EXHIBITIONS Museums and archaeological sites in Rome, including the Vatican Museums, are open only to visitors with the covid 'Green Pass' or its equivalent. Most venues require advance booking and the wearing of masks is obligatory. Weekend visits to the more popular sites such as the Colosseum and the Pantheon must be booked at least one day ahead. For visiting details check websites in advance.
INFERNO
15 OCT-9 JAN
Following the success of the Raphael 500 exhibition, the Scuderie del Quirinale returns with a new show marking another important milestone: the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri. The exhibition based
Sebastião Salgado at MAXXI. Yanomami shaman talking to the spirits before climbing Mount Pico da Neblina. Amazonas State, Brazil, 2014.
on the first book of The Divine Comedy will comprise more than 200 artworks on loan from 80 museums, public collections and private collections from Italy, the Vatican and across Europe. Inferno will document hell-related iconography from the Middle Ages to the present day, in what is hailed as the first major art exhibition dedicated to this theme. Curated by Jean Clair, the show will take visitors on a terrifying visual journey into the depths of hell,
as imagined by artists through the centuries, accompanied by the words of Dante. These visions range from the tormented and nightmarish to the romanticised, from Mediaeval to Baroque, up to psychoanalytic interpretations from the 20th century. The exhibition also presents scenes of “hell on earth” and delves into the concept of salvation, as offered by Dante in the last canto of the Inferno Canticle: “…And so we went out to see the stars again.” During the show’s first weeks, visitors will be able to gaze into the Abyss of Hell by Botticelli, on loan from the Vatican, together with a scale plaster cast model of Rodin’s Gates of Hell from the Musée Rodin in Paris. There will be other masterpieces too, by artists including Beato Angelico, Botticelli, Bosch, Bruegel, Cézanne, Delacroix, Goya, Kiefer, Manet, Richter and Rodin. Scuderie del Quirinale, Via XXIV Maggio 16, www.scuderiequirinale.it.
TOKUHIRO KAWAI AND JEFFREY CHONG WANG 16 OCT-NOV
Inferno at Scuderie del Quirinale. Pieter Huys Inferno, 1570. © Museo Nacional del Prado.
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Dorothy Circus, a prominent gallery specialising in international pop-surrealist art, presents a double exhibition by two artists: Beijing-raised and Canada-based Jeffrey Chong Wang and Japan’s Tokuhiro Kawai. The gallery says that Kawai draws from classical Renaissance themes to elaborate surreal fairytales while Chong Wang gains inspiration from Romanticism to create cinematographic reflections. Dorothy Circus Gallery, Via dei Pettinari 76, www. dorothycircusgallery.it.
