The Vault of Palazzo Cipolla

Retaining its function as a “strongroom,” the vault of the former Cassa di Risparmio di Roma has been reimagined as an accessible space—an archive of painted treasures open to the public and presented through a new, educationally oriented layout. Octagonal in shape, it features at the center eight vertical walls forming a pillar, which host an original journey through the stories of the Bible, facing eight horizontal walls. One of these is entirely occupied by the monumental steel security door which, through a semantic shift, places the works kept here on the same level as the gold reserves of the permanent collection displayed at Palazzo Sciarra Colonna.

The exhibition, overturning the chronological order, is organized into groups of themes and genres, with the exception of the last of the large walls, which displays works representative of the extensive contemporary art collection held by Fondazione Roma.

Each wall is conceived as a chapter of a visual narrative that invites reflection on sacred and secular iconography, as well as on the evolution of figurative languages and pictorial genres such as portraits, landscapes, and cityscapes.