Audio tour g. Chamber of the Coat of Arms (The Chamber of the Old Government)

Introduction

This room is called “The Chamber of the Old Government”, because originally the Governors used to meet here to decide the policy of the Pio Monte.  It is also known as the “Chamber of the Coat of Arms” because of the emblem set in the floor representing seven mountains surmounted by a cross. All the paintings exhibited in this room are by Francesco De Mura, paintings and sketches which he bequeathed in 1782 to the Pio Monte to help, as he stated, “ladies and gentlemen in need”.  The collection that the artist donated contained no fewer than 192 paintings, which came from his studio home. They constitute the most important group in the Gallery's collection and testify to the immense output of the greatest painter in Naples in the second half of the eighteenth century.