Capodimonte Receives De Matteis's Torquato Tasso as Gift from Former National Gallery Director

The Museo di Capodimonte has added a terracotta portrait of Torquato Tasso by Francesco De Matteis to its collections, a 2026 gift from Sir Nicholas and Lady Penny.

The work, dated to around 1885 and recorded under inventory number OA 9258, was presented to the public in Naples as part of the museum's ongoing series on new acquisitions and research.

The donation

The donated work is a terracotta effigy of Torquato Tasso, made by Francesco De Matteis around 1885. It entered the collections of the Museo di Capodimonte in 2026 as a gift from Sir Nicholas and Lady Penny.

Il Mattino first reported the gift as a donation from the former director of the National Gallery in London. The museum's own notice identifies the donors as Sir Nicholas and Lady Penny.

The museum states that the sculpture previously belonged to the collection of Sir Brinley Ford. The sources do not detail how it passed from that collection to the donors.

Why it matters for De Matteis

The museum presents the Torquato Tasso as significant for understanding De Matteis's early career and his connections with the Neapolitan artistic environment.

That early period is associated with training under Stanislao Lista and Gioacchino Toma, a short stay in Paris, and participation in the 1884 National Exhibition in Turin. The museum also connects his later activity to the Promotrice Salvator Rosa and Caffè Gambrinus.

For visitors, the portrait therefore offers more than a literary subject: it is a compact reference point for a Neapolitan sculptor at the moment when academic training, international exposure, and the city's exhibition life were shaping his work.

Presentation at Capodimonte

The presentation took place within Notizie da Capodimonte, the programme promoted by Amici di Capodimonte ETS dedicated to updates from the museum.

The event was scheduled for 15 October 2026 at 16:00 in Sala 20 of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte. The available sources do not confirm whether the sculpture is now permanently on public display or was shown only as a new acquisition.

Visiting the museum

The Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte is at Via Lucio Amelio 2, Naples.

Readers planning a visit around new-acquisition presentations should check the museum's official listings for the Notizie da Capodimonte programme, including venue rooms and times, as presentations in the series are tied to specific halls such as Sala 20 rather than to the museum's permanent route as a whole.