The seventeenth-century palace, designed by Francesco Antonio Picchiatti, houses one of the most important private collections open to the public: in the Picture Gallery on the first floor, in addition to the prestigious collection donated by the eighteenth-century painter Francesco De Mura, works from the 16th to the 19th century are exhibited, including Giordano, Ribera, Stanzione, Vaccaro, Preti and other important masters.
The historic apartment offers a very suggestive itinerary characterized by a house-museum setup that has a dual function: the rooms are, at the same time, an exhibition space open to the public and the headquarters of the private Association, which still uses these precious rooms to carry out its functions.
The rooms also host works of art, silverware, and sacred vestments from ancient Neapolitan Confraternities (Royal Company and Archconfraternity of the Whites of the Holy Spirit, Royal Archconfraternity and Mount of the Most Holy Sacrament of the Spanish Nobles, Pious Work Sacred Temple of the Scorziata, etc.). Of remarkable importance is the painting by Caravaggio “The Seven Works of Mercy” (1607), placed in the church on the high altar.
On the other altars, depicting the individual Works of Mercy carried out by the Institution, are paintings by Luca Giordano, Fabrizio Santafede, Battistello Caracciolo, Giovan Bernardo Azzolino, and Giovan Vincenzo Forlì. Since 2008, it has also been possible to admire on the first floor, with temporary exhibitions, the Art Collection of the Province of Naples, which boasts important Neapolitan masterpieces from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The headquarters of the Pio Monte della Misericordia also houses an Archive/Library particularly valuable for the quantity and rarity of the documents and volumes preserved therein.
