Rome, 1 April 26 July 2015 Fondazione Roma Museo Palazzo Cipolla

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1 Press Release BAROCCO A ROMA. LA MERAVIGLIA DELLE ARTI An exhibition with an exciting series of satellite events in the principal Baroque sites in Rome Rome, 1 April 26 July 2015 Fondazione Roma Museo Palazzo Cipolla From April 1 through July 26, 2015 the Fondazione Roma Museo - Palazzo Cipolla presents an ambitious cultural project revolving around the exhibition Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia delle arti. As in the metaphorical image of the Barberini sun, the exhibition shines out from the middle of a heliocentric system in which the sun s rays are embodied by an exciting series of initiatives in some of the most important Baroque sites around the city. As such, the exhibition offers a unique opportunity to study, understand and reconsider the major issues and personalities of the Baroque period, as well as the historical, artistic and architectural heritage of that period in Rome and the region. In this project realized thanks to the determination of Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, President of Fondazione Roma Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei has solicited the participation of numerous public institutions, both private and ecclesiastical, which have worked together harmoniously to enrich the exhibition Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia delle Arti, offering a series of correlated satellite events: exclusive itineraries (Vatican Museums) and thematic tours departing from Fondazione Roma Museo-Palazzo Cipolla (Complesso di Sant Ivo alla Sapienza, Oratorio dei Filippini; Chapel of the Re Magi at Propaganda Fide, Galleria Doria Pamphilj), Baroque itineraries (Capitoline Museums, Galleria di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini), special visits (Palazzo Colonna), special exhibitions (Museo di Roma-Palazzo Braschi, Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia, Sala Alessandrina in the Archivio di Stato), conferences, concerts and an historic reenactment at Castel Sant Angelo, including an exhibition, regatta, and fireworks celebrating the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul. I am pleased to present this exhibition Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia delle Arti to the public, announced Prof. Emmanuele Francesco Maria Emanuele, President of Fondazione Roma, as part of the Museo Fondazione Roma s artistic programme intended to illustrate the Eternal City s crucial role in world culture. Following on the exhibitions dedicated to Roman art in the15th century (2008), the 18th century (2010), and the 16th century (2011), the time has come for an exhibition on the 17th, the century of the Baroque. Rome was the undisputed capital of this movement, the central force from which grew an artistic

2 style that extended far beyond the borders of Italy, creating an aesthetic and a language with universal appeal. In this regard, Rome was truly the caput mundi. However, the greatest value added by the exhibition, continued Prof. Emanuele, is found in the broader cultural operation, which we have called Barocco a Roma, with its exciting offering of satellite events linked to the exhibition. The Museo Fondazione Roma serves as the coordinator of a significant number of public and private entities operating in the field of culture in Rome, thereby creating the synergy I have long hoped for among institutions of various types. In this new exhibition, the President concluded, we have recounted a chapter in the history of art in Italy and the world by means of Rome s extraordinary Baroque heritage. The project tallies perfectly with the ongoing agenda of the Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei with its twofold objective; to increase an appreciation of the history of art in Rome and to demonstrate the city s influence on the world, by which, in turn, it has also been inspired through the extraordinary osmosis that only culture is able to facilitate. In this sense, culture can serve as a powerful stimulus to development, one that is always available to us the clean energy, as I like to define it, capable of restarting the engine of our economy. This is the way of thinking that must guide the actions of our leaders, now in this difficult historic moment more than ever. Here, by appropriately exploiting our cultural heritage, they have a rare, and perhaps unrepeatable, chance for success. THE EXHIBITION The exhibition Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia delle Arti proposes a unique experience to understand the world of the Baroque. The movement was heralded by the poetic vision of Annibale Carraci, who anticipated a pictorial language that had not been seen before the end of the 16th century, and culminating with the soaring figures in the paintings of Baciccio. The exhibition is the starting point for an unrepeatable journey through the Baroque in Rome, the city that became the cultural center of the world in the 17th century, when it attracted countless Italian and foreign artists who, stimulated by Church policy, challenged themselves and each other to ever more dizzying heights of creativity. Painting, sculpture, architecture and urban planning all reached extraordinary levels of excellence in this period. The exhibition aims to highlight its fascination through a reconstruction of the artists creative process, from conception (as revealed in studies, sketches, plans and architectural drawings) to the completed works themselves, including some beyond the bounds of the exhibition. The exhibition comprises almost 200 artworks paintings, sculpture, drawings, medals, and objects repositioned and contextualized in a visual space inspired by Borromini s restless architecture. The choice

3 of this unusually evocative environment reflects the museum s tradition of attention to the setting and mounting of its exhibitions. Among the most difficult-to-see artworks are the drawing attributed to Ciro Ferri based on Pietro da Cortona s frescoes for Palazzo Pamphilj in Piazza Navona and the Contro-progetto of the colonnade in St Peter s Square by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. One can also admire Bernini s sketches for the sculptural group of the Ponte Sant Angelo and the Ecstasy of St Theresa (from the Hermitage in St Petersburg); the precious tapestry with The Young Moses Tramples the Pharoah s Crown based on a cartoon by Nicholas Poussin and Charles Le Brun (on loan from Mobilier National of Paris) as well as preparatory drawings by Francesco Borromini and Pietro da Cortona. Other masterpieces that enrich the exhibition events are the Portrait of Costanza Bonarelli by Bernini, Atalanta and Hippomenes by Guido Reni (Capodimonte Museum), Triumph of Bacchus by Pietro da Cortona (Capitoline Museums), The Magdalene with Two Angels by Giovan Francesco Barbieri known as Guercino (Vatican Museums), and Time Overcome by Hope, Love and Beauty by Simon Vouet (Museo Nacional del Prado). Two works of particular note are the Musician Angels by Giovanni Lanfranco artworks that survived a fire in the Church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini in Rome in the 1800s. This will be their first public showing since then, but also the first showing since they were restored thanks to Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei, which has finally accomplished the long-desired, meaningful gesture of returning these two works to the city of Rome and to public viewing. Thus, after two centuries of oblivion, the Musician Angels will return to their church in Via Veneto at the close of the exhibition. The exhibition boasts additional important works on loan from some of the world s most prestigious museums, including the Louvre and Mobilier National et des Manufactures des Gobelins of Paris, Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg, Kunsthistorisches Museum and Albertina Museum of Vienna, Prado Museum of Madrid, Staatliche Museen of Berlin, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Vatican Museums, and other principal Italian institutes and museums (Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Corsini, Galleria Borghese, Galleria Spada, Capitoline Museums, Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia, Uffizi, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte). Satellite Events The exhibition Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia delle Arti opens a door to the invisible, by providing a unique opportunity to follow a traditional route leading directly into many of the city s principal Baroque venues normally closed to the public. Thus the exhibition offers an incomparable sensory experience through the power of these wonders of art.

4 As part of the exhibition, there will be a number of special openings, including the church of St Ivo alla Sapienza, Francesco Borromini s architectural masterpiece and the Sala Alessandrina in the St Ivo complex, where a documentary exhibition, entitled La Fabbrica della Sapienza. L università al tempo di Borromini, is dedicated to that quintessential Borromini site. Not to be missed is the exclusive itinerary in the Vatican Museums, the Apostolic Palace, and the Basilica of St Peter s with the Scala Regia, usually closed to the public, leading up to the Baldacchino, the altar of the Basilica and the funeral monument of Urban VIII. Other expressly designed Baroque itineraries examine the collections of the Capitoline Museums, the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Doria Pamphilj (with the celebrated portrait of Innocent X by Velázquez) and Galleria Colonna (with landscapes by Gaspard Dughet). Exclusively for the duration of this exhibition, visitors will have the chance to enter two splendid sites that are normally closed to the public: Borromini s Chapel of the Re Magi (where he triumphed over his historic rival Bernini) and the Sala Borromini, in the Oratorio dei Filippini. Finally two exhibitions, Feste barocche at Museo di Roma-Palazzo Braschi and Ritratto e figura da Rubens a Giaquinto at Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia conclude this shortlist of events. To offer the possibility of more in-depth analysis, Il Barocco a Roma. La meraviglia della Arti, at Palazzo Cipolla, is accompanied by a full schedule of conferences on salient aspects of the Baroque, featuring scholars and art critics. Among these a full-day conference, L Altro Seicento - Libertinismo e arte a Roma nel secolo delle rivoluzioni scientifiche ( The Other 17th Century - Libertinism and Art in Rome in the Century of the Scientific Revolution ), will take place at the Accademia of Belle Arti of Rome. Several prestigious publications, including Vaticano Barocco (Jaka Book, 2014) and the Italian edition of Atlante del Barocco mondiale (L Erma di Bretschneider, 2015), published with the support of the Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei, are also part of this multi-faceted cultural project, designed to recount a chapter from the history of the art of Italy and the world through the extraordinary artistic heritage of the Baroque. The exhibition, with its many satellite events, is an event not to be missed for all those interested in discovering or rediscovering the aesthetic experience and myriad sensations offered by the Baroque stage in what has been called the grand theatre of the world, in other words, Rome. The Exhibition Itinerary The exhibition is divided into four sections: 1. The origins of the Baroque; 2. Baroque aesthetics under Urban VIII; 3. Theatricality and scenography in the mid 17th century; 4. The landscape and the

5 grand spectacle of nature. Starting with the pontificates of the Baroque Popes (Urban VIII Barberini, Innocent X Pamphilj and Alexander VII Chigi), the sections examine the origins of the movement, its aesthetics, theatricality and scenography, and its approach to landscape and the grand spectacle of nature. The first section, The origins of the Baroque, establishes the bases of the movement or more precisely, its components and characteristics introducing the theme of the emotions and rapture in artworks by the major artists working in Rome at the time, to name a few, St Margaret by Annibale Carracci; Atalanta and Hippomenes by Guido Reni; Madonna and Child with St Anthony Abate and St James the Greater by Giovanni Lanfranco; Magdalene and Two Angels by Giovan Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino; Autumn by Pietro and Gian Lorenzo Bernini; St Sebastian s Wounds Treated by Pious Women by Simon Vouet and St Sebastian Cared for by the Angels by Pieter Paul Rubens. The second section, Baroque Aesthetics under Pope Urban VIII, is dedicated to the relationship between Pope Urban VIII and the Baroque aesthetics typical of his pontificate, with the magnificent enterprise of Palazzo Barberini, the creation of such masterpieces as the Baldacchino in St Peter s and the presence of important foreign artists in Rome such as Poussin, Lorrain, Vouet and Van Dyck, who further contributed to the evolution of this artistic movement. Of particular significance in this section is the Portrait of Virginia Cesarini by Anton van Dyck and the Portrait of Costanza Bonarelli by Bernini. The third section, Theatricality and scenography in mid 17th century art, presents drawings, sketches, paintings and commemorative medals testifying to the exceptional artistic production which transformed the city of Rome, from the point of view of urban architectural planning and decorative arts, into the capital of the Baroque, an unthinkable goal for the rest of Europe. Central to this section are preparatory studies for the renowned Trident of Piazza del Popolo, the Fountain of the Four Rivers, the colonnade at St Peter s, the chair of St Peter s Basilica, the bridge of Sant Angelo, the sculptural group of the Ecstasy of St Theresa in the church of St Maria della Victoria and the Chapel of the Re Magi at the College of Propaganda Fide. The theme of the triumph of the Catholic faith is documented in numerous paintings by illustrious artists, such as Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Maratta, Andrea Sacchi, Giacinto Gimignani, Giovan Battista Gaulli (known as Baciccio), Pier Francesco Mola and Salvator Rosa.

6 The fourth section, The landscape and the grand spectacle of nature, examines the theme of the landscape as pictorial genre, in which the human presence takes second place to the representation of nature. This landscape theme serves as a leit-motif running throughout the exhibition, demonstrating the gradual evolution of the Baroque style. The section includes works by Annibale Carracci (The Sacrifice of Abraham), Claude Gellée, known as Lorraine (View of a Harbour with the Capitoline Hill), Nicolas Poussin (Landscape with Hagar and the Angel), Gaspard Dughet (The Falls of Tivoli) and Salvador Rosa (Latona and the Lycian Shepherds). Along the itinerary it is also possible to admire extraordinary pieces of furniture, an art form which became increasingly inventive in that period, with its spiral patterns and other extravagant elements. Mirrors, furnishings, clocks, and musical instruments including the celebrated Barberini Harp are positioned throughout the exhibition, transferring the idea of contamination of the Baroque aesthetic into objects from private life. The exhibition is curated by Maria Grazia Bernardini and Marco Bussagli, in collaboration with a prestigious scientific committee composed of Marcello Fagiolo, Christoph L. Frommel, Anna Lo Bianco, Eugenio Lo Sardo, Stéphane Loire, Antonio Paolucci, Francesco Petrucci, Pierre Rosenberg, Sebastiano Schütze, Maria Serlupi Crescenzi, Rossella Vodret, and Alessandro Zuccari. The exhibition is promoted by Fondazione Roma and is organized by Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei, with the participation of Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura e al Turismo-Sovrintendenza Capitolina e Dipartimento Cultura; Musei in Comune; Archivio Storico Capitolino; Soprintendenza Speciale per il Patrimonio Storico-Artistico ed Etnoantropologico e per il Polo Museale della Città di Roma, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini; Archivio di Stato di Roma; Galleria Doria Pamphilj; Palazzo Colonna; Propaganda Fide; Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia; and the Vatican Museums. The official transportation carrier of the exhibition is Trenitalia; the technical sponsor is Montenovi. With the participation of Federalberghi Roma. A catalogue of the exhibition will be published by Skira. Fondazione Roma-Arte-Musei Press Office Paola Martellini

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