The catalog is published in Italian with English text attachedThe exhibition “Etruscan Treasures. The Castellani Collection Between History and Fashion” (25 October 2023 – 3 March 2024), hosted at the Luigi Rovati Foundation and organized in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, brings to Milan the most important archaeological finds and extraordinary jewels of the Castellani collection, one of the richest and best-known Roman antiquarian collections, not only for the importance of the objects that compose it, but also for the relevance of the personalities who contributed to its creation during the nineteenth century.The name of the Castellani family is linked both to the invention of a new genre of jewelery and goldsmithery "in the style of the ancients", which imitated materials of archaeological origin in appearance and techniques, and to an intense activity of collecting and trading antiquities from the Peninsula, culminating in 1926 with the transfer of the largest core of the collection to the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia.The possibility of exhibiting a selection of these objects, for the first time exceptionally outside their premises, allows us to appreciate not only the great variety of materials, but also the singular quality, which had long made the Castellani studio an obligatory stop for visitors to the Eternal City.The catalog follows the exhibition itinerary by presenting the works exhibited in the following sections: “Masterpieces”, “Mediterranean Productions”, “Women’s Life”, “Jewellery”, “Gods and Heroes” and “The Castellani Family”. With texts by Maria Paola Guidobaldi, Antonella Magagnini, Daniel Neumann, Valentino Nizzo, Giulio Paolucci, Giuseppe Sassatelli, Annalisa Zanni, the catalog is enriched by important contributions that add several new features to what was already known about the historical importance of the Castellani collection and on its characteristics, with particular attention to its intertwining of ancient and modern.
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