Story of a gesture

The exhibition, curated by Salvatore Settis, proposes an interdisciplinary investigation that interweaves archaeology, art history e image theory. The centrepiece of the exhibition is the extraordinary public presentation of the front of a Roman sarcophagus (170-180 A.D.) depicting the Death of Meleager, a work that for centuries belonged to the collections of Montalvo Palace a Florence and then to the collection Brenta-Torno a Milan. For the first time, the main front is recomposed with the two original side reliefs, now stored at the National Archaeological Museum in Florence, allowing the narrative and monumental unity of the work to be restored.

Alongside the archaeological dimension, the route develops a profound reflection on the biography of a gesturea female figure with arms stretched backwards, an iconographic code of despair. Born in Roman times and documented by a silver vase of Pompeii from the Naples National Archaeological Museum, this expressive pattern disappears for a millennium only to re-emerge in the 13th century. The exhibition traces this rebirth through masterpieces such as the Lamentation by Giotto and the Massacre of the Innocents by Nicola Pisano, up to modern reinterpretations of Pablo Picasso, in the exhibition with preparatory drawings for Guernica. Finally, the exhibition pays homage to the thought of Aby Warburg, who identified this gesture as an emblematic case of Pathosformel, analysed through the tables of the Mnemosyne Bilderatlas.