Picasso and Naples: Parade celebrates the centennial of Picasso’s trip to Italy in 1917.

The artist arrived in Rome on February 18, 1917, in the company of Jean Cocteau, with whom he was working on the designs for Parade, a ballet for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. Spending a little over two months in Italy, he visited Naples twice, in March and April.

The exhibition has two venues, the Museo di Capodimonte and Pompeii.
This will bring out the importance of his direct encounter with Neapolitan popular culture, whose vital energy Picasso expressed in his extraordinary curtain designed for the ballet Parade and the sets for Pulcinella, as well as the impact on him of antiquity, an inexhaustible source of artistic inspiration.

The ballroom in Capodimonte will present the drop curtain for Parade, Picasso’s largest work and of paramount importance for modern art. The painting measures 17 meters wide by 10 high, and is kept at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. Due to its size, it is exhibited only on rare occasions. It is accompanied by a broad selection of works by the Spanish painter.

The Antiquarium of Pompeii will present the ballet costumes designed by the artist, confirming that Picasso was inspired by references to ancient art and art nègre, which had already influenced him in the painting that is the manifesto of Cubism, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. A sketch for the painting on display is a testament to this fascination. The original comparison is brought out by an exceptional set of African and classical masks, most of them presented to the public for the first time.

Three performances of the ballets Parade and Pulcinella will be held in the Grand Theater of the archaeological site, on July 27, 28 and 29.

The loans on display in the exhibition come from prestigious museums and private collections, including the Musée National d’Art Moderne, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musée National Picasso Paris, the Museu Picasso Barcelona, the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, the Maison Jean Cocteau, Milly la Forêt and the Museo Pigorini in Rome.