Reconciliations. Henry IV and Rome (1589-1610).

The tour, based on 100 works from major European institutions, shows us how Henry IV, the Protestant monarch who succeeded to the French throne in 1589 and was excommunicated by Sixtus V, made his return to pontifical grace in 1595. With financial, political and cultural means, the Very Christian King succeeded in extending his influence and strengthening the link between the French crown and the Sovereign Pontiffs who succeeded one another on the throne of Saint Peter from 1592 to 1621, to the point of achieving a spectacular reversal of alliances in a few years, to the detriment of the Spanish party. The consequence of these new relationships was the return (albeit very provisional) of hopes for European peace, reconciliation within the kingdom of France, over and above the differences of confession and the resentments accumulated during the time of the troubles, and the spread of the Catholic reform already widely underway in Italy. The artists, drawing on an important iconographic tradition in the Roman milieu, treat the subject in various stylistic and interpretative ways, echoing the many nuances that animated the aesthetic landscape of Baroque Rome in the early years of the 17th century. The exhibition takes up these artistic events to invite reflection on the ways in which reconciliation is represented as a motif and reference value.
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