In the centre of Rome. History, philosophers, art, architecture, archaeology, literature

The series of cycles of conferences In the centre of Rome. History, philosophers, art, architecture, archaeology, literature, conceived four years ago by Edith Gabrielli for the VIVE – Vittoriano and Palazzo Venezia, this year also extends to the Museo Nazionale Romano, which hosts three new thematic itineraries: on art collecting, on Italian and European literature and on Latin literature. The conferences, curated respectively by Raffaella Morselli, Gabriele Pedullà and Alessandro Schiesaro, take place between June and December in the Palazzo Altemps and Palazzo Massimo. This year more than ever the project aims to involve a broad, non-specialist audience, thanks to the intervention of high-profile scholars who describe their research topics in clear and accessible language. Every Tuesday the museum is transformed into what can be defined as a cultural agorà, a space open to dialogue, questions and critical thinking, where the heritage is reinterpreted in the light of today's knowledge.

This is the program:

ART COLLECTION CYCLE

“The Lives of Works of Art. Stories, Places, Journeys, Secrets and Appropriations”

Edited by Raffaella Morselli

Full Professor of Modern Art History at Sapienza University

Every work of art has a biography, sometimes linear, sometimes complex, secret, destructive, always compelling. The profiles traced in this series of meetings narrate some of these stories that intersect characters, literatures, religions, duchies and religious orders, merchants and patrons, in an international plot that, at times, knows no borders.

ITALIAN AND EUROPEAN CYCLE LITERATURE

“Ancient Modern: a journey through European literatures”

Edited by Gabriele Pedullà

Full Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Roma Tre

Ancient and modern. Literature, not only Italian, is placed on this double axis: the modeling force of tradition and its radical protests; the cult of the past and the taste for experimentation; the long stasis and moments of burning ignition, but also – on a completely different level – the eternal battle between the world that is, what has been and what could be. Using this conceptual pair is therefore a way to traverse the poetry, prose and theatre of yesterday but also to reactivate the connection between present, past and future on which every original artistic experience is based, with a look at tomorrow. Because, as the great German narrator Anna Seghers wrote (not only thinking of literature), “if there is no more future, the past has existed in vain”.

LATIN LITERATURE CYCLE

“The words and images of art: explorations in the literature of ancient Rome”

Edited by Alessandro Schiesaro

Director Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa

The texts of Latin literature establish a dense dialogue with the images of nature and art: words describe and paint, urging the public to see with the mind. This series of meetings explores some particularly significant examples.

Photo: Trono Ludovisi, Palazzo Altemps - turismoroma