Galleria Colonna: Baroque splendor and digital strategy in Rome

Patrizia Piergiovanni, head of Galleria Colonna in Rome, discusses the private collection's communication strategy blending Baroque heritage with digital outreach. The gallery gained over 16,000 Instagram followers in two years and launched the 'Racconta il tuo Museo' project during lockdown, publishing 43 video or podcast interventions. Recent additions include the Padiglione Pio, dedicated to Princess Sveva Colonna, featuring late 16th-century gold-ground frescoes inspired by Raphael's Vatican rooms and Gobelins tapestries depicting Alexander the Great's battles after Charles Le Brun. Piergiovanni highlights the Salottino Rosa with Flemish works by Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Pinturicchio frescoes, and Cosmè Tura's polyptych panel. She champions underrecognized 18th-century works like Andrea Locatelli's mythological canvases with Giuseppe Tommasi. The collection includes Sofonisba Anguissola's signed and dated 1558 self-portrait, which Piergiovanni discussed at the Museo del Prado in November 2019. She emphasizes the role of women like Vittoria Colonna, muse to Michelangelo, and Princess Isabelle Sursock Colonna, who hid artworks during WWII.