Italia Germania.
Pittura e scultura tra Ottocento e Novecento. Da Canova a Kiefer

Not just artistic masterpieces, but stories of encounters, journeys, influences and visions that have crossed borders. From this idea comes Ispirazione Europa, an international project spanning five centuries of cultural and artistic history, centering on artists, ideas and relationships that have contributed to shaping the European spirit.

Opening the cycle on November 14, 2026, will be Italia Germania (Italy Germany), the first stage of a narrative that will continue with Italia Francia (Italy France) in 2027 and Italia Spagna (Italy Spain) in 2028.

The exhibition path spans two centuries of cultural relations between the two countries, with a particular focus on the 20th century, when dialogue between Italian and German artists, intellectuals, and architect-designers became one of the engines of European modernity.
The display reconstructs a dense web of meetings, influences and comparisons that have transformed the language of art and, more broadly, the cultural vision of Europe.
It is divided into chapters corresponding to the most significant moments of this osmosis, relating to the artistic, political, and social history of both countries, bringing to light fundamental episodes, protagonists, and events.
The itinerary explores the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting how new ideas and revolutions in artistic languages were born from these reciprocal exchanges between artists, intellectuals, and figures of letters. At the same time, these dialogues reflected the anxieties and hopes of an era marked by profound crises, often anticipating the falls and subsequent rebirths that characterized European history in those two centuries.

The roots between the 18th and 19th centuries: the myth of Italy
The narrative begins at the end of the 18th century, when Italy becomes an essential destination for German artists and intellectuals.
The journey undertaken by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe between 1786 and 1788 – destined to become one of the founding texts of European culture – contributes to spreading the idea of Italy in the Germanic world as a place of artistic and spiritual regeneration.
In this climate, the Nazarene community was born in Rome around 1810, German painters who chose to live and work together to restore a moral and religious dimension to painting inspired by the purity of Italian Renaissance art. Among the protagonists stands out Friedrich Overbeck, a symbolic figure of this experience and of one of the first moments of modern dialogue between the two cultures.
Alongside this story, a comparison develops between different interpretations of European classicism, fueled by the theories of Johann Joachim Winckelmann and embodied by the work of Antonio Canova, who in the exhibition confronts the younger Nordic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen.
At the end of the 19th century, exchanges became more intense thanks to the Secessions, particularly that of Munich, and the visionary nature of Giorgio de Chirico who confronted Franz von Stuck, as well as the symbolist culture of Max Klinger and Arnold Böcklin, the latter active for a long time in Italy.

Avant-gardes compared
With the beginning of the twentieth century, the dialogue between Italy and Germany entered a decisive phase.
In 1912 and 1913, in Berlin, the Der Sturm gallery hosted two historic exhibitions in which Italian Futurists participated. It is one of the most intense moments of encounter between European avant-gardes: artists such as Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, and Gino Severini confront the German Expressionists, protagonists of Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, including Franz Marc and August Macke, Carlo Mense, Heinrich Campendonk, Emil Nolde, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Despite the differences, this comparison contributes to broadening the language of European painting and redefining the possibilities of representing modernity.

Between the two wars: art and society
In the 1920s, the relationship between Italy and Germany took on a more complex dimension, reflecting the political and social tensions of the time.
Italian Magical Realism and German Neue Sachlichkeit show surprising affinities in the way they represent reality: a painting suspended between precision and restlessness, capable of recounting the fragility of the individual and society after the tragedy of war.
Artists such as Felice Casorati, Antonio Donghi, Gino Severini, and Cagnaccio di San Pietro ideally dialogue with figures of German painting such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, Heinrich Maria Davringhausen, Christian Schad, Georg Schrimpf, and Alexander Kanoldt, interpreters—alongside others of equal importance—of the anxieties of Weimar Germany. Parallel to this, another decisive chapter opens: that of abstraction. The research developed around the Bauhaus redefines the relationship between art, architecture, design, and society. In Italy, particularly in Milan around the Galleria Il Milione, these ideas find a new generation of artists ready to experiment with radically innovative languages.
The works of Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, and Willi Baumeister exert a strong influence on Italian artists such as Mauro Reggiani, Mario Radice, Luigi Veronesi, Manlio Rho, Alberto Magnelli, Fausto Melotti, and Lucio Fontana.