Villa Medici and Galleria Borghese Mark Gustave Moreau Bicentenary

A two-day international conference titled "I mondi di Gustave Moreau" will be held on May 21–22, 2026, at the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici and Galleria Borghese to celebrate the bicentenary of Gustave Moreau's birth. The event focuses on Moreau's relationship with Italy, particularly his stay in Rome from 1857 to 1859, which shaped his poetic and the subsequent European symbolist culture. The conference features lectures, roundtables, and contributions from international scholars. It also revisits the 1996 exhibition "Gustave Moreau e l'Italia" curated by Geneviève Lacambre at Villa Medici. Five engravings by Moreau from the Fondazione Primoli will be displayed in Villa Medici's Grand Salon. The program opens on May 21 at 6 PM at the Loggia of Galleria Borghese with a roundtable introduced by Francesca Cappelletti, featuring Giovanna Capitelli, Luisa Capodieci, Francesca Castellani, and Peter Cooke, moderated by Maria Grazia Messina. The second day on May 22 starts at 10 AM at Villa Medici, opened by Sam Stourdzé and Alessandro Gallicchio. Sessions cover Moreau's relationship with Risorgimento Italy, Venetian tradition, romantic painting evolution, and European symbolism's spread. Admission is free with reservation; talks are in Italian.