The exhibition “L’inverno nell’arte. Paesaggi, allegorie e vita quotidiana”

What does winter look like?

This is one of the questions that the exhibition in Trento attempts to answer. For the painter Girolamo Donnini, it is an old man with a long white beard. This is how he depicts it in his Allegoria dell’Inverno (Allegory of Winter) (1740). For Pietro Bellotti (1625-1700), it is a lady with a wrinkled face warming her cold hands (Vecchia che si riscalda - Old Woman Warming Herself, 1690). For Francesco Bartolozzi, on the other hand, it is a beautiful girl with an elegant hat (Winter, 1789).

As the centuries change, so does the imagery.

The exhibition, curated by conservators Dario De Cristofaro, Mirco Longhi and Roberto Pancheri, takes visitors on a journey between reality and imagination. This is the message perceived when looking at the majestic landscapes depicting scenes of everyday life.

White towers and frozen forests

Fairy tale landscapes frame realistic scenes. This is the case in the painting by Marco Ricci (1676-1730), who painted a mill blocked by ice with a magical white city in the background. There is a lot of ice in the landscapes on display, reminiscent of the little ice age that affected the Earth from the mid-14^th to the mid-19^th century. Rivers became roads to be travelled on skates. Icy paths in the woods posed a fatal challenge to those who travelled them.

The Buonconsiglio exhibition features all this, in the unmistakable strokes of famous artists such as Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Jan Wildens and the Italians Luigi Casali and Francesco Fidanza.

A tale of winter that leads you out of the exhibition rooms and into one of the oldest parts of the castle.

ABOVE: Pieter Brueghel il Giovane, Adorazione dei Magi nella neve, 1590-1610, Venezia, Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Museo Correr

The frescoes in the tower

The exhibition opens to the notes of Vivaldi's Winter and images of ancient Trentino nobles throwing snowballs. It is an invitation to complete the exhibition itinerary by visiting (upon reservation) one of the most prized points of the castle: the Aquila Tower.

Here you will find the Ciclo dei mesi (Cycle of the Months), a series of frescoes considered a masterpiece of international Gothic art. An experience we highly recommend.

ABOVE: Torre Aquila, mese di gennaio (particolare), Castello del Buonconsiglio

An exhibition for the Olympic Games

The exhibition “L’inverno nell’arte. Paesaggi, allegorie e vita quotidiana” (Winter in Art. Landscapes, Allegories and Everyday Life) is one of the exhibitions in the project “Combinazioni ” (Combinations) that every year brings together museums and cultural institutions in Trentino around a single theme, to be explored from different perspectives.

The theme for 2025-2026, on the occasion of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, is “Combinazioni_caratteri sportivi ” (Combinations_sports characters). This year, the project is participating in the Milan Cortina 2026 Cultural Olympics, a vast programme of artistic and cultural initiatives that promote Olympic and Paralympic values through culture, Italian heritage and sport.