Traveling through churches: geographies of art and miracles in Rubens' Italian itinerary

CYCLE: Traveling in Italy between the 16th and 17th Centuries: maps and guides to discover works, artists and collections
SPEAKER: Raffaella Morselli
DATE: Tuesday, March 10, 6:00 PM
LOCATION: Bibliotheca Maior - Sala della Crociera

Pieter Paul Rubens’ lengthy stay in Italy between 1600 and 1608 represents a decisive phase in his education and his rise as an artist-intellectual. Following the guidance of Franciscus Schottus’s Itinerarii Italiae rerumque Romanarum libri tres (Antwerp, 1600), Italy became a "gymnasium for the eye" for Rubens: a privileged space for encountering antiquity, the great masters of the 16th century, and the new demands of the Counter-Reformation. During these years, the artist developed a method of selective observation that led him to explore major artistic hubs such as Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Florence, and Rome—cities destined to remain etched in the Italian memories of one of the leading figures of 17th-century European painting.

Raffaella Morselli, PhD, is a Full Professor of Early Modern Art History at Sapienza University of Rome and a member of the Accademia Raffaello in Urbino. Her research focuses on the history of collecting, patronage, and the art market in 16th and 17th-century Italy, subjects to which she has dedicated monographs, essays, exhibitions, and numerous articles published by international houses. She is a specialist in Guido Reni, Guercino, Rubens, Francesco Albani, Lavinia Fontana, and Domenico Fetti. She has curated several exhibitions, including La celeste galeria (Mantua, 2002-2003), La Collezione del cardinale Silvio Valenti Gonzaga (Mantua, 2005), Guido Reni (Rome, 2022), Arte Liberata. Capolavori salvati durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale (1937-1947) (Rome, 2022-2023), Rubens a Palazzo Te. Pittura, trasformazione e libertà (Mantua, 2023-2024), Guercino nello studio (Bologna, 2023-2024), Guercino. L’era Ludovisi a Roma (Rome, 2024-2025), La Favola di Atalanta. Pittura e poesia a Bologna (Bologna, 2024-2025), and Roma pittrice. Artiste al lavoro tra Cinquecento e Ottocento (Rome, 2024-2025). She was a research fellow at the Getty Center (Los Angeles, 1994) and an Ailsa Mellon Bruce Senior Visiting Scholar at CASVA (Washington D.C., 2014). She serves on numerous scientific committees for museums (Galleria Borghese, Palazzo Te), exhibitions, international journals, and editorial series.

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