Edvard Munch embraced by the Italian audience

On display from 11 February to 2 June 2025, the exhibition The Inner Scream is the first Edvard Munch exhibition in Rome in decades. Before coming to Rome, it broke records in Milan.

Palazzo Bonaparte is situated in the very centre of Rome, at Piazza Venezia, right at the corner of Via del Corso, one of the main shopping streets of the Italian capital. It is one of the most noisy and chaotic settings you can imagine, yet once you enter Palazzo Bonaparte, the traffic and fuss slowly fade away until it becomes little else than a distant hum that conduces the visitors to silence and make them feel like they’ve entered a space the outside world cannot reach.

As an art venue, it could hardly be more perfect.

Edvard Munch, Pikene på broen, 1927. Photo: Halvor Bjørngård ©Munchmuseet

Perhaps that is why Palazzo Bonaparte was chosen to host the exhibition “Edvard Munch. The Inner Scream”, on display from 11 February to 2 June 2025. The setting, the chaos outside and the silence inside, offers a perfect prelude to Munch’s art and invites visitors not only to look at but to really reflect on his work.

“The Inner Scream” is the first Munch exhibition in Rome for decades – and the most complete; it comprises more than 100 original works, including some of Munch’s absolute masterpieces, such as The Death of Marat (1907), The Girls on the Bridge (1927), Melancholy (1900–1901) and lithographic versions of The Scream (1895).  The exhibition is produced and organised by Arthemisia and supported by the Munch Museum in Oslo as well as the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Rome. It was officially opened by Queen Sonja of Norway and Italian President Sergio Mattarella.

The Scream is one of the most iconic paintings of all time.

Before coming to Rome, The Inner Scream was at Palazzo Reale in Milan, where it attracted a record-breaking 275 thousand visitors. While no numbers are available for the Rome exhibition yet, the overwhelming response to the Milan exhibition was a clear demonstration that Edvard Munch’s art resonates with a modern and international audience, more than 100 years after most of it was created.

It is in fact, difficult to imagine how Edvard Munch. The Inner Scream can disappoint anyone. More than a display of his paintings, the exhibition offers intriguing insights into Munch’s mind and intellect as much as his emotions. The curator Patricia Bergman, one of the world’s foremost experts on Edvard Munch, has placed much emphasis on how Munch dwelled on certain topics and how he let them mature on his canvasses; on several occasions, Munch made new versions of the same painting, partly for financial reasons but also because he was striving for a more accurate, better expression.

Two different versions of Madonna.

The exhibition is also, in many ways, a journey through Munch’s life, portraying it almost as a journey “towards the light”, to paraphrase one of Munch’s most powerful works. His exploration of death and loss, his reflections on love and his piercing depiction of jealousy are juxtaposed with paintings that reveal more serene chapters in the painter’s life. For the audience to be able to see this evolution is an extraordinarily thought-provoking experience and one that makes the exhibition worthwhile also to people who are well familiar with Munch’s work.

Edvard Munch still comunicates with his audience. Here a self-portrait from 1926

“A new vision of the artist can give us a new vision of ourselves,” Bergman said at the press conference prior to the opening of the Rome exhibition. Indeed she really has done a remarkable job in living up to that and in forging a new vision of Edvard Munch. In her exploration of Munch’s emotions, visitors are forced to reconsider their own.

So, if you are in Rome, as you stroll up the Via del Corso towards piazza Venezia, where all the turmoil and frenzy seem to accumulate before giving way to the eternal beauty of ancient Rome, hidden just behind Capitol Hill, allow yourself to stop at Palazzo Bonaparte.

As you walk in, the thick walls will shelter you from the chaos and heat outside. By the time you reach the first floor, where the Munch exhibition starts, you will be ready to take in, reflect on and enjoy a magnificent display of some of the most intriguing art of the 20th Century.

The exhibition includes an interactive room where you can really emerge yourself in Munch’s art.

Web: www.mostrepalazzobonaparte.it/mostra-munch.php

Exhibition: “Edvard Munch. The Inner Scream”
Location: Palazzo Bonaparte, Rome, Italy
Dates: 11 February – 2 June 2025