Weapons and Power

The exhibition is curated by Mario Scalini and unfolds in two locations: Palazzo Venezia and Castel Sant'Angelo. Approximately 160 pieces are on display, including full armor, defensive and offensive weapons, firearms, helmets, swords, corsets, crossbows and greaves. Weapons, which have played a central role throughout the entire course of human history, took on an almost all-powerful value during the Renaissance. Just like today, military development was at the origin of considerable progress in the fields of science and technology, as well as in the commercial sector and the fields of medicine and pharmacopoeia. The system of values ​​that the weapons underpinned went far beyond their material use: they fulfilled a plurality of intents and meanings (iconographic, symbolic, ritualistic, iconic). It is within this context that art history becomes overbearingly relevant. From the outset, art historians have treated weapons as high quality artifacts, in some cases equal to jewelry.