Roma, 1785: temi, indirizzi e protagonisti della pittura di storia greca e romana

The year 1785 is famous for the exhibition in Rome of David’s Oath of the Horatii, which was unanimously acclaimed. But this is not the only painting that tells us about a city where history painting became an absolute protagonist. The “Memorie per le Belle Arti” and the “Giornale delle Belle Arti”, magazines that in the few years of their publication became the privileged observatory of the Roman cultural and artistic con- text, give us evidence of this. In the catalog of artists, known and less known, the Greek and Roman history offers innumerable exempla virtutis that attracted the interest of international patrons who reserved the most meticulous attention to the papal capital. The experimentation with different stylistic and poetic approaches made the Urbe, as it was written at the time, a “temple of true taste” that satisfied the the widespread desire to renew customs and social practices at the end of the century.