The Correale Museum in Sorrento is a destination not to be missed for its wealth of works of art.
For lovers of painting, decorative arts and archaeological objects. Considered one of the city’s jewels.
The museum was created thanks to the inheritance of brothers Alfredo and Pompeo Correale, tales of Terranova. Art lovers who donated a splendid 18th-century building to the town of Sorrento. Surrounded by a citrus garden, with a terrace overlooking the sea, and all their collections that will become a museum open to the public.
The Correale Museum in Sorrento boasts Neapolitan and European works of art from past centuries:
- Paintings.
- Archaeological finds from the region.
- Inlaid furniture by local craftsmen.
- Capodimonte porcelain.
- Murano candlesticks.
- Objects belonging to aristocratic families.
All these collections represent the culture of this corner of Italy. The museum is laid out over three floors, with a total of 24 rooms. The tour is divided into sections, following a chronological order. A visit to the museum takes you from sumptuous Baroque art to the elegant forms of the ‘700s.
A visit to the museum ends with a stroll through the surrounding gardens. Divided into a series of flower beds and archaeological exhibits, towering trees and pretty paths and groves, including the camellia grove.
Ground floor
The first room on the first floor is dedicated to the museum’s founders.
At the entrance are portraits of the two founders and an impressive family tree, tracing the history of the 19th-century Correale and Terranova families. Other sections are dedicated to Sorrento marquetry and to Roman and medieval discoveries, a tribute to the town of Sorrento, its history, traditions and famous people. On the same floor, you can also see a room dedicated to the poet Tasso, with his precious manuscripts and death mask.
First floor
A staircase with carved stone balustrades takes you to the second floor.
Here the rooms house a collection of Neapolitan decorative art from the 16th to the 18th century, representing the Spanish and Austrian viceregal periods through to the establishment of the independent Kingdom of Naples and Sicily under Charles de Bourbon. Of rare beauty, you can see the turtle-plated coiner in room 6 and the “Biribisso” room, which showcases the refined odd/even gaming table.
Second floor
The second floor comprises nine rooms, the first four of which house precious still-life paintings by the Neapolitan school (17th century).
The painting of the Neapolitan school is a dynamic, naturalistic and illuminist innovative vision, which is particularly evident in the works of Michelangelo da Caravaggio. Room 19 is dedicated to the 19th-century painters of the Posillipe school, while the others house decorative collections from the 17th to the 19th centuries. At the entrance, you can also admire an elegant 17th-century piece of furniture, used to display a precious collection of 18th-century French faience.
Third floor
The museum’s top floor houses an extraordinary collection of eighteenth-century European porcelain and Italian majolica from the same period.
The abundant production of eighteenth-century porcelain is comparable in quantity and consistency to that from China and Japan, and tells of the luxury and splendor of the courts of the time. On this floor, German, Austrian and Italian porcelain manufacturers are well represented. Everyday objects such as tea sets, snuff, perfume holders and crockery bear witness to the passion of the collections on display and the introduction of porcelain in opposition to the use of majolica.