wunderkammer
BALDASSARRE CASTIGLIONE AND RAPHAEL.
Faces and moments of court life

Told in a wholly original way, within the Sale del Castellare of the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino, is the story of a man who was a central figure of the European Renaissance. Baldassarre Castiglione, born in Mantua but Urbino by adoption, is known to all for his Book of the Courtier, a work that, translated into the principal languages of the time, provided “the” model of behaviour for high society across the entire continent.

But limiting the figure of Castiglione to this celebrated work alone would be a very limiting choice.

As this major exhibition shows, he was a figure of the finest intellect, close to great artists — Raphael above all — but also to writers, intellectuals, rulers and popes, an attentive politician entrusted with some of the most delicate diplomatic missions of his time. A man who escaped intrigues, who knew how to navigate skillfully through an extremely complex historical period.

Drawing on the essential source of his Letters, the exhibition has the merit of reconstructing Castiglione's entire story, correctly placing it within the context of his time, alongside equally complex and fascinating figures such as Guidobaldo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, Leo X, the Medici, the Sforza, the Gonzaga, and Isabella d'Este, “first lady of the world”, Emperor Charles V, and artists — Raphael first of all, but also Leonardo, Titian, Giulio Romano… — refined intellectuals such as Pietro Bembo and scholars such as Luca Pacioli. Among many others.

Seven sections rich with important works, useful for conveying the scale of the era being told. Enhanced through multimedia solutions that expand the narrative, offering further keys to interpretation, working through images and visual and emotional stimuli.

A broad, complex yet not complicated exhibition, imposing and stimulating. A treasure chest of art but also of applied arts: clothing for feasts, tournaments and parades, weapons, antique editions and manuscripts, and music, to name just a few of its focuses. A major exhibition that finds its natural complement in the Palazzo Ducale of the Montefeltro and in the entire city of Urbino, both container and content of an exhibition that makes the Urbino court one of its fundamental points of interest.