Exhibition "Vasari and Rome" - Capitoline Museums

As the celebrations for the 450th anniversary of Giorgio Vasari's death (1511–1574) draw to a close, Rome pays tribute to one of the great protagonists of the Renaissance with an exhibition project dedicated to the profound and enduring bond between the Aretine artist and the Eternal City. The exhibition reconstructs the cultural and artistic journey undertaken by Giorgio Vasari during his various stays in Rome, with the aim of presenting to the public of the Capitoline Museums the richness and complexity of his multifaceted figure as 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 made possible in part through the numerous masterpieces on loan from major Italian and international institutions, including Palazzo Barberini, the VIVE – Palazzo Venezia, the Galleria degli Uffizi, the State Archives of Florence, the National Picture Gallery of Bologna, the Archive of the Casa Buonarroti Foundation, the Prints and Drawings Department of the Galleria degli Uffizi, the Vatican Apostolic Library, the Museum and Royal Woodland of Capodimonte, the National Museum of Siena, and the Móra Ferenc Museum in Szeged (Hungary). The project highlights the decisive role that Rome played in the formation of the young Vasari, through his engagement with ancient art and the great models of modernity — from Raphael to the "Roman" Michelangelo — and in the rapid and extraordinary development of his career in the service of prestigious prelates and pontiffs.