The Central Institute for Graphics in Rome organizes the exhibition Maarten van Heemskerck and the Allure of Rome. Visual Journeys of the Eternal City, on view in the galleries of Palazzo Poli from 3 March to 7 June 2026. The exhibition is the result of an intensive project of scholarly collaboration with the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Bibliotheca Hertziana – Max Planck Institute for Art History, carried out with the support of the Ministry of Culture as part of initiatives dedicated to the international promotion of Italy’s cultural heritage.
Maarten van Heemskerck, Composite Capital and Colosseum, detail, ca. 1532–1536 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett / Volker-H. Schneider
The exhibition celebrates the historic center of Rome, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, through the unique testimony of the Flemish artist Maarten van Heemskerck, who in the 1530s captured, with a keen eye and modern sensibility, the ruins, ancient sculptures, and urban landscapes of the capital. Thanks to the recent restoration and disbinding of his celebrated sketchbook of Roman drawings, a selection of approximately 30 sheets from the Kupferstichkabinett is presented in Italy for the first time. After almost 500 years, these extraordinary sheets return to Rome, where they were created, restoring the intensity of the artist’s gaze upon the city.
Alongside these works, more than 60 pieces from the Institute’s collections—drawings, prints, printing matrices, and photographs—as well as a selection of sculptures generously lent by the Capitoline Museums, reconstruct the visual itineraries followed by van Heemskerck, offering the public a broad and articulated reading of sixteenth-century Rome.
Curated by Tatjana Bartsch, Rita Bernini, and Giorgio Marini, with the collaboration of Julia Cosima Hagge and Eleonora Magli, the exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue rich in critical contributions and supplemented by entries for the more than 130 works on display. The event is held under the patronage of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Italy and with the support of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Italy.