EXHIBITIONS

After 10 January museums and other cultural sites in Italy are open only to visitors with a Super Green Pass (the certificate issued following vaccination or recovery from covid-19). This provision does not apply to visitors under the age of 12. 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.

Caravaggio and Artemisia exhibition at Palazzo Barberini.

100 PRESEPI

5 DEC-9 JAN

This year’s edition of 100 Presepi, Rome’s international Nativity crib exhibition, takes place under the colonnade of St Peter’s Square. A firm fixture on Rome’s Christmas calendar, each year 100 Presepi hosts some Nativity scenes from across Italy and dozens of other countries. In addition to contemporary replicas of traditional 18th-century Neapolitan and Sicilian cribs, and 19th-century Roman mangers, there are modern versions made from wood, papier-mâché and terracotta, as well as unconventional materials such as sand, rice and metal. Now in its 46th year, 100 Presepi was established in Rome in 1976 and took place in Piazza del Popolo until four years ago. Today it is organised by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation. For visiting details see website, www.100presepi.it.

CARAVAGGIO AND ARTEMISIA

26 NOV-27 MARCH

Caravaggio and Artemisia: Judith’s challenge. Violence and seduction in painting between the 16th and 17th centuries is the title of a new exhibition at Palazzo Barberini. The show takes as it starting point Judith who decapitates Holofernes in Caravaggio’s

at St Peter's Square. masterpiece which was rediscovered 70 years ago before being acquired by the Italian state. Evaluating the impact the powerful painting has had on the art world over the centuries, the exhibition comprises 31 works, mostly large format, from important national and international institutions, including the Prado and the Thyssen Museum in Madrid, the Capodimonte Museum in Naples and Rome’s the Borghese Gallery in Rome. The show is curated by Maria Cristina Terzaghi and features works by artists including Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi, Valentin de Boulogne, Pietro Novelli, Mattia Preti and Giuseppe Vermiglio. Palazzo Barberini, Via delle Quattro Fontane 13, www.barberinicorsini.org.

ANTONIETTA RAPHAEL

17 NOV-30 JAN

The Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (GNAM) presents Through the Looking Glass, an exhibition dedicated to Antonietta Raphaël (Kaunas 1895 – Rome 1975), the Lithuanian- born artist who was a leading exponent of the Scuola Romana movement. The show comprises paintings, sculptures and works on paper, accompanied by documents, family photographs, letters and pages from her diaries. Also on display is a selection of works by artist Mario Mafai – her lifelong partner – along with a specially created video documentary. The gallery says the

exhibition’s title alludes to Raphaël’s “ability to transform artistic practice into a tool for investigating her own inner world and evokes dreamlike and imaginative dimensions in which the female figure is the main protagonist.” Curated by Giorgia Calò and Alessandra Troncone, the show is held in collaboration with the Lithuanian Institute of Culture and the embassy of Lithuania in Rome. GNAM, Viale delle Belle Arti 131, www.lagallerianazionale.com.

KLIMT: LA SECESSIONE E L’ITALIA

27 OCT-27 MARCH

Palazzo Braschi presents an exhibition of paintings by Gustav Klimt, including Portrait of a Lady, which went missing for almost 23 years after its theft from a gallery in Piacenza. The painting was stolen in 1997 before being rediscovered in the gallery’s garden, in mysterious circumstances, in 2019. The works on show feature some of the Austrian artist’s masterpieces from the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, the Klimt Foundation and public and private collections such as the Neue Galerie Graz. Highlights among the paintings, sculptures and drawings on display include Judith I, Lady in White, Friends I (The Sisters), Amalie Zuckerkandl and The Bride. The exhibition focuses on the artist’s relationship with Italy and the influence he had on other artists working in the country. Museo di Roma, Piazza Navona 2, tel. 060608, www.museodiroma.it.

Klimt exhibition at Palazzo Braschi. Sebastião-Salgado at MAXXI. Indiana Yawanawá, Stato di Acre, Brasile 2016.©-Sebastião Salgado Contrasto.

INFERNO

15 OCT-23 JAN

The Scuderie del Quirinale marks the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri with an exhibition based on the first book of The Divine Comedy. The show comprises more than 200 artworks on loan from 80 museums, public collections and private collections from Italy, the Vatican and across Europe. Inferno documents 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 takes visitors on a 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. Scuderie del Quirinale, Via XXIV Maggio 16, www.scuderiequirinale.it.

SEBASTIAO SALGADO

1 OCT-13 FEB

Photojournalist Sebastião Salgado provides a black and white photographic journey through the Brazilian Amazon, after he spent six years capturing images of the forest, the rivers, the mountains and the people who live there. MAXXI, Italy’s national museum of 21st-century arts, presents Salgado’s 200 photographs against a soundscape of sounds - recorded in the forests and created by Jean-Michel Jarre – feauring the rustling of trees, birdsong, the shrieks of animals, and the roar of waterfalls. The exhibition highlights the fragility of this ecosystem, showing that in the protected areas where the indigenous communities live the forest has suffered almost no damage. MAXXI, Via Guido Reni 4A, www.maxxi.art.

ALL ABOUT BANKSY: EXHIBITION 2

5 MAY-9 JAN

Chiostro del Bramante presents ALL about BANKSY, an exhibition dedicated to the anonymous British street artist whose satirical murals are celebrated around the world. The show, which follows an earlier Banksy exhibition, features about 250 artworks from private collections. Chiostro del Bramante, Via Arco della Pace 5, tel. 0668809035, www. chiostrodelbramante.it.