From Oct. 3, 2025 to Jan. 4, 2026, Spazio Extra MAXXI in Rome will host Forma e Frammento, the first Italian retrospective dedicated to Sveva Caetani (Rome, 1917 - Vernon, Canada, 1994). Curated by Chiara Ianeselli, the exhibition brings together more than 200 works, documents and archival materials with the intention of restoring the artistic and human complexity of this still little-investigated figure. The exhibition traverses the many facets of his production - pictorial, literary and spiritual - interweaving biographical fragments and his imagination. Indeed, alongside the works, aspects of her life, sometimes dramatic, emerge that become fundamental elements for understanding her quest for expression.
Sveva was the daughter of Leone Caetani, one of the leading Islamic scholars of the twentieth century and a descendant of the ancient and noble Caetani family, a leading figure in Italian political and cultural history. Their ancestors include Benedetto Caetani, who became Pope Boniface VIII and instituted the first Jubilee in 1300. Forced into a long isolation of about 25 years in her Vernon residence, Sveva turned passionate and tireless study into her own instrument of resistance and inner rebirth.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is Recapitulation, a cycle of 47 watercolors conceived in 1975 and developed by the artist over fourteen years: a true “recapitulation” of her existence, understood as a visionary journey in which the figure of her father appears as a guide and mentor. For the first time, the entire series is presented in its entirety in Italy, at MAXXI, thus fulfilling a wish the artist had expressed but failed to realize in his lifetime.
The cycle is divided into nine sections, identified by Roman numerals (I - Inception; II - The Burrows of Nightmare; III - Transition One; IV - The Dead Seasons; V - Transition Two; VI - Areas of Fate; VII - Great Themes for a Journey; VIII - A Litany; IX - Journey’s End), which accommodate the 47 experiences translated into works. These draw on an extraordinary plurality of iconographic references: personal memories, journals, maps, works of art, poetic texts, chronicles and countless literary sources. The story begins with a depiction of a train crossing the mountains and continues with an encounter with his father Leo: together they face trials, existential transitions, and intimate and universal moments. In many plates multiple events coexist in the same scene.
The series was published posthumously in the volume Recapitulation: A Journey (1995), enriched by texts and poems in three languages that accompany and extend the meaning of the images.
The retrospective is rounded out with a biographical section devoted to Sveva’s life and the history of the Caetani family, which includes previously unpublished documentary materials-photographs, drawings, letters, audio, video, portraits and sculptures-sourced in part from the Biblioteca dell’Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei e Corsiniana and the Leone Caetani Foundation, as well as a bust of Boniface VIII on loan from the Fabbrica di San Pietro in the Vatican.
Finally, the project explores two central dimensions of Sveva’s life and art: her connection with her family environment and her connection with nature. In this context, a work by Carlo Benvenuto (Stresa, 1966), created especially for the exhibition, is presented: an intensely intimate photograph of family balances. Also on display is a selection of works by Houda Kabbaj (Casablanca, 1985), which dialogue with Sveva’s enigmatic figures, born from a deep and almost obsessive observation of nature.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Silvana Editoriale.
Sveva Caetani: Form and Fragment has the patronage of the Embassy of Canada in Italy and is the result of a collaboration with the Caetani Center and the Museum and Archives of Vernon in Canada, the Leone Caetani Foundation - Accademia dei Lincei, the Camillo Caetani Foundation, and the Roffredo Caetani Foundation, with loans also from the Vernon Public Art Gallery and the Fabbrica di San Pietro.
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| MAXXI in Rome hosts the first Italian retrospective on Sveva Caetani. Entire series of watercolors Recapitulation on display. |
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