The exhibition will be organized by Palazzo Grassi, in the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi in Turin. As we have seen with other Palazzo Grassi exhibitions, this one will be the summa summarum and will be about the Baroque style throughout Europe.

"The Baroque is very close to modern man’s feelings of unease. We have something in common with a world which discovers it has lost its center of gravity", the writer Umberto Eco (The Name of the Rose, Foucault’s Pendulum) said at the presentation of the exhibition to the press.

The Baroque started in Rome and, unlike what happened with the more generally Italian style of the Renaissance, soon became established in France, England, Russia, Germany and all the other states of Europe. A success that was partly due to the emergence of individual nations as international powers and to the physical expansion of national capitals. One such capital was Turin itself, which at the time was enjoying a golden period and attracting major architects from all over Europe. Their work would make the Savoy capital one of the major international expressions of this style of architecture.

Around four hundred works, chosen from museums and collections all over the world, will be on display to illustrate the historical importance and artistic achievements of the architecture of this period. Along with paintings, sculpture, engravings, medals and drawings, there will be about eighty contemporary models illustrating designs for churches, royal palaces, princely homes, military structures, theatres, monasteries, hospitals, gardens and even windmills.

The exhibition curator is Henry A. Millon, Director of the Visual Arts Centre at the National Gallery of Art, Washington.