ARICCIA - Light as an expressive, formal and symbolic motif, as an emotion and a message of hope towards the future, but also as an element capable of "shaping" matter and color, following the story that artists of great quality have made in their works and character, primarily Gian Lorenzo Bernini, but also Giovanni Baglione, Mattia Preti, Agostino Tassi, Gaspar Dughet, Sebastiano Conca, Pierre Subleyras.
This is the theme that animates the exhibition "The light of the Baroque. Paintings from Roman collections", scheduled from 2 October to 10 January in the spaces of Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia (Rm).
Conceived and curated by Francesco Petrucci, curator of Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia and director of the Roman Baroque Museum, and organized by the European Center for Tourism with the contribution of Acea Spa, the exhibition presents a series of works from private collections, in mostly unpublished or never exhibited to the public, expression of various pictorial genres, including portraits, figure painting with sacred and profane subjects, landscapes, views and still lifes.
The objective of the exhibition is twofold: on the one hand there is the desire to tell the essence of the Baroque in a place particularly suitable for doing so, not only because Palazzo Chigi was designed by Bernini for the family of Pope Alexander VII, but also because it is the seat of the Roman Baroque Museum and one of the most important Baroque residences in Italy.
On the other hand, there is the need to communicate to the public a saving message, of hope and optimism, precisely through the Baroque, a movement that in the history of art has represented one of the greatest expressions of the themes of Catholicism through a wise use of light: in the exhibition itinerary, observing the works of Bernini and his circle and the paintings of artists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the idea of a possible human and social redemption, of openness to the other and awakening afterwards, spreads the "darkness" and the fear of the last months marked by the pandemic.
In addition to offering a broad overview of Roman painting for almost two centuries, also underlining the central role of collecting, the exhibition also documents (with a series of didactic panels and the catalog) the work carried out by Acea in enhancing our cultural heritage, through some photographic images of the most important historical-artistic sites, works and archaeological monuments of Rome connected to the theme of the exhibition and which are illuminated by the company.