The Museo del Corso opens in Rome. From Chicago here it is "White crucifixion" by Chagall

A new cultural institution is born in the heart of the capital. The Museo del Corso opens to the public – Museum complex, wanted and promoted by Fondazione Roma, which develops with the merger of two prestigious buildings of great historical and architectural value: Palazzo Sciarra Colonna and Palazzo Cipolla, both located along the iconic Via del Corso. A new hub that enriches the city’s cultural offering by offering a broad program of temporary exhibitions dedicated to the great masters of world art, including Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalì.

For the first time, one of the “four wonders of Rome” – as Palazzo Sciarra Colonna was known – opens its doors, free of charge, to the general public and reveals the treasures of its permanent collection, with the works of artists who have marked history of the capital from the fifteenth century to the present day, and reveals the unpublished papers of the historical archive of the Rome Foundation, the historical documents of the Sacro Monte della Pietà and of the Cassa di Risparmio di Roma. The inauguration of the Museo del Corso – Museum Center is one of the most anticipated artistic events of the Jubilee: the famous painting The White Crucifixion, a masterpiece by Marc Chagall, on display at Palazzo Cipolla from today, 27 November, to 27 January 2025 with free admission. The work, coming from the Art Institute of Chicago, arrives in Rome for the first time thanks to the collaboration between the Dicastery for Evangelization, the Pro-Prefect Monsignor Salvatore Fisichella and Fondazione Roma and represents a moment of great symbolic significance for the Jubilee, offering a message of hope and union between religious cultures.

Created by the Russian painter of Jewish origin in 1938, after the tragic events of Kristallnacht on 9 and 10 November, the work sparked great appreciation also from Pope Francis, which underlined its strong message of evangelization, inspired by the unity of religious cultures and the defense of the dignity of every individual. Today we are finally realizing a dream that we have carried in our hearts for a long time: that of creating a new cultural center available to citizens.

The new Museo del Corso – Museum Center is a space designed for the city, a project designed for the territory that enhances our artistic heritage, declared Franco Parasassi, President of Fondazione Roma who continues, we are happy to be able to open the doors of our house to allow you to admire the works we keep, masterpieces linked to Rome or created by authors who lived and worked in the capital: a journey through the history of art that goes from the fifteenth century to the present day. This project is the demonstration of Fondazione Roma’s constant commitment to the city, a path that has at its center the idea of ​​care for common goods, openness to the community, support for culture and education.

“The opening of the new museum center of the Rome Foundation represents a fundamental contribution to the cultural activities of the city of Rome and the entire country. In congratulating the reopening, I am happy that the event coincides with the initiative of the Dicastery for Evangelization in view of the Jubilee to exhibit Marc Chagall’s work the White Crucifixion. A unique event that will allow the museum center to be visited by a large multitude of people”, declared Fisichella.

Chagall’s “White Crucifixion”.

Christ keeps his eyes closed: he has already cried out “My God, why have you abandoned me”. Tear off his clothes, he is covered by a tallit, a sacred Jewish robe. It’s 1938: racial laws in Italy, persecution unleashed in Germany. Around, instead of a choir of angels singing the Gloria, fires, escapes, murders and robberies. The pogroms, the ones that Marc Chagall knew – literally – from his first day of life. Now this painting, the “White Crucifixion”, once defined by Bergoglio as his favorite painting, arrives from Chicago where it is kept in Rome for the Jubilee of Hope.

It is on display from today 27 November to 27 January 2025 at the Nuovo Museo del Corso – Museum Complex, in the Palazzo Cipolla headquarters. “Chagall in Rome: the White Crucifixion” offers an intense experience of contemplation. This extraordinary work by Chagall, among the most emblematic of the twentieth century, remembers, denounces, moves, in a mix of suffering and hope. Conceived by the Dicastery for Evangelization – Section for the fundamental questions of evangelization in the world, as part of the art events accompanying the 2025 Jubilee, and organized in collaboration with the Rome Foundation, the exhibition, with free admission, puts the public in contact with the symbolic power of the “White Crucifixion”, a work from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Built with the unmistakable poetic and evocative language of Marc Chagall, rich in references to history and symbols of Jewish culture, the work places the crucified Jesus at the center of attention, accentuating the fact that in him the persecutions of his people are summarized and of all the troubled people of the world. Chagall painted it immediately after the bloody events of Kristallnacht on 9-10 November 1938, a particularly emblematic episode of anti-Jewish violence in the Nazi context and in various places in Europe. But the universal value of the image goes even beyond a historical moment and the story of a people: it is a perennial cry against the madness of extremists of every era and a symbol of hope in divine salvation.

The explanatory path allows visitors to experience a profound encounter with a complex and fascinating work, a journey of art, pain, conscience and faith, in the timeless rooms of Palazzo Cipolla. The work reveals influences from 14th century Italian art and has significant coloristic value. The thematic links with the religious painting of the Renaissance, in particular with the works of Michelangelo, and the references to Rembrandt’s Election of the Cross, enrich the meaning of the work. Around Jesus, three biblical patriarchs and a matriarch are represented, dressed in traditional Jewish clothing.

On the sides of the cross,Chagall illustrates the devastation of the pogroms: on the left, a ransacked village forces refugees to flee by boat, while three bearded figures flee on foot, one of them clutching the Torah. On the right, a synagogue and the Torah ark are on fire, while below a mother comforts her baby. Together with Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, the White Crucifixion is one of the most eloquent condemnations of war and hatred of the 20th century, with a message that is still dramatically relevant.