Poetry and Painting in the 17th Century

After the season of the great Renaissance painters, the prestige of the figurative arts grew as never before in history. During the 16th century, the artist went from being a common craftsman to holding a status equal to that of the greatest intellectuals of his time. The relationship between poetry and painting was consolidated in the 17th century, and became close, even competitive, when artists and men of letters confronted each other with the same themes.

In this framework, the great poetry of Giovan Battista Marino (Naples, 1569-1625) plays a fundamental role. His compositions are rich in visual suggestions, derived as much from direct contact with the art collections he visited during his itinerant life as from the memory of the images of the great artists of the past. The Galeria (1620), one of his most famous books, projects onto the walls of an imaginary gallery the names of the artists and works of art that marked the poet's courtly experience.

Catalog of the exhibition to be held from 12 November 2024 to 9 February 2025 at the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

An exhibition dedicated to Giovan Battista Marino (Naples, 1569-1625), the main exponent of the Baroque in literature, author of Rime (1602), La Galeria (1602) and Adone (1623), and his very close relationship with the arts.

Starting precisely with La Galeria (which had 17 editions in less than fifty years), the exhibition reflects on the dialogue between the different artistic disciplines, between poetry and painting and sculpture, between the 16th and 17th centuries, starting with Marini's texts.

International loans from the world's most important museums, including the Prado in Madrid, the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the MET in New York, the Louvre in Paris, the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden, which will bring to Rome works - among others - by Brueghel, Carracci, Correggio, Rubens, Palma il Giovane, Poussin, Tintoretto, Titian, as well as a careful selection of precious printed editions of Marino's works.