My five top exhibitions of 2023—and one complete turkey

Although I have put re-visiting permanent collections first, in 2023 I also visited many excellent exhibitions, so much so it took me some time to choose the five top. On the other hand, only one exhibition has left me disheartened.

Listed in the order I visited them, the following are the five top exhibitions.

Meraviglia Senza Tempo. Pittura a Roma nel Seicento / A Timeless Wonder. Painting on Stone in Rome in the Seventeenth Century
Curated by Francesca Cappelletti and Patrizia Cavazzini
From 25 October 2022 to 29 January 2023. Galleria Borghese, Rome

Singular examples of stone paintings in a unique setting. Wonder of wonders.

Artemisia Gentileschi a Napoli /Artemisia Gentileschi in Naples
Curated by Antonio Ernesto Denunzio and Giuseppe Porzio
From 3 December 2022 to 19 March 2023. Gallerie d’Italia - Naples

A reassessment of Artemisia’s Neapolitan period when her women become more clever than violent, and men are mocked rather than beheaded.

Artemisia Gentileschi, Samson and Delilah (detail), ca. 1630-1638, Gallerie d’Italia - Napoli, Intesa Sanpaolo Collection © Artistic Heritage Archive, Intesa Sanpaolo / photo by Luciano Pedicini, Naples

Pastel Revealed
Curated by Niamh MacNally and Adrian Le Harivel
From 25 February to 5 June 2023. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Smal but perfectly curated exhibitions of pastel drawings. Mesmerizing colours and sofisticated techniques.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Two Ballet Dancers in a Dressing Room, ca. 1880. Image National Gallery of Ireland.

Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker
Curated by Aoife Brady
From 6 May to 27 August 2023. National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

“True to the exhibition’s high-octane packaging, forty-two paintings from both the Bolognese and Roman periods of Fontana’s career (1575–1603 and 1603–14 respectively) reward visitors with ample displays of artistic virtuosity.”

Lavinia Fontana, Judith with the Head of Holofernes (detail), 1600. Museo Davia Bargellini, Bologna.

Favoloso Calvino
Curated by Mario Barenghi
From 13 October 2023 to 4 February 2024. Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome

More than two hundres works of art that ispired Calvino’s imagination, displayed in bright and airy rooms.

And now for the turkey.

Camere con Vista. Aby Warburg, Firenze e il Laboratorio delle Immagini / Rooms with a View. Aby Warburg, Florence and the Laboratory of Images
Curated by Costanza Caraffa, Marzia Faietti, Eike D. Schmidt, Bill Sherman, Giovanna Targia, Claudia Wedepohl, and Gerhard Wolf
From 19 September to 10 December 2023. Uffizi Galleries, Florence

A rich content exhibition for a brilliant art historian in ill-lit, overhetead rooms with some panels literally just above the skirting board.