From 21 February to 28 June 2026, "Barocco. Il Gran Teatro delle Idee" brings over 200 works to the rooms of the Museo Civico San Domenico, thanks partly to the special cooperation of the Gallerie Nazionali di Arte Antica in Rome - Palazzo Barberini and Galleria Corsini. The exhibition, which is divided into ten sections, is held in the Church of San Giacomo and the large rooms that once housed the Convent library, featuring loans from prestigious Italian and foreign museums.
Conceived and created by Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì in collaboration with the Municipality of Forlì, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through the ideas and images that shaped the Baroque period, highlighting the relationship between art, power, faith, science and society at one of the most complex and fascinating times in European history.
While Rome was at the centre and the origin of this remarkable period, with its expansion and the changing international political landscape, especially in the second half of the 17th century, its outcomes and influence would characterise the language and culture of the new European courts.
To fully understand its genesis, we must draw comparisons ranging from the representation of drama in the Hellenistic era to the restless spatiality of late Mannerism, through to Caravaggio's extreme realism, permeated by an inner atmosphere that anticipates the “senses of mysticism”. In conclusion, renewed critical and historical attention during the 20th century marked the end of the traditional negative interpretation of the Baroque, leading to its reappraisal as a moment of remarkable cultural and formal complexity.