The remarkable collection accumulated by the Farnese family was brought to Naples by Carlo di Borbone, who inherited it from his mother Elisabetta Farnese, the last in the line of the dynasty that played a leading role in the Italian Renaissance.
It includes some of the definitive masterpieces of figurative art by Titian, Raphael, El Greco, Correggio, Parmigianino and the Carracci brothers, with prestigious examples of the Italian and European schools of painting from the 15th to the 18th centuries. A large selection of Flemish painting, including the masterpieces of Brueghel il Vecchio, constitutes another important component of the collection. Then again there is the fascinating 'Galleria delle cose rare', a sort of Wunderkammer displaying bronze statues, ornaments in rock crystal, and majolica and silver ware, exhibited alongside the celebrated Farnese casket, an outstanding specimen of Italian 16th century craftsmanship.
The bronze sculptures by Giambologna and Francesco di Giorgio Martini are particularly fine. The layout also features paintings acquired by the museum at a later date which integrate the various schools with such fundamental achievements as Masaccio's Crocifissione and Santa Eufemia by Mantegna, the latter acquired as part of the sumptuous Borgia collection in 1817.
