From 13 December 2019 the National Galleries of Ancient Art reopen to the public dirty 10 located inNorth wing of Palazzo Barberini in Rome, completely restored and with a new exhibition itinerary, organized according to a chronological and geographical order, from the late sixteenth to the seventeenth century.
Flaminia Gennari Santori, director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art underlines that “the rearrangement of the 10 rooms dedicated to the seventeenth century represents the necessary continuation of the renovation work begun last January in the south wing of the Palazzo, inaugurated in April; next October it will affect the rooms dedicated to the sixteenth century and will then end in 2021, when the ground floor will also be rearranged. It is the result of the new conceptual structure of the Museum that I have been thinking about since I took office in December 2016, and which focuses on Palazzo Barberini a narrative exhibition structure from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, also trying to enhance the history of the palace and of the Barberinis, leaving intact the eighteenth-century picture gallery in Galleria Corsini”.
Il restoration it concerned the architectural structures, the lighting system, the graphics and the teaching equipment, with new explanatory panels, in such a way as to adapt the rooms to the renovation of the South Wing, renovated and inaugurated last April.
The National Galleries of Palazzo Barberini dedicate 550 m² of exhibition space to seventeenth-century masterpieces, offering an exhibition itinerary of the painting of Caravaggio, and its influence in Italy and in Europe.
They are 80 works selected that it is possible to admire from one wing to another of the building, through the Salone Pietro da Cortona and the Oval Room. A circular exhibition itinerary, in which visitors will be able to appreciate the works, enhancing the visual axes from one end of the main floor to the other, from the Bernini's staircase to that of Borromini.
It starts with the room dedicated to late Roman and international mannerism, with works by Siciolante da Sermoneta, Pietro Francavilla, Girolamo Muziano, Marcello Venusti, Jacopo Zucchi, and Jacob de Backer, Joseph Heintz, Jan Metsys.
Following the room dedicated to Venetians of the late sixteenth century with works by Tintoretto, Palma il Giovane and an interesting painting Venus and Adonis by the School of Titian. In this room there are also two works by El Greco.
In the Gallery, some paintings dedicated to the genre painting, including two paintings by Bartolomeo Passerotti, the Universal Flood by the School of Jacopo Bassano and some never-before-exhibited canvases by Frans Francken the Younger.
Following a small room, open to public visits for the first time, is dedicated exclusively to thePortable altarpiece by Annibale Carracci.
Also the next room, with frescoes by late sixteenth century, is inserted for the first time in the exhibition itinerary and contains three landscapes by Paul Bril dedicated to the Feudi Mattei.
Three rooms are dedicated to Caravaggio and caravaggism: the first, which will offer a new view of the garden, welcomes Caravaggio's Giudittae Holoferne, with works by Giovanni Baglione, Orazio Borgianni, Bartolomeo Manfredi and Carlo Saraceni. In the second will be exhibited by June 2020 the Narcissus, attributed to Caravaggio, and works by the Candlelight Master, by Ribera, by Simon Vouet. There third it is dedicated to other Caravaggesque themes: Caravaggio's San Francesco and works by Orazio Gentileschi, Bartolomeo Manfredi, Astolfo Petrazzi, Bernardo Strozzi are gathered here.
The new exhibition itinerary ends in the last two rooms: the first welcomes the works of European Caravaggios, such as Trophime Bigot, Angelo Caroselli, Valentin de Boulogne, Giovanni Serodine, Lionello Spada, Matthias Stom, Michael Sweerts, Hendrick Terbruggen and Simon Vouet.
