The great exhibition on the Torlonia Marbles opens in Rome
The highly anticipated exhibition “I Marmi Torlonia. Collezionare capolavori” (The Torlonia Marbles. Collecting Masterpieces), curated by Salvatore Settis and Carlo Gasparri with the organization and catalogue by Electa Editore, finally opens its doors to the public. Until 29 June 2021 in the renewed spaces of the Musei Capitolini of Villa Caffarelli, the exhibition will accompany visitors in the history of the “Collection of Collections”, an excursus among 92 unique masterpieces of ancient statuary selected from the over 600 works that embellish the Torlonia Collection, the most important in the world for prestige and corpus of objects acquired over the centuries.
The uniqueness of the masterpieces on display – 92 marbles among the more than 600 in the collection - is enhanced by the light design written by Mario Nanni - lumi Viabizzuno and the three-dimensional and tectonic exhibition design by David Chipperfield Architects Milano, inspired by ancient Roman brick architecture and the stone foundations of the Aedes Iovis Optimi underlying Villa Caffarelli.
135 years since the publication of the only catalogue of the last of the great Roman princely collections, the public can buy, both at the bookshop and online, the exhibition catalogue and a brief guide published by Electa with graphic design by Studio Sonnoli. Both publications are positioned in the field of historical-artistic criticism as the most up-to-date and comprehensive tool of knowledge of the collection's masterpieces, the subject of long and careful restoration by the Fondazione Torlonia with the support of Maison Bvlgari.
The exhibition is the outcome of an accord between the Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali e per il turismo (Ministry of the Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) with the Fondazione Torlonia; and specifically, for the Ministry, of the General Direction of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape with the Soprintendenza Speciale di Roma (Special Superintendency of Rome).
