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Gonzaga Cameo exhibition, italian exhibition of jewellery, ancient and modern jewelry museum, Hermitage Museum collections, semi-precious stones collections , glass, silverware, Raphael painting museum, Rubens exhibition in Italy, Italy art gallery
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In the 1400s the Gonzaga began an exceptional collection that was to become renowned all over the world. Besides paintings, the lords of Mantua sought a variety of precious objects, bringing to their ducal palace the very finest pieces of jewellery, semi-precious stones, glass, silverware, naturalia and mirabilia. Standing out among the many ancient and modern items of value they acquired is the Gonzaga Cameo.
Of exceptionally high artistic quality, it is a large piece with a double portrait of an imperial couple. On loan from the State Hermitage Museum of St Petersburg, the cameo is making its return to Mantua after four hundred years to take its place as the centrepiece of the exhibition.
Its intriguing and adventurous history - owners included Isabella d'Este and Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Rudolph II of Prague, Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I - unwinds side by side with other Italian and European collections arnid 120 works of great beauty and quality loaned by rnajor international rnuseurns.
Besides the Gonzaga cameo are other splendid exampies such as the Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museurn's Ptolernaic cameo, which portrays Ptolerny II Philadelphus and Arsino? Il, and Hercules and Cerberus frorn the Berlin Staatliche Museurn. Also in the exhibition are glass objects, pieces of jewellery and other precious items, engravings and printed writings that bear witness to the cameo's fortune and popularity, as well as paintings by Raphael, Rubens, Hans van Aachen and Jacob Ferdinand Voet.
Curated by Onella Casazza and held at the Fruttiere at Palazzo Te, the exhibition is a fascinating journey through the most sumptuous art collecting undertaken by the Gonzaga. Cultured and enlightened, the lords of Mantua assembled a collection that rernains of rnajor interest still today.
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Exclusive evenings
For a truly unforgettable experience, evening visits can be organized for groups and individuals when the Palace is closed to the general public. |
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