A journey through time from Medieval Europe to the Enlightenment in an ongoing dialogue between East and West hosted in the new Sale delle Arti on the upper floors of the Reggia.
From the castles in the Holy Land where the order of the Templars was born in the 12th century to the courts of Europe, and from the galleons of Malta to Napoleon’s battlefields, the orders of knighthood have stretched over almost a thousand years of European history. The 17 essays that introduce the catalogue of the works are all penned by experts (including Franco Cardini, Alessandro Barbero, Barbara Frale, Kristjan Toomaspoeg, Sebastian Schutze) and explore the military, political, financial, legal and even esoteric exploits of the orders of knights. Among the works on display are rare manuscripts, superb armour and knightly equipment, precious jewels and the mysterious “Templecombe head”, flanked by wonderful paintings by Titian, (Portrait of the Knights of Malta), Carracci, Rubens (Giovan Carlo Doria on horseback) and Goya (La contessa di Chinchon).