Are you in Rome during the Christmas vacations? Here are 15 exhibitions to see

Rome, with its eternal charm and rich cultural heritage, becomes an even more irresistible destination during the Christmas season thanks to the many exhibitions to see in the capital. The twinkling lights, the decorations in the historic streets and the magical atmosphere that envelops the city make for a unique cultural experience: the art exhibitions in Rome. During the holidays, the Eternal City offers a wide range of exhibitions, ranging from the great masters of the past to the contemporary avant-garde, from painting to photography, from sculpture to installations.

This season represents a special opportunity to immerse oneself in a less hectic and more reflective Rome, where art becomes the protagonist of an exciting and enriching journey. From exhibitions hosted in Capitoline museums and the most prestigious museums to small treasures hidden in unexpected places, there is something for everyone. Whether you are a fan of classical art, a curious explorer of new trends or simply looking for inspiration, whether you are a traveler or a Roman staying in town for the vacations, Rome has it all.

In this article, a guide to 15 exhibitions to visit during the Christmas vacations. Ready to immerse yourself in the capital’s art?

1. Guercino and the Ludovisi era.

Where and when: Scuderie del Quirinale, through Jan. 26, 2025

Until January 26, 2025, the Scuderie del Quirinale is hosting the exhibition Guercino. The Ludovisi Era in Rome, produced in collaboration with the Museo Nazionale Romano, the Uffizi Galleries and the Capitoline Museums. On display are 121 works from 68 major institutions. At the center of the exhibition is Guercino, the painter favored by Pope Gregory XV, and the exhibition’s itinerary unfolds through the dialogue between masterpieces and artists of the time, highlighting episodes of rivalry, mutual influences and exchanges.

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2. Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion

Where and when: New Corso Museum, through Jan. 27, 2025

Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion, from the Art Institute of Chicago, arrives in Italy for the first time: in fact, it is being exhibited from November 27, 2024 to January 27, 2025 at the Nuovo Museo del Corso - Polo museale, in the Palazzo Cipolla building in Rome. The inauguration took place this morning in the presence of local and institutional authorities. The initiative, conceived by the Dicastery for Evangelization - Section for Fundamental Issues of Evangelization in the World, is part of the program of artistic events related to the Jubilee 2025. The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Fondazione Roma and is free admission.

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3. Poetry and Painting in the Seventeenth Century

Where and when: Borghese Gallery, through Feb. 9, 2025

The Borghese Gallery explores with an unprecedented project the connections between painting and poetry, sacred and profane, literature, art and power in the early seventeenth century. Indeed, the exhibition Painting and Poetry in the Seventeenth Century. Giovan Battista Marino and the “wonderful” passion, curated by Emilio Russo, Patrizia Tosini and Andrea Zezza. Focusing on the golden age of the Baroque in painting and literature, a period in which the relationship between poetry and painting reached its peak, the exhibition is inspired precisely by the texts of Giovan Battista Marino (Naples, 1569-1625), among the greatest poets of the Italian seventeenth century, and celebrates his passion for painting through a journey that unites great masters of the Renaissance and Baroque, such as Titian, Tintoretto, Correggio, the Carraccis, Rubens and Poussin.

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4. The portraits of Carlo Maratta

Where and when: Palazzo Barberini, through Feb. 16, 2025

The year 2025 marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Carlo Maratta (Camerano, 1625 - Rome, 1713), one of the greatest painters of Baroque Rome and a central figure in seventeenth-century Italian painting. To mark this anniversary and the publication of the catalog raisonné of his works, the National Galleries of Ancient Art are hosting an exhibition entitled Carlo Maratta and the Portrait. Popes and Princes of the Roman Baroque, curated by Simonetta Prosperi Valenti Rodinò and Yuri Primarosa. The exhibition is scheduled at Palazzo Barberini from December 6, 2024 to February 16, 2025. The exhibition aims to highlight the extraordinary portrait production of Maratta, who, although best known for his works of sacred subjects, was a portrait painter of European renown. Through his portraits, Maratta consolidated the primacy of his workshop and became the arbiter of artistic taste on the Roman scene for more than half a century, immortalizing popes, princes, aristocrats and intellectuals of his time.

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5. Futurism exhibition

Where and when: National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, through Feb. 28, 2025

The most talked about exhibition of the year ( Federico Giannini’s review here). From Dec. 3 to Feb. 28, 2025, the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome is hosting Il tempo del Futurismo, curated by Gabriele Simongini, promoted and supported by the Ministry of Culture, which financed the operation with 1.5 million euros, joined by private sponsors (the exhibition enjoys the support of main sponsors Autostrade per l’Italia and Enel, sponsors Gruppo Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane and Unipol Gruppo, and technical partner ACI Storico). The exhibition builds on the celebration of the 80th anniversary of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s death on December 2, 1944, with the aim of investigating the developments of the movement and its relationship with science and technology. Marinetti and his followers saw time as a dynamic and unstoppable flux, embodied by technological advancement and the frenzy of modern life: the review aims to trace this history.

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6. The exhibition on Marche popes and saints

Where and when: Castel Sant’Angelo, until March 2, 2025

Curated by Marco Pizzo and Maria Cristina Bettin, this is an exhibition rich in materials, documents and testimonies, many of which come from the Marche region, works that are completely unpublished or little known, testifying to the connection of Rome, the Eternal City of the Popes where past and present appear inextricably linked, and its historical, artistic and cultural heritage with the Marche. The Marches, between history and culture, have woven over the centuries a deep connection with the Catholic Church. Their past, connected with the Papal States, has helped shape the region’s identity and social fabric.

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7. St. Francis between Cimabue and Perugino

Where and when: Palazzo della Minerva, until March 2, 2025

The exhibition St. Francis, between Cimabue and Perugino is sponsored by the Senate of the Republic in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and exhibits until March 2, 2025 two exceptional loans, thanks to the collaboration between the National Gallery of Umbria with the Sacred Convent of Assisi and the Seraphic Province of St. Francis: these are the Chartula, an autograph parchment of St. Francis from 1224 granted by the Sacred Convent of Assisi, and an effigy of the saint painted by Cimabue from the Porziuncola Museum. The Chartula contains a written blessing for Brother Leo, probably composed after the miraculous event of the stigmata, while Cimabue’s panel painting, according to tradition, originally served as a cover for the wooden chest that held the Saint’s body after his death.

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8. Women painters of Rome between the 16th and 19th centuries.

Where and when: Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi, through March 23, 2025

The Museum of Rome at Palazzo Braschi hosts the exhibition Roma Pittrice. Women artists at work between the 16th and 19th centuries, curated by Ilaria Miarelli Mariani (director of the Direzione Musei Civici Sovrintendenza capitolina) and Raffaella Morselli (Sapienza, University of Rome), with the collaboration of Ilaria Arcangeli (University of Chieti). Promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali and organized by Zètema Progetto Cultura, the exhibition focuses on women artists active in Rome from the 16th to the 19th century with a rich, varied and artistically important production, but who have often been relegated to a sort of historiographical “silence.” Among them are Caterina Ginnasi, Maria Felice Tibaldi Subleyras, Angelika Kaufmann, Laura Piranesi, Marianna Candidi Dionigi, Louise Seidler and Emma Gaggiotti Richards, who are present in the Capitoline collections, and a selection of other important women artists active in the city such as Lavinia Fontana, Artemisia Gentileschi, Maddalena Corvina, Giovanna Garzoni and many others.

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9. Recent acquisitions of the Central Institute for Graphics

Where and when: Central Institute for Graphics, through March 23, 2025

The Istituto Centrale per la Grafica in Rome is hosting, on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of its foundation, the exhibition Acquisizioni. From Parmigianino to Kentridge, organized under the patronage of Fondazione ETS Italia patria della bellezza. The exhibition presents to the public a selection of about sixty works that have recently become part of the Institute’s collections, spanning more than 500 years of art history: drawings, matrices, engravings, photographs, videos and artist’s books will create a path that ranges from the ancient to the contemporary, reflecting the Institute’s commitment to the enhancement of its collections. The works have been acquired thanks to the Ministry of Culture’s 2021-2024 purchasing plan, through a variety of methods: compulsory purchases, which arise from the works being detained upon export, private negotiations with proposals from collectors or galleries approved by ministerial commissions, public calls for proposals, and direct commissions to artists.

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10. The masterpieces of the Podesti Picture Gallery in Ancona

Where and when: Capitoline Museums, through March 30, 2025

On the occasion of the Jubilee, Titian Vecellio’s Gozzi Altarpiece is on display in Rome for the first time, along with five other celebrated works, all religious in nature and from the Pinacoteca Podesti in Ancona. The six paintings, including five large altarpieces and one small tempera on panel, can be seen by the public in the capital from November 26, 2024 to March 30, 2025 in the rooms of Palazzo dei Conservatori at the Capitoline Museums, where the exhibition Titian, Lotto, Crivelli and Guercino. Masterpieces from the Pinacoteca di Ancona. Curated by Luigi Gallo, director of the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, and Ilaria Miarelli Mariani, director of the Direzione dei Musei Civici della Sovrintendenza Capitolina, the exhibition is promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, under the patronage of Giubileo 2025 - Dicastero per l’Evangelization, and organized by Arthemisia in collaboration with the Municipality of Ancona, Ancona Cultura, Pinacoteca Civica di Ancona, Regione Marche and Palazzo Ducale di Urbino - Direzione Regionale Musei Nazionali Marche. The aim is to highlight the importance of the Pinacoteca Podesti collection and the wealth of the Doric city as a commissioner of major Italian artists between the 16th and 17th centuries.

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11. The largest ever exhibition on Guido Guidi

Where and when: MAXXI, through April 20, 2025

A celebration for one of the undisputed masters of contemporary Italian photography: from December 13, 2024, Gallery 1 of MAXXI in Rome will host Guido Guidi. With Time, 1956-2024, a monographic exhibition dedicated to Guido Guidi (Cesena, 1941), a pioneer of contemporary landscape. Born in Cesena in 1941, Guidi is among the authors who have redefined the language of photography, transforming visual representation into a conceptual reflection on time, space and our way of seeing the world. This exhibition, the most extensive ever on the artist, is the result of a collaboration between MAXXI and the Guido Guidi Archive. It is the result of a long and intense research work carried out directly in the Ronta di Cesena studio, the beating heart of Guidi’s production. Through an installation that weaves together images and archival materials, the exhibition offers the public an immersion in the author’s poetics, with more than 400 works throughout his 60-year career, many of which have never been exhibited before, organized in 40 sequences.

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12. The major anthological exhibition on Titina Maselli

Where and when: Villa Torlonia Museums and MLAC, through April 21, 2025

The exhibition, titled Titina Maselli, is curated by Claudio Crescentini, Federica Pirani, Ilaria Schiaffini, Claudia Terenzi and Giulia Tulino, is promoted by Roma Capitale (Assessorato alla Cultura - Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali), in collaboration with Sapienza Università di Roma, theTitina Maselli Archive and the National Committee for the Celebrations of the Centenary of the Birth of Titina Maselli, and with the organization and museum services curated by Zètema Progetto Cultura, celebrates the centenary of the artist’s birth, proposing a comprehensive view of her pictorial production and bringing her painting and figure back to the center of critical attention. Maselli traversed with autonomy and visual freedom many artistic currents, from the Roman School to Futurism, without ever tying himself to any of them. The common thread of his work has been the constant search for a language capable of grasping and interpreting modernity.

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13. The never-seen portrait of Agrippa Postumo

Where and when: Capitoline Museums, through April 27, 2025

New light is being shed on Agrippa Postumus, the repudiated and ultimately exiled adoptive heir of Augustus, with the opening of an exhibition in the Tapestry Room of the Capitoline Museums.Through April 27, 2025, the exhibition, titled Agrippa Iulius Caesar, the repudiated heir, curated by Laura Buccino, Eugenio La Rocca and Valentina Nicolucci, brings together for the first time three marble portraits attributed to the son of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, Augustus’ daughter. Prominent among the works is the recently identified portrait from the Sorgente Group Foundation, displayed alongside a bust from the Uffizi Galleries in Florence and another preserved in the Capitoline Collections. The Sorgente Group work is being shown to the public for the first time.

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14. The sculptures of Tony Cragg

Where and when: Baths of Diocletian, through May 4, 2025

The National Roman Museum is hosting at the Baths of Diocletian the exhibition Tony Cragg. Infinite forms and beautiful, curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stéphane Verger: a major solo exhibition dedicated to Tony Cragg (Liverpool, 1949), a British artist among the leading exponents of contemporary sculpture, who has been experimenting with innovative forms, materials and original techniques since the 1970s. Organized by BAM - Eventi d’Arte, the exhibition expands from the museum rooms to the squares of Rome thanks to the collaboration with the Municipio I Roma Centro. Eighteen sculptures created over the past two decades in bronze, wood, travertine, fiberglass and steel are on display in the historic environment of the Baths of Diocletian. Works with seductive and mysterious forms, recalling mineral elements, plants and geological and biological structures, and evoking sea waves, the geometric structures of plants or a shell, are now in direct dialogue with the archaeological spaces of the monumental complex.

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15. The great monographic exhibition on Franco Fontana

Where and when: Ara Pacis Museum, through Aug. 31, 2025

Through August 31, 2025 at the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, the exhibition Franco Fontana. Retrospective, curated by Jean-Luc Monterosso, promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura, Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, and organized by Civita Mostre e Musei, Zètema Progetto Cultura and Franco Fontana Studio. This is the first major monographic exhibition dedicated to Franco Fontana, one of the greatest Italian photographers of the 20th century, who revolutionized the language of color photography.

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Are you in Rome during the Christmas vacations? Here are 15 exhibitions to see

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