Castel Sant’Angelo 1911–1925. L’alba di un museo (Castel Sant'Angelo 1911–1925. The Dawn of a museum)

The exhibition Castel Sant’Angelo 1911–1925. L'alba di un museo (Castel Sant'Angelo 1911–1925. The Dawn of a Museum), promoted and organized by the Ministry of Culture's Pantheon and Castel Sant'Angelo Institute – National Museums Directorate of the City of Rome, on the occasion of the centenary of the establishment of the National Museum of Castel Sant'Angelo by Royal Decree of May 4, 1925, retraces the period from 1911 to 1925, when the project to transform the monument into a museum began. This was, in fact, a crucial period, in which the prospect of creating a museum - which initially seemed like just a dream - became a reality.

The exhibition's layout is intended as a tribute to that experience, bringing together paintings, sculptures, reliefs, weapons, watercolors, and prints previously exhibited and now held in various Italian museums and institutions, alongside materials from Castel Sant'Angelo - mostly from storage - that formed the original core of the collection. All the works are displayed in dialogue with period photographs of the exhibition, which convey their context and meaning.

This marks a key milestone in the long and complex history of this extraordinary monument, built as an imperial mausoleum and subsequently transformed over the centuries into a fortification, papal residence, prison, and barracks. The museum's creation marks the moment the monument was restored to a purely cultural dimension: a public institution that, since then as today, is committed to promoting the building and the collections it houses, reaching out to both a national and international audience.

The origins of this itinerary are rooted in another symbolic moment: the 1911 Exposition, held at Castel Sant'Angelo to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Italian unification. It was precisely then that the Castle was transformed into an exhibition space, featuring a retrospective of Italian art from its origins to the present, which harmoniously brought together archaeology, figurative arts, decorative arts, historical settings, and thematic itineraries. This cultural and symbolic initiative, precisely because of its narrative and experimental ambition, contributed significantly to the reorganization of the monument in its new role.

The exhibition unfolds through some of the Castle's most iconic spaces: from the Halls of Clement VIII to the Hall of Justice, up to the Apartment of Clement VII and the wonderful Hall of Apollo. The exhibition begins with watercolors by Ettore Roesler Franz (1845-1907), from the Museum of Rome, a painter of refined views that document a Rome that was fading under the urban transformations required by its new role as Capital of the Kingdom. Continuing, Umberto Prencipe's (1879-1962) extraordinary painting of a view of Rome in the 15th century, from the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum, stands out. Conceived specifically for the 1911 exhibition, its monumental scale, the glow of dawn breaking, and the sweep of the composition inspired the title of today's exhibition, The Dawn of a Museum.

From the Gorga collection, also the focus of the 1911 exhibition, are the famous musical instruments, along with archaeological finds such as a fascinating late-antique stele depicting a Praetorian Guard. This, along with the exceptional Romanesque sculpted slabs, restored for the occasion and returned from the Museum of Civilizations' deposits, represents a tribute to the section dedicated in 1911 to marble processing.

Among the 16th-century paintings, the Elijah in the Desert from the Uffizi stands out, a work by Daniele da Volterra (1503-1566), a pupil of Michelangelo, which pays homage to the “Michelangelesque” section of 1911. From the Galleria Nazionale di Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini comes the View of the Tiber at Castel Sant’Angelo by Luigi Vanvitelli (1700-1773), a historical image that links the monument to its urban landscape, while from the Accademia di San Luca comes a terracotta sculpture by Giambologna (1529-1608), an allegory of a river, a testimony to Roman academic collecting.

A specific section is dedicated to Bartolomeo Pinelli (1781-1835), an artist who masterfully depicted popular crafts and scenes of everyday life in 19th-century Rome. The works on display are part of a trend that, in the 1911 exhibition, aimed to highlight the expressions of popular art and tradition, documenting the most authentic face of the city.

A large space is also dedicated to historical weapons and armor, ideally complementing the 1911 "Men at Arms" section. Alongside prestigious loans - such as two sallets from the Bargello in Florence - there are numerous works restored for the occasion from the Castle's storage rooms, including an extraordinary suit of Medici armor from the second half of the 16th century. A standout in this section is the portrait of Alfonso I d'Este by Battista Dossi (before 1500–1548), from the Galleria Estense in Modena, a figure known for his passion for artillery.

A major section is dedicated to Giovan Battista Piranesi (1720-1778): his famous Invented prisons, created as a metaphor for the prisons of the soul, draw inspiration from the historic prisons of Castel Sant'Angelo. The prints, specially produced by the Regia Calcografia for the 1911 exhibition, are now displayed in a setting that emphasizes their connection to the monument's function as a prison, alongside objects that evoke its history.

The exhibition concludes in the magnificent Hall of Apollo, where the large model of Castel Sant'Angelo created in 1911 has been repositioned, ideally observing the marble busts of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, linked to the foundation and history of the Mausoleum. A side room houses the gilded wooden angel by Pietro Bracci (1700-1773), chosen as the exhibition's symbolic image.

The project, conceived by Luca Mercuri, Director ad interim of the Pantheon and Castel Sant'Angelo – Directorate of National Museums of the City of Rome, benefits from the contribution of a scientific committee composed of Matilde Amaturo, Luigi Gallo, Ilaria Miarelli Mariani, and Mario Scalini.

Photo: Daniele Ricciarelli, known as Daniele da Volterra (Volterra, 1509 – Rome, 1566), The Prophet Elijah in the Desert, 1543-1547, oil on canvas, Florence, Uffizi Galleries, inv. 1890 no. 10744