The great surrealist writer Roger Caillois , whose collection of notable mineral specimens constitutes the prologue to this exhibition, described this insistent relationship thus: “ More than once I have thought that it was appropriate to look at stones as a sort of poetry . ”

Accompanied by the writer's prose, the Storie di pietra exhibition is the novel of this continuous association which reveals how these minerals occupy a decisive position between the whim of nature and the work of art.

The Storie di pietra exhibition presented at Villa Medici benefited from loans from over 70 institutions and brings together almost 200 works, from the oldest mineral on earth dating back to 4.4 billion years ago to the latest mineral created by contemporary artist Agnieszka Kurant , Sentimentite. The itinerary winds through ten exhibition rooms and continues in the ancient cistern of Villa Medici, in the apartments of Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici and in the Balthus atelier.

The suggestions that these stones have aroused in artists of all eras allow us to measure to what extent our thoughts, our myths, our protests and, sometimes, even our anxieties have benefited from their proximity. They dialogue together, beyond the contingencies of History, stones at the edge of the paths and coveted crystals, votive stones, simple ruins or weapons of the weak to defend themselves from the powerful, objects of scientific study, of romantic contemplation. And among Men, from megalithic societies to the great names of modernity, we find Auguste Rodin or Giuseppe Penone , Charlotte Perriand or Antonio Tempesta , Tatiana Trouvé or Facteur Cheval ; all, inspired by their sedimented mysteries, are the heralds of this vast narrative.