Open to the public: February 21 – April 27, 2025

PALAZZO DORIA PAMPHILJ - SECRET APARTMENTS

Rome, Via del Corso 305

Nature is certainly a source of inspiration for all my work. I find anthropocentrism suffocating when compared to the vastness of the Earth and the living beings that inhabit it."

From February 21 to April 27, 2025, the Secret Apartments of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome will host the exhibition Chiara Lecca. From the Egg to the Goddess in the Secret Rooms of Doria Pamphilj.

Curated by Francesca Romana de Paolis, the exhibition is made possible with the support of Princess Gesine Pogson Doria Pamphilj and her spouse Don Massimiliano Floridi, in collaboration with Galleria Fumagalli in Milan. The event opens the doors of the Secret Apartments of Doria Pamphilj to contemporary art—a hybrid cycle of rooms, straddling the line between home and museum, accessible to visitors since 2021. These spaces, decorated and furnished according to different tastes over time, currently reflect the arrangement established by the Genoese Doria Landi branch, who relocated to Rome in 1763.

For the occasion, two rarely exhibited paintings from the palace's deposits will also be displayed: The Melon Seller by Leonello Spada, a late 16th-century painting long attributed to Caravaggio, and Male Figure and Dog with Still Life of Flowers and Fruit, a mid-17th-century oil painting created jointly by the Genoese artist Pasquale Chiesa and the Flemish painter Alexander Coosemans.

The eleven works by Chiara Lecca (Modigliana, 1977)—sculptures, installations, individual pieces, and composite groups—interact with the furniture, paintings, and ancient statues in a thematic journey based on the four elements (Fire, Air, Earth, and Water). This esoteric theme, cherished by the Pamphilj family, explores cycles of seasons and the alternation of day and night.

The exhibition title, From the Egg to the Goddess in the Secret Rooms of Doria Pamphilj, not only outlines the visual itinerary—from the artist's ovoid sculptures to an homage to Diana, the goddess of forests and animals—but also evokes the spirit of Wunderkammer (cabinets of curiosities), collections of relics, unusual objects, and rarities popular from the 16th to the 18th century. Notably, some display cases in the Secret Apartments contain genuine mirabilia, such as rhinoceros horns and other rare artifacts, collected by the Jesuit Camillo Pamphilj, nephew of Pope Innocent X, during the same period (mid-17th century) in which Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher founded his Wunderkammer at the nearby Collegio Romano.

According to the curator: “From Max Ernst to Meret Oppenheim and Joseph Beuys, through Kounellis, Fabre, Cattelan, Hirst, and Koons—to name just a few—the theme of animality is central to contemporary art. However, Chiara Lecca takes this concept further: the animal is no longer a Duchampian ready-made, displayed as-is, stuffed, or in decay. Instead, it is sublimated through an unprecedented dual process. The organic and inorganic material combinations created by the artist embrace both natural mimicry and the Baroque taste for illusionism. Each of her works is a dual-faced evocative object—experimental and a true heir to 17th-century mirabilia. More precisely, a three-dimensional version of Erhard Schön’s Vexierbilder (puzzle paintings). The sensory impact of her ‘living’ materials shifts when we recall that the Flemish used bone dust in their paintings, and that Vasari and Cennini described ancient tempera made from egg yolk, albumen, crushed herbs, minerals, precious stones, mollusks, and binders such as fig milk, rabbit glue, and fish glue. This displacement transforms into playful curiosity, then almost into sacred awe: thus, from the egg, we reach the goddess… In a dialectical interplay between presence and absence, still life and natura morta, fossil-like effigies and a fascination with futuristic archaeology, the Secret Apartments of Palazzo Doria Pamphilj return to the ambiance of the Cabinet de Curiosités from which they originated. The artist poses a new challenge: to reflect—within the infinite artificiality in which we move—on humanity’s forgotten belonging to the zoological world and the real yet artificial divide between nature and culture.”

Chiara Lecca’s artistic research focuses on the relationship between humans and nature, with the intent to restore to art what nature produces. Her works and installations both confound and fascinate: resins that resemble amber and crystals, marble-like sculptures, floral-like compositions, and glass ampoules inlaid with skins and scales reveal the dynamics of genesis, metamorphosis, decay, and crystallization—forming a collection of unusual fossils and remnants. Eggs, skins, and animal elements, combined with resin, porcelain, majolica, glass, wood, and other materials, are the protagonists of her creations.

The exhibition route begins in the Fire Room, which houses love-themed paintings by Ludovico Carracci, Massimo Stanzione, and Pietro Testa. Here, Chiara Lecca introduces BigBubbles (2012), Fake Marble (2013-2015), True Fake Marble (2014-2016), and Still Life (2017). From this room, visitors will have an exclusive view into the Dining Room, still in use by the family, where the rich and varied composition Golden Still Life (2016) will be displayed alongside The Melon Seller by Leonello Spada.

Moving further inside, the Air Room or Children’s Room, characterized by decorative elements related to music and astrology, features Purpura Snakes (2025), a site-specific work consisting of three elements. The serpent, a universal initiatory symbol, recalls its infinite meanings—from secret knowledge to health and the cyclical nature of time.

The Earth Room or Putti Room, frescoed by Annibale Angelini, hosts the site-specific group Purpura Shapes (2025), presented in dialogue with the painting Male Figure and Dog with Still Life of Flowers and Fruit by Pasquale Chiesa and Alexander Coosemans, usually kept in storage. The room's furniture camouflages several pieces from Lecca’s Maskseries, resonating with themes of hunting and seasons.

The final stop is the Nymphaeum of Diana or Water Room, adorned with neo-Pompeian classical wall frescoes. At the center of this space, a large circular marble basin filled with water serves as the stage for Chiara Lecca’s composition Turquoise Still Life (2024). The exhibition is further enriched by Turquoise Fake Marble (2024) and Still Life (2017), displayed under glass.

The exhibition continues at the Ospitale di Santa Francesca Romana in Trastevere, where additional works by Chiara Lecca will be showcased in the 19th-century Chapel of St. Vincent. This complex, specially open for the event, includes the 17th-century Garden of Delights of Donna Olimpia with its fountain by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the neoclassical Ospitale by Busiri Vici. It also houses works such as the mosaic crucifix by Francesco Borromini, the wooden crucifix by Domenico Guidi, and Guido Strazza’s Via Crucis sketches.

A catalog published by the Trust Floridi Doria Pamphilj accompanies the exhibition as part of the Memorie series. It includes a foreword by Princess Gesine Pogson Doria Pamphilj, an introduction by Don Massimiliano Floridi, an essay by art historian Cristian Moriconi, an interview with Chiara Lecca by artist Gabriele Landi, and two contributions by the curator. The catalog will be presented in the Secret Apartments on Saturday, April 12, 2025.

Rome, February 2025