Arts Guide: Exhibitions in Italy

13.01.2006

Leonardo in Ancona and Naples, Van Gogh in Brescia (ANSA) - Rome, January 13 - Following is a city-by-city calendar of some of Italy's top art exhibitions .

ANCONA - Mole Vanvitelliana: Leonardo, Genius and Vision in the Marche; until January 15; illustrates Leonardo's work at the Ducal Palace in Urbino as part of Cesare Borgia's visiting retinue in 1502, his major engineering and port designs at Pesaro.The centrepiece of the show will be the Virgin of the Rocks from a private Swiss collection .

BERGAMO - Galleria Nazionale: War is Over, 1945-2005; the show collects some 100 anti-war works by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix, Paul Klee, Jasper Johns and Giacomo Balla; until February 15 .

BRESCIA - Museo di Santa Giulia; Gauguin Van Gogh - L'Avventura del Colore Nuovo (Gauguin Van Gogh - The New Colour Adventure) runs until March 19; compares the art of Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Some 150 works by the two post-Impressionist giants - 100 paintings and 50 drawings, sketches and other pieces on paper - have been borrowed from top international museums .

FLORENCE - Palazzo Pitti: Mythologica et Erotica (Mythology and Eroticism) at the Museo degli Argenti (Silver Museum) until May 15, 2006. The show features 213 works from Italian and foreign museums. The range of works on display is remarkably wide with paintings, murals, sculptures, ceramics, prints, jewellery, coins and various other precious items - all depicting erotic stories from ancient mythology .

- Archivio di Stato: Leonardo da Vinci: The True Image; the life of Leonardo is recounted in a series of documents and letters collected for the first time in this new show .

One of the highlights is the only record of his birth on April 15, 1452; until January 28 .

- Museo dell'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo): Arnolfo, The Origins of the Florentine Renaissance, 100 works charting the career of great architect Arnolfo di Cambio and his influence; until April 21 .

MILAN - Triennale: Keith Haring Retrospective; the exhibition devoted to American street artist Keith Haring brings together 100 paintings, 40 drawings and a multitude of sculptures and works in other forms. The exhibition includes his biggest painting, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell .

Visitors can also see a documentary on the making of Haring's mural on the outside wall of Pisa's Sant'Antonio church - the last major work he completed before dying of an Aids-related illness in 1990 at the age of 31; until January 29 .

- Palazzo Reale: Caravaggio e l'Europa (Caravaggio And Europe), runs until February 6. The exhibit charts the adoption of the Italian artist's famous chiaroscuro techniques and his fascination with "real life" through works by a number of different artists. Although boasting around 200 paintings, only 16 are by Caravaggio himself. Among the pieces to make the final line-up are Boy Bitten By A Lizard and Salome With The Head Of St John The Baptist, both on loan from the National Gallery .

NAPLES - Renaissance Naples Hotel: Quel Gran Genio di Leonardo, January 20 to February 26; war machines, musical instruments and drawings .

ROME - Complesso del Vittoriano: Eduard Manet: the show brings together 150 paintings, drawings and etchings from top museums around the world; until February 15 .

- Castel Sant'Angelo: Riflessi DiVini (Reflections On Wine/Divine Reflections) features both artistic and practical objects that explore wine in a variety of contexts. Includes etching, paintings and artifacts; until January 15 .

- Chiostro del Bramante: Federico Zandomeneghi; runs until March 5, 2006. The show explores a turn-of-the-century vision of Paris, through the eyes of a Venetian impressionist. As well as 130 pieces by Zandomeneghi, there are paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas and drawings by Toulouse-Lautrec .

- Scuderie Papali: 'Burri. Gli artisti e la materia 1945-2004' (Burri. Artists And Material 1945-2004); runs until February 16. The show uses Burri as a springboard to explore a variety of 20th-century talents that he helped influence. Includes works by Antoni Tapies, Jean Fautrier, Jean Dubuffet, Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly and Franz Kline .

SIENA - Museo di Santa Maria della Scala: Childbirth in Siena, From The Middle Ages to Modern Times; the show takes a 'multidisciplinary approach' and is divided into eight sections, running from medical instruments used in childbirth to beds and baby cots from midwives as well as paintings on the subject; until February 19 .

TURIN - Palazzo Bricherasio: Il Papiro di Artemidoro (The Papyrus of Artemidoros), world's oldest map; February 8-May 7. photo: Van Gogh's The Poppy Field, on loan to the Brescia show from the Hague's Gemeentemuseum .