THE COUNT AND THE CARDINAL, the masterpieces of the Silvestri Collection
Palazzo Roncale Exhibition – 02.12/10.03.2024
After the latest fascinating exhibition dedicated to the great Rovigo sculptor Virgilio Milani, Palazzo Roncale is preparing to host an exclusive collection of great prestige for the city from December.
The exhibition includes a main nucleus of over 200 paintings and artefacts, so far only partially displayed, which Count Girolamo and his brother Cardinal Pietro de Silvestri donated to Rovigo, revealing to the public a significant part of Rovigo’s history.
The exhibition offers a unique perspective on the figure of Cardinal Pietro de Silvestri, a controversial character in the political panorama of his time and with an ecclesiastical career that led him to be “auditor” for Austria at the Sacred Rota in 1836.
His rise culminated with the cardinal’s purple conferred on him by Pope Pius IX on 15 March 1858. During an era of great political change, Cardinal de Silvestri distinguished himself as a supporter of the unification of Italy, a position that brought him into conflict with the Pope and the powerful Cardinal Giacomo Antonelli. In addition to his political commitments, de Silvestri was also a great patron and art collector, a man of extraordinary culture, a member of the Academicians of the Concordi from a young age. His dedication to education was manifested in the creation of the “Silvestriana”, a vast collection of 40 thousand volumes of unique and rare texts, part of the heritage of the Accademia dei Concordi.
The exhibition will offer the public a selection of the most significant works from the Collection, finally reunited in a single exhibition space, but – as in the tradition of Palazzo Roncale exhibitions – it will also serve to make the public aware of the history of the de Silvestri family, present at Rovigo since the Duchy of Estense and the singular story of the “rejected picture gallery”.
An unmissable opportunity not only to visit the exhibition at Palazzo Roncale, but also to spend a weekend discovering the historical-artistic heritage of Rovigo and the many nearby villages. Here you will find magnificent villa-palaces, large and small museums, sacred places, without forget the nature and the flavors of land and water that the “Terra fra Adige-Po” can offer, with taste and pleasure for body and soul.
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