Spring 2017 event “Rubens and the painting of the Counter-Reformation”.
It is the first time that Rubens, the greatest Flemish painter of all time, has been exhibited in Sicily.
The exhibition, centered on Pieter Paul Rubens and the Italian and European painting of the Counter-Reformation, will be hosted for the first time in Sicily, from 23 April to 31 July, in the Capitania Tower. Two jewels of the Flemish painter will be exhibited: "Madonna with child" (1617) and "Lot with the family fleeing from Sodom" (1615). As a corollary, 10 other oil paintings on canvas: "Santa Caterina d'Alessandria" and "Sant'Agata Vergine e Martire" by Scipione Pulzone; "Mercury and the crooked woodcutter" by Salvator Rosa; "St. Francis in Ecstasy" by Gerrit Van Honthorst; "St. John the Baptist" by Luca Giordano; "St. Paul visiting the prison of Sant'Agata" by Pietro Novelli; "Glory of the Martyrs" and "Glory of the Virgins" by Fra Simple from Verona. "It is proof - says Mayor Fabio Venezia - that culture stimulates the economy and brings employment to small villages"