Theatrum Italiae: Views of Italian Cities in Prints from the Collections of the Archbishopric of Olomouc
- EXHIBITION: Theatrum Italiae. Views of Italian Cities in Prints from the Collections of the Archdiocese of Olomouc
- DATES: June 11 – September 28, 2026
- VENUE: Archdiocesan Museum of Kroměříž – Archbishop’s Palace, Kroměříž
- CURATOR: Helena Zápalková
- CONSERVATION WORK: Tomáš Guľaš, Veronika Langer Klimszová
- INSTALLATION: Tomáš Guľaš, Filip Šindelář
- GRAPHIC DESIGN: Kateřina Manková
- TRANSLATION: Zuzana Henešová
- PROMOTION: Tomáš Kasal, Martin Šinkovský
In the early modern period, Italy was one of Europe’s most important cultural centers. Here, one could admire ancient monuments, masterpieces of Renaissance and Baroque art, and witness the evolution of contemporary architecture. Rome, Florence, and Venice were veritable treasure troves of visual art and attracted travelers from all over Europe.
“Prints played an important role in shaping perceptions of Italy. Vedute—views of city streets, squares, and individual buildings—were published not only as individual prints but also accompanied travelogues, itineraries, and atlases, allowing readers to travel symbolically (virtually) across Europe. Moreover, these prints were a popular souvenir, a memento of places visited, and at the same time helped spread the image of Italy as the center of European culture,” says curator Helena Zápalková.
The intimate exhibition Theatrum Italiae, drawn exclusively from the archbishop’s collections housed at the castle in Kroměříž, presents a selection of topographical albums and graphic vedute depicting Italian cities during their cultural and political heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries. The exhibits include examples of the lavishly conceived “atlas” of Italian cities by the Amsterdam publisher Joan Blaeu, views of Baroque Rome by Giovanni Battista Falda, and a representative collection of large-format vedute of Florence based on drawings by Giuseppe Zocchi. The exhibition at the Kroměříž Castle is also the first part of a longer-term series that follows up on the exhibition project “Architecture in Prints of the 16th–18th Centuries from the Collections of the Archbishopric of Olomouc,” held at the end of 2025 at the Archdiocesan Museum in Olomouc.
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