Francesca Cappelletti – författare

Ovid's Metamorphoses and its lasting impact on visual artThe Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses is among the most important works of Classical Antiquity, described in the seventeenth century as a ‘Bible for artists’. The compelling epic intertwines tales of chaos and the cosmos, encounters between gods, humans and nature, and the countless transformations to which they gave rise.For centuries, artists have drawn inspiration from these highly imaginative accounts of passion, jealousy, cunning and deceit on the part of deities, heroes and ordinary mortals. The stories have been interpreted in marble and paint, and more recently in moving pictures. This book shows the immense influence that Ovid has exerted on the visual arts – from Antiquity to the present day. It presents sculptures by Cellini, Bernini, Rodin and Bourgeois alongside paintings by Titian, Correggio, Caravaggio, Arcimboldo and Rubens.Ovid’s myths address universal human feelings, allowing them to speak as powerfully as ever to our imagination. This richly illustrated book, featuring essays by Francesca Cappelletti, Claudia Cieri Via, Bart Ramakers, Frits Scholten and Lucia Simonato, is the living proof.This publication accompanies the exhibitions at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (6 February-25 May 2026) and the Galleria Borghese, Rome (22 June-20 September 2026).

The book investigates the birth of painting on stone and its development during the 17th century in Rome and Europe.

Canvas as a pictorial support was only reluctantly adopted in Rome and even in the 17th century it was not universally employed. From 1530 until the first decade of the 17th century many altarpieces in Rome were instead painted on stone, especially on slate. The invention of the technique is due to Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547) who employed it in his monumental Nativity of the Virgin for the Chigi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo.This book presents a selection of the most significant stone altarpieces in Rome: San Marcello al Corso (Federico Zuccari), S. Maria della Vallicella (Rubens), S. Caterina dei Funari (Girolamo Muziano), San Silvestro al Quirinale (Scipione Pulzone), Santa Maria della Pace (Lavinia Fontana), Santa Maria Maggiore (Girolamo Siciolante) are among the churches included in this guide.

The Galleria Borghese not only houses an extraordinary collection of ancient and modern sculpture, but also one of the most extraordinary collections of paintings in the world, with masterpieces by the most important European painters, including Giovanni Bellini, Correggio, Dosso Dossi, Parmigianino, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio and Rubens.In two volumes - the first is presented here divided into two tomes and dedicated to works created between the 15th and 16th centuries - the intention is to continue the work begun with the catalogue raisonné of modern sculpture, also published by Officina Libraria (2022), thanks to updates, discoveries, archive research and analysis of works. The entries in this volume, preceded by introductory essays illustrating the main nuclei of paintings produced between the Renaissance and Mannerism periods in the museum, have been entrusted to scholars specialising in the productions of individual artists or regional schools, experts in the history of the gallery and a large group of younger experts in 15th and 16th century painting. The individual texts present a significant degree of in-depth study both chronologically and in terms of attribution, with notes on restorations and archival documents. Text in Italian.

On the Baroque painter’s early years in Rome and the origins of his vision of landscape paintingThe impetus behind this volume was the Italian state’s 2020 acquisition of the painting Landscape with a Country Dance (1601–02) by the Italian Baroque painter Guido Reni (1575–1642). The artwork’s return to its native land at the Galleria Borghese marked a prime opportunity to rediscover the artist and his oeuvre, particularly the landscapes and rural scenes he created during his early years in Rome.Nature and Devotion tracks the new vision of nature—a fusion of science and poetry—that Reni developed alongside his contemporaries (who included Niccolò dell’Abate, Annibale Carracci, Domenichino and Giovanni Battista Viola). Following the artist’s course up until his breakthrough fresco for the Casino of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Aurora (1613–14), the volume conveys how the impressions he gathered during his early years in Rome established a robust foundation upon which he built his later masterpieces.