2024 Programme
Event #16
Saturday 31 August, 06.30 pm
Teatro degli Impavidi2 - euro 4.50
Find this place on the map
Francesca Cappelletti
A forced gratitude. The portraits of Beauties in 17th Century Europe
Nature and painting, at times allies and at others adversaries in Renaissance and Baroque art, compete for the credit of having enhanced the allure of certain famous ladies, such as Maria Mancini and her sister Hortense – unattainable icons of beauty and ingratitude. These irrepressible rebels roamed 17th-century Europe, pursued by vengeful husbands, relentless lovers, and a bad reputation. If Maria Mancini ever showed gratitude, it was to Ferdinando de’ Ritratti, the painter who immortalised her as a modern Venus. But what kind of relationship develops between model and painter? And between nature, art, and gratitude? Was gratitude, like beauty, a trap for women of the past?
Francesca Cappelletti is director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome. She studied at the Sapienza University of Rome, at the Warburg Institute in London, where she was later Frances Yates Fellow, and at the Collège de France in Paris. She has taught History of Modern Art and History of the Art of European Countries in Italian universities, most recently as full professor at the University of Ferrara. He has curated several exhibitions in Italy and abroad. He has published a volume on the Mattei collection “(Il trattamento dei virtuosi”, with L. Testa, Argos, 1994) and various articles on the events of its dispersion, which contributed to the discovery of Caravaggio's painting “The Taking of Christ”. His most recent book is “Belle. Ritratti femminili nelle stanze del potere” (Mondadori, 2024).
Event #43extraFestival
Minotauro Institute, with Loredana Cirillo and Filippo Rosa
Thank you! What we have never told our children and students
