Vittoria Colonna - i mille volti di

On the occasion of the anniversary of Women's Day, 8 March 2024, with the patronage of the Municipality of Marino, Medina Art Gallery Castelli Romani organizes a collective exhibition of contemporary art lasting 3 hours weeks in the period 8-29 March 2024, at the Civic Museum “U. Mastroianni” by Marino. The exhibition aims to enhance the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of one of the best-known countries in Italy and abroad for its production and serving of table wine and more. The famous "fountains that give wine" that the stornelli talk about are not in fact just a folkloristic homage to the Marine population, engaged for centuries in the cultivation of vines and in the grape harvest, but rather refer to a historical episode of European significance: the memory of the battle of Lepanto on 7 October 1571, commemorated every year with historical parades, theatrical performances and performances by all flag-wavers strictly in period costume.

THE COLLECTIVE The main protagonists of the procession are the two characters who perhaps more than anyone else have left a legacy mark in the history of the Marino area, the brothers Marcantonio and Vittoria Colonna. The first, lieutenant of the Holy League, described and remembered as a great leader who, victorious at Lepanto, returns to Rome in great numbers triumph to receive the Pope's honors. The second, a literary noblewoman and poet, who makes room for herself in a all-male circle of illustrious personalities: Torquato Tasso and Ludovico Ariosto who praise his verses in their compositions, then Pietro Aretino, Annibal Caro and last but not least the great Michelangelo with whom Vittoria forms a deep friendship, not just by letter. The painter of the Sistine Chapel dedicated them in 1525 a pencil portrait, now at the British Museum in London, which recently gave us an incredible surprise: in fact, in the left corner, almost as if in an ironic caricature, Michelangelo himself appears he represents himself precisely in the act of painting. After all, every great masterpiece is born with the intention of celebrate a certain personality but, as the centuries pass, the true and only protagonist becomes precisely who that is he created a masterpiece. In fact, hidden between the lines or not, there is always the artist inside his work: in colors, in the lines, in the materials, in the choice of every single detail; the soul, the mind and the hand of the artist yes reflect in his creation, whether he is aware of it or not. Vittoria Colonna was the subject of numerous representations: by Michelangelo who, eager to capture the spiritual spark of a woman as fascinating as it is complex, he gives us some portraits with intimate tones to underline the delicateness but intense nature of their relationship, to Sebastiano del Piombo who instead depicts her in a more guise institutional, with the classic Renaissance landscape behind it. We even get to 2015, when Cesare Giuliani, a contemporary painter from Abruzzo, outlines a drawing by Vittoria Colonna which combines and it consecrates centuries of female portraiture, from the sinuosity of Botticelli's Venuses to the grace of girls Raphaelesque. 

A woman with infinite faces, one for each artist who has tried to interpret her gaze: which one she is the face of Vittoria Colonna today? In the society of influencers and selfies, who and how would be the Victory of 2024? A popular icon full of followers, a face on the cover of Vogue or the leader of a movement feminist? She would certainly be a pop woman: after all, a character can be defined as truly great when his being, his actions and consequently his entire life remain imprinted in the imagination collective, whether years or centuries pass. Painting, sculpture, photography, design, digital and street art: each artist, through their own language and their own poetic, it can show new iconographies of a cultured young woman with fascinating ways, as resolute as she is aware of the importance of his role in historically relevant diplomatic issues, which he left behind an indelible mark on the vast territory of the Colonna family, on the outskirts of Rome. Interpretation, updating and contemporaneity are the "keywords" of this collective exhibition: works made with classic or innovative techniques, from figurative to informal and abstraction which, thanks to personality of the artist, they will be able to enhance but at the same time stand up to the one great personality of the exhibition, Vittoria.

The selected artists: Elisabetta Bessi, Stefania Catenacci, Irene Cinardi, Franca Corazza, Elisa De Matteis, Vincenzo Di Palma, Franca Fabrizio, Edoardo Formica, Gisella Lucci, Gaiamacchina, Francesca Marinato, Saverio Marrocco, Giorgia Pecchi, Sabrina Puppin, Antonella Romano, Petra Scognamiglio, Stefano Scolart, Tina Smeraldi.