On Friday 11 October 2024, at the Fortilizio della Cittadella, the exhibition ‘Cantami Diva’ by maestro Raffaele De Rosa will open until Thursday 24 November. More than 20 paintings will be on display, bearing witness to the latest production of the artist influenced by mythology and the exploits of the heroes made eternal in Homer's Iliad.

The exhibition. For more than 3000 years, the Iliad has been the story that tells of the exploits of the Achaeans in the siege during the bloody Trojan War. First conveyed orally and then through the written word, the tale has imprinted itself on the imagination of much of the world, influencing intellectuals, writers and artists over time, who have found in it an inexhaustible repertoire.
Even in De Rosa's varied readings, the Iliad has always had a prominent place, as the artist was deeply fascinated not only by battle, gods and mythical warriors, but also by the figure of Homer, who is linked to the tradition of the aedi, the singers entrusted with the dissemination of memories and stories in ancient Greece.
And the painter, too, wished to play the role of an aedian, searching for the words most congenial to him to render the poem. Through large- and medium-format works, the epic that came out of De Rosa's brush is developed, giving life to paintings that place the visitor not in front of a mere representation of the Iliad, but in front of a narrative that is always alive, multiform, characterised by a plurality of meanings and interpretations.
The artist's reflection takes up the universal messages scattered in the myth and makes them his own, such as the recurrence of fratricidal wars, the interests of the powerful at the expense of the humble and the pain of the oppressed, all archetypal aspects that still fiercely characterise our contemporary world.

Inauguration and opening times. The exhibition will be inaugurated on Friday 11 October at 5 p.m. and will remain open until Thursday 24 November 2024. The exhibition can be visited from Thursday to Sunday, 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. Admission to the exhibition is free of charge. At the same time, it will be possible to visit the Guelph Tower during opening hours.

The large work ‘Cantami Diva’ is also visible in the atrium of Palazzo Gambacorti.

On Thursday 21 November at 17:00 the exhibition catalogue will be presented at the Fortilizio della Cittadella.
The artist, the City of Pisa’s Councillor for Culture, Filippo Bedini, and the curator of the exhibition and publication Jacopo Suggi will be speaking.