THE 2023 EXHIBITION PROGRAM OF THE GALLERIA BORGHESE
The 2023 exhibition program of the Galleria Borghese includes three main appointments. These initiatives are designed to strengthen the museum’s identity and its relationship with different types of public.
Giuseppe Penone. Universal Gestures
Curated by Francesco Stocchi
March 14th – May 28th 2023
The Secret Gardens will be the setting for the intervention of one of the most important exponents of Arte Povera, Giuseppe Penone, who has always been interested in the relationship between man and nature. Steeped in history, his practice is characterized by the constant union of sculpture with the observation of nature. His works highlight this symbiosis and underline the fluidity that unites all plant, human and mineral elements. The exhibition will take place in the gardens and in a part of the rooms located on the ground floor, highlighting a great osmosis between inside and outside, between park and villa.
Dosso Dossi. The frieze of Aeneas
Curated by Marina Minozzi
April 4th – July 11th 2023
The first exhibition ever dedicated to the Frieze of Aeneas by Dosso Dossi focuses on the fascinating and precious canvases that made up the series of ten paintings depicting scenes from Virgil’s Aeneid. It is from the first part of the Aeneid that the artist draws inspiration for the Frieze of Aeneas, choosing specific episodes from different passages of the poem represented with unmistakable accents. Characterized by vibrant colours, a fascinating eccentricity and very original compositions, these canvases are a brilliant expression of the creativity of Dosso Dossi and of the artistic environment of Ferrara in the sixteenth century, which acquired new vitality in the great Baroque season. The exhibition is based on an ambitious collaboration between international institutions that preserve the different parts of the frieze: Louvre Abu Dhabi, National Gallery of Canada, National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), Museo del Prado.
Pygmalion’s touch. Rubens and sculpture in Rome
Curated by Francesca Cappelletti and Lucia Simonato
November 14th 2023 – February 18th 2024
As part of the initiatives aimed at Rubens in 2023 with Palazzo Te and Palazzo Ducale in Mantua, Galleria Borghese is dedicating an exhibition to Peter Paul Rubens which intends to investigate how the consequences of his trip to Italy, during the first decade of the seventeenth century, take on a decisive new vigor in the years following his return to his homeland, also thanks to the Italian stays of his Flemish students.
With this project we want to underline the extraordinary contribution given by Rubens to a new conception of the ancient, of the concepts of natural and imitation, on the threshold of the Baroque, focusing on what the disruptive novelty of his style consisted of in the first decade in Rome and how the study of models could be understood as a further possibility of impetus towards a new world of images.
The exceptional venue of the Galleria Borghese offers the unprecedented opportunity to see Bernini’s large groups, ancient statuary and other modern sculptures, often the work of foreign artists, in direct relationship with Rubens’ paintings and drawings, capturing the kinetic energy with which the artist also invested the masterpieces of antiquity.