Flora: The Enchantment of Flowers in Italian Art from the 20th Century to Today at the Magnani-Rocca Foundation
In the spring of 2025, from March 15th to June 29th, the Fondazione Magnani-Rocca, located in the province of Parma, Italy, invites visitors to step inside the renowned Villa dei Capolavori and immerse themselves in a world where flowers and gardens are not merely natural decorations, but vibrant and multifaceted symbols within 20th-century Italian painting. 'FLORA. The Secret Gardens of 20th-Century Italian Art' is an experience that blends aesthetic contemplation with poetic introspection, framed by the reopening of the magnificent Romantic Park following a meticulous restoration. The exhibition weaves together the visual language of great masters with the timeless beauty of flowers and gardens — universal symbols of fragility, rebirth, and inner life.
LEFT: Oscar Ghiglia (Livorno, 1876 – Prato, 1945), Mrs. Ojetti in the Rose Garden, 1907, Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 48.5 cm, Private Collection, Courtesy of Società di Belle Arti, Viareggio; RIGHT: Luigi Bonazza (Arco [TN], 1877 – Trento, 1965), Portrait of Gigina, 1930, Oil on canvas, 95 x 95 cm, Rovereto, Private Collection
The Museum as a Garden: A Dialogue Between Indoors and Outdoors
The exhibition coincides with the completion of major restoration work on the Romantic Park that surrounds the villa, funded by the Italian Ministry of Culture through PNRR resources. On this occasion, the Fondazione celebrates the deep connection between art and landscape, offering the public a renewed dialogue between nature and artistic creation.
Curated by Daniela Ferrari (Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto) and Stefano Roffi (Fondazione Magnani-Rocca), the exhibition brings together over one hundred works on loan from museums, public institutions, and private collections. The floral theme, seemingly simple, reveals its symbolic and stylistic complexity through masterpieces by artists who shaped the history of 20th-century Italian art.
LEFT: Giovanni Colacicchi (Anagni, 1900 – Florence, 1992), Little Roses, c. 1930, Oil on panel, 75 x 62.5 cm, Società di Belle Arti, Viareggio; RIGHT: Umberto Moggioli (Trento, 1886 – Rome, 1919). Flowers in the Rain, 1918, Oil on canvas, 86 x 70 cm, Courtesy of Galleria Gomiero
Casorati and De Pisis: The Flower as a State of Mind
Certain artists stand out with particular intensity in this floral journey. Felice Casorati, for instance, with his bouquets of cornflowers, poppies, and daisies, creates almost musical compositions, where the visual rhythm of colors accompanies a contemplative suspension. His flowers seem to float in a timeless space, like delicate thoughts gently surfacing.
Filippo de Pisis, on the other hand, leaves a different mark. His famous “Struck Gladiolus” becomes an almost emotional self-portrait. Though fragile, the flower radiates a dramatic tension that reveals the precariousness of life — but also the unexpected beauty of the everyday.
LEFT: Filippo de Pisis, (Ferrara, 1896 – Milan, 1956), The Struck Gladiolus, 1930, oil on cardboard mounted on plywood, 71.5 x 51 cm, Ferrara, Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art; RIGHT: Felice Casorati, (Novara, 1883 – Turin, 1963), Flowers and Hatbox, 1928, oil on pressed cardboard, 70 x 48 cm, Private collection, Courtesy of Montrasio Arte, Monza and Milan
Morandi and the Rose as Meditation
A section of the exhibition is devoted to the queen of flowers, the rose, with the iconic “Roses” by Giorgio Morandi at its center. In his essential vases, Morandi captures not the fleeting beauty of the flower, but its silent essence. His works engage in dialogue with those of Pirandello, Mafai, and others — all united in their search for a balance between form and feeling. In these paintings, the rose becomes a symbol of resilience, inner presence, and the quiet poetry of everyday life.
LEFT: Giorgio Morandi (Bologna, 1890 – 1964), Flowers, 1952, Oil on canvas, 45.5 x 45.5 cm, Collection of Augusto and Francesca Giovanardi; RIGHT: Mario Mafai (Rome, 1902 – 1965), Still Life with Roses, late 1940s, Oil on canvas, 46 x 35 cm, Rome, Galleria Russo
Portraits in Bloom and Inner Gardens
Many of the works on display reveal an intense fusion between figure and nature, as seen in the female portraits by Boldini, Zandomeneghi, Tito, and Marussig, where the flower is never a mere accessory but an integral part of the subject’s identity. It is a living presence—at times nostalgic, at times sensual—always deeply connected to the idea of femininity.
Alongside these works, the “secret gardens” evoked by artists such as Pellizza da Volpedo, Chini, Nomellini, Moggioli, and even Boccioni transform the Villa’s spaces into rooms of the soul, where flowers become portals to inner worlds.
LEFT: Giovanni Boldini, (Ferrara, 1842 – Paris, 1931), Baroness de Gunzburg, c. 1900–1905 oil on canvas, 91 x 71.5 cm, Courtesy of Enrico Gallerie d’Arte, Milan; RIGHT: Federico Zandomeneghi (Venice, 1841 – Paris, 1917), Child with Flowers, c. 1910, Oil on canvas, 46 x 38 cm, Milan, Studio d’Arte Nicoletta Colombo
From Painting to Installation: The Contemporary Flower
The exhibition concludes with a contemporary section that broadens the spectrum of the visual discourse. Works by Melotti, Paolini, Kounellis, and other artists reinterpret the floral theme through conceptual, sculptural, and installation-based approaches. The flower becomes memory, matter, absence, trace—a symbol of a humanity that is fragile yet still fertile with imagination. It marks a return to nature, no longer seen solely as beauty, but as an archive of meaning, a space to be protected.
LEFT: Fausto Melotti, (Rovereto, TN, 1901 – Milan, 1986), Hanging Garden, (1972), brass, 96 x 98 x 24 cm, MART 3912, TAL 559, Mart, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Domenico Talamoni Collection; RIGHT: Giulio Paolini (Genoa, 1940), Study for “At the Center of the Painting, Flora Scatters Flowers While Narcissus Gazes at His Reflection in a Water Amphora Held by the Nymph Echo”, 1968, Photographic prints layered one over the other, 100 x 89 cm, Turin, Artist’s Collection
“Flora” is an exhibition to be experienced slowly, to be savored with the eyes and with the heart. Its power lies in drawing attention back to what is simple and profound, fragile and resilient: flowers, like emotions, need time to be truly grasped. In an era that is increasingly fast and distracted, this exhibition offers a countercurrent gesture—an invitation to silence, contemplation, and a more attentive gaze.
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