Vittoriano
The Directorate General for Archives of the Ministry of Culture and VIVE – Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia announce the signing of a strategic collaboration agreement covering research, conservation, and the promotion of cultural heritage.
The agreement aims to bridge the divide between art-historical heritage and archival heritage. At the heart of the project is the testing of a model for interdisciplinary temporary exhibitions based on the comparison of different languages and materials. Works of art, objects of material culture, and documents are brought into dialogue, becoming active tools for narrating the contexts, practices, and dimensions of historical research. Heritage is understood as a relational system capable of reflecting the complexity of processes and generating knowledge, while maintaining a high standard of communication.
The first concrete outcome of this collaboration is the exhibition Piero di Cosimo’s La Maddalena: art, history and women’s lives. Opening at Palazzo Venezia on April 17, 2026, the exhibition offers an unprecedented interpretation of the precious painting by comparing it with decorative arts and documents, thus reconstructing the material and cultural context of Renaissance Florence.
With this initiative, the Directorate General for Archives and VIVE reinforce their commitment to a shared, accessible culture capable of triggering new forms of knowledge.
"This collaboration will realize study projects, exhibitions, publications, and scientific initiatives supported by the synergy between archival and art-historical expertise. The goal is to narrate a work and its context by drawing from documents held in archives, and to illustrate a documentary narrative path through a work of art, and vice versa. We hope this collaboration encourages the presence of archival documents alongside works of art in exhibitions to reveal their provenance and restore the depth of their context," states the Director General for Archives, Antonio Tarasco.
“Since becoming operational in November 2020, VIVE has placed the public—and especially the ‘non-public,’ that broad group of people who normally avoid museums, at the center of its actions. Temporary exhibitions are a privileged tool for engaging both. Alongside more established exhibition models, we have chosen to develop interdisciplinary projects designed to recreate a multifaceted reality and, ultimately, an entire world, thereby multiplying the factors of attraction. This agreement, which allows works of art to enter into dialogue with documents, therefore holds high strategic value” declares the Director of VIVE - Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, Edith Gabrielli.
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