Support the 500th Anniversary
of Palazzo Te
Live with us 500 years of creativity
In 2025, the city of Mantua celebrates an important anniversary for the Museum of Palazzo Te, a jewel of the Italian Renaissance: the five-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Villa Giulesca, an extraordinary place that continues to speak to the present while looking toward the future.
Built starting in 1525 and completed by 1535, Palazzo Te was a place of courtly life, intimacy, and festivity. It twice hosted Emperor Charles V and, for its magnificence, marked the Gonzaga’s elevation to Duke. Its architecture, interwoven with painting and literature, shapes a space where the dramatic political transformations of the time reflect a humanistic and political agenda.
In this Palazzo/Wunderkammer, homage to antiquity and reverence for the Gonzaga blend into an erudite and refined score of literary and mythological references, highlighted by two immortal masterpieces of Giulio Romano’s genius: the chamber depicting the tale of Cupid and Psyche and the one dedicated to the Fall of the Giants.
The theme of Ovidian Metamorphoses and marvels has inspired the creation of these masterpieces, which are inextricably linked to Palazzo Te in the collective imagination. It is therefore only fitting that it also plays a central role in the museum’s updated visitor experience, with a refreshed narrative and a redesigned layout for the first rooms set to debut in spring 2025.
The highlight of the celebrations will be the exhibition project by Isaac Julien, scheduled for autumn 2025 and curated by Lorenzo Giusti. The British artist will present an original work created specifically at Palazzo Te, exploring the theme of Metamorphoses in a contemporary context, in harmony with Giulio Romano, while inaugurating the newly refurbished Fruttiere spaces.
This series of events and updates will bring further surprises, reaffirming Palazzo Te as an essential landmark in both classical and contemporary art—a place that fosters thought in continuity with its history, devoted to the inexhaustible power of creativity.
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