November 29, 2023
Villa Della Torre Prize 2023 ‘The art of exhibiting art’ awarded to Fondazione Palazzo Te, Galleria Borghese and Palazzo Ducale in Mantua for ‘Rubens! La nascita di una pittura europea’.
Verona, November 29, 2023 – ‘Rubens a Palazzo Te. Pittura, trasformazione e libertà’, ‘Il tocco di Pigmalione. Rubens e la scultura’, ‘Rubens. La Pala della Santissima Trinità’: the Villa Della Torre L'Arte di Mostrare l'Arte 2023 (The Art of Exhibiting Art) Award, promoted by the Mastella Allegrini family, was awarded to this extraordinary round trip between Mantua and Rome and to its unprecedented and exclusive choral narrative that included the collaboration between Fondazione Palazzo Te, Galleria Borghese and Palazzo Ducale in Mantua.
“For having collectively conceived and implemented the exhibition ‘Rubens! La nascita di una pittura europea’, breathing life into an important cultural initiative dedicated to the relations between Italian and European art, in honor of the multifaceted painter of Flemish origin” reads the motivation, specifying “An exhibition in its various forms that has the merit of obliterating the fallacious image of a Rubens defined by many critics as ‘only flesh’, showing him to be an absolute protagonist of the early Baroque, an indefatigable creator of symbols and a fine diplomat, a mediator of political and religious conflicts, so much so that, while resistant to war, he has the strength to continue to show us the way forward even in the midst of the conflicts of our time”.
The announcement and award ceremony took place yesterday evening in the Rooms of Villa Della Torre in Fumane (Verona), a historical and architectural monument owned by the Mastella Allegrini family. Receiving the award for Fondazione Palazzo Te were Stefano Baia Curioni (Director) and Raffaella Morselli (curator of the exhibition); for Galleria Borghese, Francesca Cappelletti (Director and curator of the exhibition together with Lucia Simonato); for Palazzo Ducale di Mantova Stefano L’Occaso (Director).
This was the eleventh edition of the Art of Exhibiting Art (L’Arte di mostrare l'Arte) Prize, a cultural award assigned annually to curators and personalities from the world of art and culture who, through their exceptional visions and research, create original and immersive exhibition itineraries.
Marilisa Allegrini (Order of Merit for Labor) joyfully reaffirms the extraordinary and distinctive bond that binds her family with Villa Della Torre and the homonymous winery that they founded, explaining, as host: “Being here fulfills my soul. This Villa was my childhood dream and is not unrelated, as is obvious, to our activities: the farmland transformed into vineyards, the fine wine of Valpolicella, the guided tastings, the business dinners. It is all part of the great microcosm of hospitality, now considered a strategic asset by those who work in my sector and seek to make the idea of the Italian lifestyle and the diverse beauties of this extraordinary country even more valuable in the world. As time went on, the purely artistic reading of the Villa took over and led me by the hand until it moved me: the perspectives, the small chapel, the peristyle, the giant mascaron fireplaces, the fishpond, the arches, the vaults, the brickwork. Everything conspired not only to repay me for my efforts in the restoration and preservation works, but also to bring body and soul into harmony. The Art of Exhibiting Art (L’Arte di mostrare L’Arte) Award evokes all this: it is the representation, the authentic symbol of ancient but, together, surprisingly modern values; it is the demonstration that the time for beauty never ends”.
Previous Editions
In the past ten editions of ‘The Art of exhibiting Art’ (L’Arte di mostrare l’Arte), awards were given to the curators of the exhibition “Pietro Bembo e l’invenzione del Rinascimento”, Davide Gasparotto, Adolfo Tura and Guido Beltramini; Paola Marini and Bernard Aikema for the exhibition ‘Paolo Veronese: l’illusione della realtà’; Salvatore Settis, Rem Koolhaas and Fondazione Prada for the exhibition ‘Serial/Portable Classic’; Luca Massimo Barbero, curator of the exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence ‘Da Kandinsky a Pollock. La grande arte dei Guggenheim’; Maria Luisa Pacelli, director of Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara; Xavier Salomon, Curator of the Frick Collection in New York; Arte Sella, open-air exhibition space in Borgo Valsugana; Marzia Faietti and Matteo Lafranconi, curators of the exhibition ‘Raffaello 1520 – 1483’, which was held at the Scuderie del Quirinale; David Landau for ‘Le Stanze del Vetro’; Michele Coppola for Gallerie d’Italia.