The exhibition shows the deep meanings of the ornament, no longer seen as mere and superficial embellishment, but as an event involving everyday life and our relation with the aesthetic aspect.
The exhibition will recall some numerous declinations of the decorative action through over 200 works, from important private collections and national and international museums such as London-based Victoria and Albert Museum, Saint Petersburg-based Ermitage Museum, Paris-based Musée du quai Branly, Florence-based Uffizi Galleries, Trento and Rovereto-based modern and contemporary Art Museum, Venice-Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Rome-based Modern Art National Gallery.
In addition to some works from protohistory, the exhibition will go through over two thousand years of art history, from the Roman Age to the Middle Ages until now, with works by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, the Moretto, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, William Morris, Alphonse Mucha, Koloman Moser, Maurits Cornelis Escher, Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Sonia Delaunay, Josef and Anni Albers, Victor Vasarely, Arman, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Claudio Parmiggiani, Shirin Neshat.
In Palazzo Magnani it will possible to appreciate ancient works of art, with evocative intrusions in the contemporary field to focus on the legacies and the continuous connections among the artistic forms.
In San Pietro Cloisters it will be possible to see most of contemporary-art works, sometimes supported and "commented" on by ancient or modern works.
