The exhibition Recycling Beauty, 17 November 2022 to 27 February 2023, created and programmed by the Prada Foundation, is of an uncontemporary flavour. It is an interesting concept that sheds light on an unusual theme; that of the re-use of Greek and Roman antiquity in post-antique contexts. The exhibition, curated by Salvatore Settis, Anna Anguissola and Denise La Monica, and with a layout designed by Rem Koolhaas/OMA, is based on the pretext of understanding and analysing the important of classic heritage in contemporary times, or in the words of Settis: “A key to accessing the multiplicity of contemporary culture”. The concept of reuse takes shape and focuses on a precise moment, i.e., when an antique work or element is removed from its initial condition and transforms into – or created – a new context, thus generating a new life and a new artistic cycle.
Recycling Beauty at the Prada Foundation
With an exhibition design by OMA, “Recycling Beauty” is an exhibition on the theme of reusing Greek and Roman antiquities in post-antique contexts.
© Roma, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali
© Roma, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali
Courtesy of Ministero della Cultura – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
© Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin – PK, Orientabteilung, Diez
Courtesy Ministero della Cultura – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli
Photo © Governatorato dello Stato della Città del Vaticano – Direzione dei Musei
© Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities, KHM-Museumsverband
© Wissenschaftliche Bibliothek der Stadt Trier, Hs 22
Courtesy of Galleria Borghese, photo Luciano Romano
© 2022. Musée di Louvre / RMN-Grand Palais / Photo: Hervé Lewandowski / Dist. Photo SCALA, Firenze
Photo © Governatorato dello Stato della Città del Vaticano – Direzione dei Musei
© Comune di Mantova, Musei Civici, Mantova
© 2022. Musée di Louvre / RMN-Grand Palais / Photo: Hervé Lewandowski / Dist. Photo SCALA, Firenze
© Archivio Fotografico Civici Musei di Brescia. Photo Fotostudio Rapuzzi
© Archivio Fotografico Civici Musei di Brescia. Photo Fotostudio Rapuzzi
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- Valentina Petrucci
- 31 October 2022
Two monumental marble fragments comprising the right hand and the left foot of the Colossus of Constantine (4th century A.D.), generally displayed in the courtyard of the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome, are presented and accompanied by a 1:1-scale reconstruction of the Colossus that has never been attempted before. This is a completely novel and artistically, archaeologically and anthropologically interesting project, the result of collaboration between the Musei Capitolini, the Prada Foundation and the Facta Foundation, and also thanks to the scientific supervision of the Rome Superintendency for Cultural Heritage, Claudio Parisi Presicce.
Lion Attacking a Horse, IV secolo a.C.
Right hand of the Colossus of Constantine, 312 d.C.
Farnese Cup, 2nd–1st century BCE
Drawing after the Farnese Cup, c. 1400–1450, Iran
Donatello, Protome of a horse (Carafa Head), post 1454
Funerary stele of an athlete, 450–430 BCE
Magdalensberg Youth, 16th-century replica of a now-lost Roman statue
The Ada Gospels binding, before 326 CE
Nicolas Cordier, The Gypsy Girl, 1607–1612
Nicolas Cordier, The ‘Borghese Moor’, between 1607 and 1612
Latrine seat, Age of Hadrian (117–138 CE), red marble
Throne or Seat of Virgil, 2nd century BCE
Relief fragment with the Throne of Saturn, Julio-Claudian age
Consular diptych of Manlius Boethius, 487 CE
Consular diptych of Manlius Boethius, 487 CE