Caravaggio in Naples

Caravaggio reached Naples later in 1606, after a spell on Colonna estates south of Rome. The Colonna family, who had protected him before, kept a palace here, and commissions followed quickly. Capodimonte dates his Neapolitan stays to 1606 to 1607 and 1609, and both paintings from the first stay are still in town.

• The Seven Works of Mercy (1606 to 1607). The Pio Monte, a charity founded in 1602 by seven young noblemen, paid what its own site calls the "exorbitant" sum of 400 ducats. The commission came through one of the founders, Giovan Battista Manso.
• The Flagellation of Christ (1607), painted as an altarpiece for the church of San Domenico Maggiore. It belongs to the Interior Ministry's Fondo Edifici di Culto and has been at Capodimonte since 1972 for its protection.
• The Madonna of the Rosary, another large altarpiece linked to his Colonna patrons, left Naples and is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

In 1607 he left for Malta, hoping the Knights of Saint John could win him a pardon. They made him a knight, then jailed him after another fight in August 1608. He escaped to Sicily and, by the late summer of 1609, was back in Naples.

In October 1609 he was attacked in Naples and badly wounded in the face; rumors reached Rome that he was dead. He kept working. His last documented picture is the Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, painted in 1610 for the Genoese prince Marcantonio Doria, whose family counted Ursula as a patron saint. In a letter of May 1610, Doria's agent in Naples, Lanfranco Massa, reported that he had put the fresh canvas in the sun to dry before shipping it. The letter is how the picture was identified: it had been bought by the Banca Commerciale Italiana in 1972 as a work by Mattia Preti.

That summer he took a boat north toward Rome, where a pardon seemed near. He died of fever at Porto Ercole, in Tuscany, on July 18, 1610. The cause is still debated.

A note on the Gallerie d'Italia. Older guides send you to Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano. Intesa Sanpaolo moved its Naples museum in 2022 into the former Banco di Napoli headquarters at Via Toledo 177, and Saint Ursula moved with it. The canvas was lent to Rome for the Caravaggio 2025 exhibition at Palazzo Barberini and returned on August 1, 2025, cleaned, with three lost heads recovered, in a climate-controlled frame and a relit room. The museum's home page lists it on display as of September 30, 2026.

The Pio Monte is the only one of the three still in the place it was painted for. The picture hangs over the altar of a working charity, and the ticket includes the picture gallery upstairs.

Do it on a Tuesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday: Capodimonte closes on Wednesdays and the Gallerie d'Italia on Mondays.

1. 8:30 a.m., Capodimonte. Buy and validate before 9:30 a.m. and the ticket is €12. Go straight to the second floor, which closes at 5 p.m. on weekdays with last entry at 4:30 p.m. It is about 2 km (1.2 miles) uphill from the Museo metro stop, so take a bus from Piazza Museo or a taxi.
2. Early afternoon, the Pio Monte. Via dei Tribunali, in the old town; open to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday, last ticket 5:30 p.m. The Cappella Sansevero is about 540 m away if you booked a slot.
3. Late afternoon, the Gallerie d'Italia. About 2.1 km, under 30 minutes on foot, down to Via Toledo. Open to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 8 p.m. at weekends, last entry an hour before closing. Metro Line 1 stops at Toledo and Municipio.

On a Sunday the order flips: the Pio Monte closes at 2:30 p.m., but Capodimonte's second floor stays open to 7:30 p.m. Our Spaccanapoli and decumani walk passes the Pio Monte, and the two-day itinerary fits Capodimonte around the catacombs on the same hill.

• First Sunday of the month: free at Capodimonte and at the Gallerie d'Italia. The Pio Monte, a private charity, lists no free day on its info page.
• Gallerie d'Italia in October 2026: free on Saturday, October 10, Sunday, October 11 and Saturday, October 24.
• Capodimonte: also free on November 4, 2026.
• Campania Artecard: €8 instead of €10 at the Pio Monte, and some Artecard versions get you into the Gallerie d'Italia free. Whether the card pays overall is on our Artecard page.

Photography rules differ. The Pio Monte allows phones only for its audioguide app, which in practice means no photos. Capodimonte's audioguides are suspended, so bring your own notes.

Naples: Capodimonte Museum small group tour

Only 62 reviews. The museum's own ticket is €15 (€12 in the first and last hour), so the guide costs about €23.50. Getting up the hill is up to you.

2 hours

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