Storia di un gesto: il mito di Meleagro dall’arte classica a Warburg, a Picasso

Curated by Salvatore Settis, the exhibition is built around three closely interconnected elements.

The first is the myth of Meleager, among the most powerful narratives of the classical tradition.

The second is a Roman sarcophagus with a relief depicting the Death of Meleager (c. 170–180 AD), from the Brenta-Torno collection and shown to the public for the first time.

The third is the so-called “gesture of despair,” one of the most incisive figurative formulas of pain in the Western artistic tradition.

Born and codified in Roman times, the gesture experienced a long eclipse in European figurative tradition before re-emerging from the 13th century onwards and resuming a central role in the representation of suffering.

The exhibition traces its origins in classical antiquity, documents its prolonged absence from European art, and follows its reappearance—from Nicola Pisano to Giotto—through to its persistence in contemporary art, with references extending to Guernica by Pablo Picasso.

As early as 1901, Aby Warburg identified the figure seized by despair on the Meleager sarcophagi as a decisive source for the “resurrection” of this gesture after a long oblivion, exemplified in the exhibition by three panels from the Mnemosyne Atlas.