Undoubtedly, the most well-known sculptures of Palazzo Reale are the statues adorning the main facade facing Piazza Plebiscito. These statues, commissioned by the House of Savoy, depict eight kings representing the dynasties that ruled the Kingdom of Naples from Roger the Norman to Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy. The sculptures are housed within the elegant niches created by Luigi Vanvitelli in the 18th century as part of structural reinforcements to the main facade, where he alternated the porticoed lower arches with masonry.
In the portico adjacent to the Giardino Italia, overlooking Piazza Trieste e Trento, four large niches designed by architect Gaetano Genovese in the 1840s house monumental plaster sculptures. These are copies of the Farnese originals preserved in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and depict Minerva, Hercules, Flora, and Pyrrhus and Astyanax.
A significant sculpture by Giuseppe Canart, La Fortuna, decorates the fountain at the far end of the Cortile d’Onore, serving as its focal point. The statue, holding a cornucopia and a rudder, was originally created for the fountain of Molo Grande, commissioned by Charles of Bourbon in 1742, and was relocated to its current position in the 1840s.
The sculpture collection of Palazzo Reale is distributed throughout the State Apartment route. The side walls of the upper level of the grand Staircase of Honor feature four monumental plaster sculptures from the mid-19th century, placed within niches. These represent allegories of the Royal Virtues: on the right, Fortitude by Antonio Calì and Justice by Gennaro Calì; on the left, Clemency by Tito Angelini and Prudence by Tommaso Solari.
The walls of the Court Theater are also adorned with niches housing twelve papier-mâché statues depicting Apollo and the nine Muses, the divine patrons of the arts, along with Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, and Mercury, the messenger of the gods.
In the small neoclassical space between the ambulatory and the First Antechamber, within the central exedra niche, stands a marble statue by Gennaro De Crescenzo, signed and dated 1841, dedicated to Psyche. In the adjacent room, one of the most recent acquisitions of the Palazzo Reale Museum is displayed: a delicate biscuit bust of the Duchess of Berry, daughter of Francis I of Bourbon. Created in Paris between 1824 and 1828 by Dominique Denuelle, it was acquired in 2006 from the antique market and added to the museum’s collection.
The neoclassical vestibule, historically the connection between the State Apartment and the sovereigns’ private apartments (now housing the National Library of Naples), contains a remarkable collection of sculptures. Among them, the splendid bronze Antinous as Dionysus stands out, originally part of the Farnese collection and sculpted by Guglielmo Della Porta (1500–1577) as a copy of an original from the Hadrianic period. In the same room, visitors can also admire a refined marble bust of Achilles/Ares from the late 18th century and the bust of Eternal Rome, sculpted in 1868 by the renowned artist Pietro Tenerani, which is signed and dated.
