Vasari e Roma (Vasari and Rome)

At the end of the celebrations for the 450th anniversary of the death of Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), the Capitoline Museums are hosting the exhibition Vasari e Roma (Vasari and Rome), paying homage to one of the great protagonists of the Renaissance with an exhibition project dedicated to the deep and enduring bond between the Arezzo-born artist and the Eternal City. The exhibition, curated by Alessandra Baroni, highlights the crucial role that Rome itself played in the young Vasari's education, in his engagement with ancient art and with the great models who were almost contemporaries - from Raphael to the "Roman" Michelangelo - and in the rapid and extraordinary development of his career in the service of important prelates and pontiffs.

Among the drawings, prints, engravings, letters, medals, sculptures, and canvas on display, the autograph paintings stand out, testifying to the different creative periods of the great artist. Among the most significant works are the Resurrection, executed around 1545 in collaboration with Raffaellino del Colle, from Capodimonte, and the subsequent Resurrection of Christ from 1550, held in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Siena. These masterpieces demonstrate Vasari's skill in the crowded and dynamic compositions typical of Mannerism, where technical virtuosity blends with theological and symbolic exploration. Also of particular interest is the Portrait of a Gentleman from the Strada Nuova Museums in Genoa, which reveals this great artist's talents as a keen observer of the psychology of his subjects.

We also highlight the loans from the Camaldoli Hermitage, such as the celebrated Nativity of 1538, also known as the Camaldoli Night for its evocative Flemish-style rendering of light, which represents one of the pinnacles of his early work, or the Prayer in the Garden of 1571, one of his last masterpieces, characterized by a spiritual intensity and chromatic density that highlight the artist's profound devotion. Among the works from his final creative period, we also recall the wonderful Annunciation, originally intended for the Vatican chapel and brought to Hungary, likely after being lost during the Napoleonic era.

The exhibition thus reconstructs – in its entirety – the cultural and artistic itinerary of Giorgio Vasari during his various stays in Rome, with the aim of conveying the richness and complexity of his multifaceted figure as a painter, architect, set designer and biographer, but also as an extraordinary interpreter and witness to the lives of popes, lords, men of letters and artists of the 16th century. This is also thanks to the numerous masterpieces on loan from important Italian and international institutions including Palazzo Barberini, the Vive – Palazzo Venezia, the Uffizi Gallery, the State Archives of Florence, the National Art Gallery of Bologna, the Archives of the Casa Buonarroti Foundation, the Cabinet of Drawings and Prints of the Uffizi Gallery, the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Museum and Royal Wood of Capodimonte, the National Museum of Siena and the Móra Ferenc Museum of Szeged (Hungary).

The project, promoted by Rome Capital and the Department of Culture and Coordination of initiatives related to Holocaust Remembrance Day, Capitoline Superintendency of Cultural Heritage, is organized by the MetaMorfosi Association in collaboration with Zètema Progetto Cultura.

Photo: the Capitoline Museums official site