Opening hours: 9.00-20.00; closed on Tuesday; closed on Sunday and public holidays : 1 January, 1, May 1, December 25.
Entrance : museum ticket
Information: Ph: 00390815441494, Fax: 0039081440013
Web Site: http://www.archeona.arti.beniculturali.it

NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM

ARTE E CULTURA IN CINA PRIMA DELL'ANNO MILLE.
to November 6, 2006

Mangiare e bere a Pompei
From February 9, 2004 to November 6, 2005

The exhibition Mangiare e bere a Pompei has been promoted by Soprintendenza per i Beni archeologici of the Naples and Caserta provinces and is a fascinating journey in history. Approximately 200 pieces show the link between food habits and the Vesuvio territory through a path that develops in three rooms of the museum first floorbeside la Sala degli Argenti. We can see egg-shells, pomegranates remnants, walnuts, pine-seeds, cones, figs, cereals like barley and spelt found during archaeological surveys and that offer the possibility to see what was eaten in the past and which show how food has changed .A sculpture of "Dio Bacco" and the famous painting "Bacco e il Vesuvio", found during the excavation of Casa del Centenario, act as a guide to the whole exhibition, that even has the typical Roman dining room built by the restorers of Soprintedenza archeologica of Naples with on display kitchenware and dishes together with the characteristic cutlery such as bronze and silver spoons.

NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
From March 24 2006 to June 4, 2006

TITIAN AND COURTS PORTRAITS FROM RAFFAELLO TO CARRACCI

Organised on the first floor of the Capodimonte Palace to then next autumn be moved to the Musèe du Luxembourg in Paris, this exhibition is one of the most important artistic events in 2006. Starting with the extraordinary portraits created by Titian for Paul III Farnese’s family, the exhibition is enriched with over thirty paintings by the Venetian artist, coming from the most important European and American Museums as well as forty works of art by the greatest Italian 16th Century portrait painters, ranging from Raffaello to Carracci.The portraits show personalities from the most prestigious European courts, famous poets and men of letters, important and seductive ladies, providing precious visual testimonies of history during that period. However, these portraits by Titian or Raffaello, by Pontormo or Bronzino, Parmigianino or Moroni and many others who between the Renaissance and Mannerism resulting in one of the most enlightened seasons in Italian and European art, return to us not only the physical characteristics and ostentatious luxury of their precious garments. These are all in fact “inner” portraits: almost the result of scrutinizing in depth the most intimate and secret aspects of men and women, the young and the old, portrayed with their ambitions, hopes, expectations or illusions, seeing beyond the “official” or ceremonial poses, always showing us the more real ad profound sentimental reactions of princes and popes, emperors and poets, queens and “favourites

"THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY"
Running Exhibition from 31st October 2004 to 31st January 2005

A personal exhibition devoted to Damien Hirst, called the "Agony and the Ecstasy" has been opened at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples. The exhibition, which can be visited up to 31 January 2005, is part of a project called "Annali delle Arti", promoted the Campania Region, thought of and organized by Achille Bonito Oliva, and curated by Eduardo Cicelyn, Mario Codognato and Mirta d'Argenzio. Hirst was born in Bristol 1965 and his artistic career has simultaneously represented both the ecstasy and agony, eros and thanatos, corpses and medicines. This juxtaposition has been present since his first success in London, when in the eighties the well known advertising agent Charles Saatchi contributes to give fame to a group of artists called Young British Artists. Hirst is among them one of the most important, especially if we think of his contribution to Sensation, the collective exhibition which took place in 1996. The exhibition stirred up a scandal and was severely criticised by the authorities, by the citizens and by the conformists shocked by the works on display. Hirst very often exhibits animals carcasses preserved in formaldehyde, works that reproduce chemical and physical formulae or chemist set of shelves (like in the last Biennale Venice), monochromes of dead flies and coloured mandalas made with butterflies wings which can be considered metaphors of the human frailty.

Opening hours: Daily from 9 a.m. to 7.30 p.m.; closed on Tuesday.
Information: Information: Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Piazza Museo 19, Napoli.
Web Site: http://www.archeona.arti.beniculturali.it
Phone: 0039081440166, Fax: 0039081440013