Although most people find the time to go on holiday in summer, a weekend trip out of town is always a nice way to rediscover Italy's cultural richness. Moreover, if you are among those who prefer the less touristy season, autumn is definitely one of the best times to take advantage of to visit some unmissable art cities. One incentive is certainly the many exhibitions, shows and installations scattered throughout the territory: we have selected five that, in our opinion, you should definitely see this year.
Titian 1508. At the start of a luminous career (Venice)
A small exhibition, open until next 3 December, tells us with great scientific rigour about the initial phase of Titian's artistic production. The focus of the exhibition is 1508, a fundamental year for the development of the painter's talent, when he began to obtain his first important public commissions. The Gallerie dell'Accademia focuses on 17 autograph works, as well as a selection of paintings, engravings and drawings by his contemporaries such as Giorgione, Sebastiano del Piombo, Albrecht Dürer and Francesco Vecellio. All information on opening hours and ticket prices can be found on the dedicated page of their website.
Van Gogh. Cultured painter (Milan)
Appointment at Mudec in Milan until 28 January 2024 with an exhibition dedicated to the relationship between Van Gogh and his cultural sources. The exhibition is the result of a collaboration with the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (Netherlands), in virtue of the extraordinary collection of paintings and drawings by the Dutch painter, in the world second only to that of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The exhibition is organised in both chronological and thematic order, with the aim of highlighting in particular the relationship between the artist's pictorial vision and the depth of his cultural dimension, through the development of two major themes: on the one hand his interest in books and on the other his fascination with Japanese prints. The exhibition is open every day of the week and the opening times can be viewed on this page.
Hayez. The workshop of the romantic painter (Turin)
Just opened (17 October) and on until 1 April 2024, this exhibition interweaves art, history and politics, taking visitors inside the painter's workshop. In fact, the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino (GAM) proposes an itinerary with more than 100 paintings and drawings by Francesco Hayez from prestigious public and private collections, in addition to the works already held at GAM. Through ten sections in chronological succession, the exhibition curators confront visitors with the relationship between the paintings and drawings of one of the greatest portrait painters of Romanticism. The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, from which comes an important nucleus of about fifty works that were in Hayez's studio, for forty years professor of painting at the Academy. The exhibition opens from Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with the ticket office closing one hour earlier. For more information, please visit the GAM website.
Fondazione Palazzo Te, Palazzo Ducale in Mantua and Galleria Borghese in Rome join forces to pay homage to Pieter Paul Rubens, with three exhibition events dedicated to the relationship between Italian culture and Europe, seen through the eyes of the Flemish painter.
From 7 October 2023 to 7 January 2024, Mantua hosts the exhibition Rubens at Palazzo Te. Painting, Transformation and Freedom, which focuses on the relationship between the Flemish painter and the mythological culture he encountered in Italy. The works have been chosen according to the dialogue they weave with myths and the interpretation Giulio Romano made of them in the various rooms of Palazzo Te.
On the same dates, the Ducal Palace in Mantua is also dedicating an exhibition to the artist, entitled Rubens. The Altarpiece of the Holy Trinity. The focus is on one of the most impressive undertakings completed by the painter: the cycle of the three enormous canvases for the Church of the Holy Trinity.
Finally, from 14 November 2023 to 18 February 2024, the Galleria Borghese in Rome will present The Touch of Pygmalion. Rubens and Sculpture in Rome. The exhibition aims to investigate the influences of his trip to Italy, focusing on the novelty of his style in the first decade of the 17th century in Rome.
Anish Kapoor. Untrue Unreal (Florence)
Opened on 7 October and open until 4 February 2024, this is the right exhibition if you are looking for something different from the 'classic'. Curated by Arturo Galansino, Director General of the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, this journey of contemporary sculpture unfolds between monumental installations, intimate environments and disturbing forms, creating an original and engaging dialogue with the architecture and the public of Palazzo Strozzi. Anish Kapoor takes us into a world in which we are called to question our senses, through empty and full spaces, absorbent and reflective surfaces, as well as materials of the most disparate consistencies, such as wax, steel and stone. The exhibition is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Thursdays until 11 p.m.
