Vittoriano
On Tuesday 29 October, at the Sala del Refettorio of Palazzo Venezia, the first of the conferences linked to the Depositi in Mostra initiative was held, a cycle of exhibitions dedicated to the valorisation of works from the VIVE currently not on public display.
The cycle is part of the study activities on works from the VIVE's collections conducted since 2020. The research was carried out through systematic scientific cataloguing, entrusted to working groups of specialists coordinated by university professors.
The conference, introduced by the Director of the VIVE, Edith Gabrielli, and by Barbara Agosti, Professor of History of Modern Art at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, was dedicated to the presentation of the studies by researchers Clara Seghesio and Cristina Conti on two works in dialogue with each other, united by the common thread of the commissioning of Pope Pius V (1566-1572): the relief with Cristo at the House of the Fariseo and the bronze bust portraying the same pontiff.
The relief, until today kept in storage, constitutes a precious testimony of the monumental altar machine conceived by Giorgio Vasari at the request of the pontiff for the basilica of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo, near Alessandria. Thanks to a renewed critical and historical analysis, Clara Seghesio has recognised the author of the work in Angelo Marini known as the Sicilian.
The bust depicting Pio V, which entered the VIVE collections in 2020, is the only one hitherto known gilded bronze portrait of the pontiff. A new critical reading confirms the attribution to the ambit of Guglielmo Della Porta, a protagonist of the artistic scene in late 16th century Rome.
