A 2020 full of initiatives in Brescia for the return, after restoration, of the Winged Victory

Around the return, after careful restoration, of the Winged Victory to Brescia, the Lombard city will organize numerous cultural initiatives during 2020, dealing with archaeology, ancient and contemporary art, theater, and photography.

The Winged Victory, an extraordinary statue from the Roman era, will be remounted with a new museum display inside the Capitolium: restored by theOpificio delle Pietre Dure with an intervention lasting about two years, the work will be officially handed back to the city in June 2020.
The restoration and related research activity involved about thirty professionals who worked on the cleaning of the sculpture, the controlled removal of the materials that filled the statue and the internal structure to which the wings and arms of Victory were attached, and the application of a protective material, also chosen according to the characteristics of the exhibition environment. In addition, scientific investig ations and examinations were conducted aimed at a deeper understanding of the construction technology.

The large bronze statue will be placed in the eastern cell of the Capitolium in a museum exhibit curated by Spanish architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg. This was actually discovered in 1826 inside the Capitolium, during archaeological excavations conducted by members of the Ateneo di Scienze, Lettere e Arti of Brescia, in a cavity of the ancient Roman temple, along with six imperial heads and other artifacts.

The Winged Victory, made of bronze using the lost-wax casting technique, can be dated to the second quarter of the first century AD, and is inspired by older models.

On the occasion of the return of the bronze work, the Santa Giulia Museum will be reopened with a new display of the Roman section.In recent years, archaeological investigations in the city have progressed seamlessly, providing much data for a constant update of the knowledge of ancient Brescia. Thus, never-before-seen finds will be displayed alongside installations.

Meanwhile, Brescia will be preparing in the months leading up to welcoming the Winged Victory again: a tribute to architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg, the man who designed the refurbishment of the statue in the Capitolium, will be held inApril 2020. The exhibition entitled Figures in a Background of Energy and Process. Juan Navarro Baldeweg. Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, curated by Pierre-Alain Croset, will be hosted in the Museo di Santa Giulia and will present a series of works ranging from painting to sculpture to architecture to document how Baldeweg’s creative research developed through different interactions and connections between the arts.

During the fourth edition of the Brescia Photo Festival in May 2020, 160 images from Alfred Seiland’s monumental work Imperium Romanum will be on view for the first time in Italy. The Austrian artist traveled to the territories where the Roman Empire stretched, from Syria to Scotland, capturing the different shades of interaction between man and ruins. In addition, the exhibition, curated by Alfred Seiland himself and Francesca Morandini, archaeological curator of Fondazione Brescia Musei, will feature ten previously unseen images taken in Brescia starting in August 2019 that capture the city’s ancient heritage in different seasons and situations, as well as twenty other previously unseen photographs that Seiland is currently taking.

From July 2020 Francesco Vezzoli has planned a series of curatorial interventions, gathered around the title Archaeological Stages, aimed at establishing a relationship between his sculptures, the archaeological site of Roman Brescia and the Museum of Santa Giulia. The route will run from the Capitolium terrace to the Basilica of San Salvatore.

Finally, in November 2020, the major exhibition Vittoria. The Long Journey of a Myth at the Museum of Santa Giulia. Curated by Marcello Barbanera and Francesca Morandini, this will delve into the theme of Victory, investigating its history, aspects and declinations even in the modern and contemporary ages, through a series of ancient works from the Mediterranean area and the more peripheral areas of the Roman Empire.
The exhibition aims to take a 2,500-year journey through time on the wings of Victory, through unpublished and unusual exhibits.

Pictured is the face of Winged Victory.

A 2020 full of initiatives in Brescia for the return, after restoration, of the Winged Victory

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