at the Royal Palace of Caserta. The definitive return from the Capodimonte Museum of Giuseppe Cammarano ’s monumental canvas The Family of Francis I, which returned to the Reggia on the occasion of the exhibition Queens. Plots of Culture and Diplomacy between Naples and Europe, offered the opportunity to rethink the exhibition itinerary of the reception rooms of the Vanvitellian palace.

Within this new museum reading, the Council Room, located immediately after the Throne Room and once used for meetings with ministers of the kingdom, becomes the symbolic place of theexaltation of the Bourbon monarchy. Opposite the imposing painting made by Cammarano in 1820 to celebrate King Ferdinand’s name day, stands Pietro Saja’s La gloria dei Borbone, made in 1816. The work depicts a majestic allegorical female figure surrounded by the royal insignia, while a long scroll dedicated to the magnificence of the dynasty lies on her lap. Both Saja’s painting and Cammarano’s precious canvas frame were recently restored thanks to the support of the Mestiere Cinema company.

The Council Chamber, which connects the state rooms to the 19th-century private apartments, also houses at its center a fine neo-Baroque-style table in gilded and carved wood, with a crimson velvet top and porcelain medallions decorated with the Costumes of the Kingdom of Naples, painted by Raphael Giovine in 1859. The precious furniture was donated to Francis II by the city administration on the occasion of his marriage to Maria Sophie of Bavaria, becoming a symbol of the strong bond between the monarchy and the territory, as well as a testimony to the excellence of the Kingdom’s manufactures.

The adjacent antechamber also houses other works related to the representation of the royal family. These include Carlo De Falco’s Portrait of Queen Maria Christina of Savoy, dedicated to Ferdinand II’s first wife, which also returned to the Royal Palace of Caserta from the Capodimonte Museum after the exhibition ended on May 4.

In recent years, the Royal Palace of Caserta has carried out intensive work on the study, restoration, enhancement and expansion of its collections with the aim of making the museum itinerary increasingly legible and coherent. The recent reopening of the Sale Farnesiane (Farnese Rooms), returned to the public after major interventions that renewed the exhibition spaces and allowed the relocation of the large painting The Departure of Elisabetta Farnese from Parma after the wedding of Ilario Giacinto Mercanti, known as Spolverini, restored thanks to the contribution of an Eagle Pictures film production, is also part of this direction.

Royal Palace of Caserta, an exhibit in the Council Chamber recounts the Bourbon dynasty in the Restoration

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