From Antiquity to the Renaissance
Roman art drew on ancient Greece, thanks in particular to exchanges between the Etruscans and Greek cities. While art served the politics and religion of the Roman Empire, wall frescoes depicted mythological or everyday scenes. After Nero's death (68), the Domus Aurea was destroyed and buried, like most of the monuments built under this emperor. It was not until the end of the 15th century that it was rediscovered by a young Roman. The palace's frescoes left their mark on artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael. Raphael is said to have drawn inspiration from them to decorate the famous loggias of the Vatican Palace.
Rome then experienced a dark period in the Middle Ages. Invaded by the Barbarians, then the epicenter of struggles between the Vatican and the Germanic Empire, it was supplanted as the artistic capital by Constantinople.
With the fall of the Roman Empire, Byzantine art gave way to Christian art. Under the reign of Theodosius, at the end of the 4th century, Rome finally made Christianity its state religion. Numerous churches were built, and Christian painting began to flourish. Medieval pictorial art depicted religious values and beliefs through symbolism, without concern for realism in figuration.
In the early 16th century, Florence, the capital of the Renaissance, began to lose steam in its artistic life. The new pope, Julius II, decided to pursue a policy of prestige to make Rome the capital of an Italy free of the French. Painting, sculpture, architecture, mathematics - the geniuses of the Renaissance, no longer in the limelight, possessed every kind of knowledge and know-how.
From the Golden Age of the Renaissance to the Baroque
The golden age of the Renaissance is embodied in the work of Raphael (1483-1520), whose achievement, on the threshold of perfection, embodies all the ideals of harmony of the age. A world-renowned Renaissance painter and architect, Raphael's career was short-lived. He was commissioned by the Vatican to decorate the rooms of Julius III's palace. In 1514, following Bramante's death, Pope Leon X entrusted him with the construction of St. Peter's Basilica. The originality of his style is characterized by an almost equal use of drawing and color. The expressive power of his portraits is one of his greatest qualities, such as that of The Lady with the Unicorn, which you can see in the Borghese Gallery. Don't miss his frescoes in the Vatican Museums and the Villa Farnese. The School ofAthens is a tribute to Bramante's grandiose plan for the Vatican, and The Transfiguration is the last painting by Raphael to rest in the Pantheon.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known as Michelangelo (1475-1524), best known for his sculptures and paintings, was also an architect and poet. He was called to Rome in 1505, where he produced the largest ceiling ever painted in the Sistine Chapel. His Last Judgment (1534-1541) already brought him worldwide fame. He was chief architect of St. Peter's Basilica, while at the same time completing the Farnese Palace.
In the 16th century, the Roman Catholic Church was faced with the Reformation. The Council of Trent was organized to deal with the Protestant threat. This crisis gave rise to the Baroque movement. In addition to expressing the originality of its artists, the aim of Baroque art was also to reinspire faith in Catholics, if necessary through fear, and to reaffirm the power of the Church through monumental art. Its architectural development was a great success in Rome, to the point of renewing the city center. Michelangelo's St. Peter's Basilica is considered the precursor of this movement. One of the earliest examples of this style is the façade of the Church of the Gesú, designed by Giacomo della Porta, a pupil of Michelangelo. This building was to influence religious architecture for the next century.
The world of sculpture, meanwhile, is dominated by the tormented and expressive genius of Bernini, whose bust ofMedusa (1640) can be admired in the Capitoline Museums , and The Ecstasy of SaintTeresa (1647-1652) in the church of Santa Maria della Vittoria. Gian Lorenzo Bernini, known as le Bernin (1598-1680), was also one of the greatest Baroque architects, responsible for several Roman palaces (Barberini, Quirinal...), fountains (Quatre-Fleuves in Piazza Navona) and churches (Saint-André du Quirinal, Scala Regia...).
Painting, which had been in decline for some years, found its regeneration in Baroque art, with Caravaggio as its great master. He turned populist realism into a weapon in the service of a religion that was more human than spiritual. Christian themes were transposed into a brutal atmosphere, due above all to the violent contrasts in lighting that only he knew the secret of. His style caused huge scandals, which the vigilant protection of the cardinals did their utmost to mitigate. Don't miss The Deposition from the Cross in the Vatican Museums, one of the few of his paintings to win unanimous approval. Of all his paintings, it is certainly the most monumental.
From neoclassicism to the void of the Second World War
Neoclassicism advocates a return to the values of the great Rome through historical scenes from Antiquity. This was the era of Napoleonic Italy. Painter Andrea Appiani (1754-1817) and sculptor Antonio Canova (1757-1822) were Napoleon's official artists. The former's portrait of Vincenzo Monti (1808) can be seen at the National Gallery of Modern Art, while the latter's PerseusTriumphant (1797-1801) can be seen at the Vatican Museums. In the 18th and 19th centuries, however, Italian art suffered a recession, and the influence of past centuries waned significantly.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Italian art regained international stature with Futurism (1909-1915). But this art scene, essentially based in Milan, was not very active in Rome. This artistic movement was founded in 1909 with the Futurist Manifesto. This anti-academic art expressed enthusiasm for technological innovation and immense faith in the future. Like Cubist compositions, those of the Futurists were also fragmented into a thousand facets. This movement became a tool of fascist propaganda.
From contemporary art to street art
The Second World War marked an abrupt break in the art world. Henceforth, media would diversify. Contemporary art opened up to the experimental, with conceptualization sometimes becoming the focus of the work. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, although the situation in Rome was less tense than in Turin, the capital's artists, who had historical masterpieces constantly before their eyes, also rejected all sacred art in favor of a direct relationship with the social. Thus was bornArte povera, an internationally recognized Italian movement. The term "poor art" was used in opposition to the consumer society that celebrated technology. One of its representatives, Greek painter and sculptor Jannis Kounellis, lived in Rome from the 1960s until his death (2017). At the Galleria l'Attico, he presented one of his most famous works, featuring twelve live horses.
Rome, the "Eternal City", went through a period of artistic decline. For a long time, the avant-garde of contemporary creation seemed to lag behind in the Italian capital. Few private galleries opened, preferring Milan or Turin in the north of the country. Although Rome lags behind other European centres of artistic creation, it seems to have caught up in recent years.
In 2010, two museums dedicated to contemporary art opened: the Macro and the MAXXI. The latter was designed by Zaha Hadid, an internationally renowned Anglo-Iraqi architect. This major commission continues the Roman architectural tradition. These venues showcase renowned Italian artists such as Gaetano Pesce and photographer Luigi Ghirri. Some, like Elisabetta Benassi, Alessandro Piangiamore and Luigi Ontani, live in Rome. At the same time, gallery owners are opening more and more establishments, highlighting the revival of Roman creativity. Examples include Lorcan O'Neill Roma and Unosunove.
Claudio Abate, born and died in Rome (1943-2017), is one of the greatest Italian photographers of the 20th century. His work includes unique accounts of the Roman art scene andArte povera. His photographs provide invaluable documentation of ephemeral events of which we no longer have any trace. Her work has been shown on numerous occasions, notably in Rome at the Villa Médicis - Académie de France in 2001.
Elisabetta Benassi was born in Rome in 1966, where she lives and works. Since the early 2000s, she has been developing a conceptual body of work involving objects, installations, video, publishing, photography and the critical use of archives. Her research focuses on press photographs. Her work has been presented in world-renowned venues, such as the MAXXI in Rome for an exhibition in 2014.
Sten Lex is a duo of artists born in 1982 in Rome and Taranto. They have been working together since 2000, and are considered the pioneers of urban stencil in Italy. Their portraits blend this technique with that of op art. They also use thousands of strips of paper. Since 2013, they have set themselves apart by creating abstract pieces where the line becomes chaotic. You can see their work on city walls around the world. Their work is also presented in institutions such as Macro in Rome in 2012.
Street art in Rome has developed outside the city center, in working-class neighborhoods off the beaten track. Be sure to visit Ostiense, San Lorenzo or the Tor Marancia district. The Big City Life Project aims to transform the Tor Marancia district into an open-air gallery, giving it a new lease of life after it had fallen into disrepair. You'll be able to see 22 murals , each linked to at least one inhabitant of the building on which it is displayed. A real challenge for the 20 artists who took part in the project, but the result is there, as since 2015, not a single mural has been damaged. Rome is home to numerous works by international street artists such as Herbert Baglione, MOMO...
Alice Pasquini aka AliCè, born in Rome, is an illustrator, painter and set designer. She is part of the international street art scene. Her characters, children or women, are drawn with posca on an aerosol background, outlined with a brush, sometimes reinforced with mosaic. In 2016, she repainted Rome's Due Ponti station. Her work is presented in world-renowned venues, such as the MAXXI in Rome for an exhibition in 2014.
