The exhibition Venus disarms Mars: the Flemish and the Villa of Maecenas in Tivoli, from November 29 2024 to March 2 2025 at the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor, aims to investigate the relationship between Tivoli and foreign artists, Flemish in particular, who in the late 16th century chose it as an ideal destination and a mandatory stop for the emerging Grand Tour, driven by admiration for its imposing ruins and the power of natural elements, first and foremost water.

Organized by the Autonomous Institute Villa Adriana and Villa d'Este - VILLÆ and curated by Andrea Bruciati, Director of the Institute, the exhibition tells the story of ancient Tibur and how Flemish painters translated the architectural complex now restored as the Sanctuary of Hercules, with the evocative caves of Via Tecta, into a miraculous workshop of alchemical objects, occult messages, where sacred and profane elements blend.

After the construction of Villa d'Este (1550-1572), ancient Tibur and the sacred complex born in Roman times, dedicated to Hercules and then believed to be the Villa of Maecenas, constituted a unique and picturesque synthesis of archaeological elements and natural elements. Because of this union, the acropolis has always exerted a singular attractive force in the development of landscape design between the 16th and 17th centuries, and foreign artists, so numerous in Rome, often headed to Tivoli to find a context where ruins were evocatively integrated into the natural environment.

On the side of the Villa of Maecenas, the site had also been enriched with artificial waterfalls on the Aniene, created by the canalization of the river following the construction of Villa d'Este; moreover, already by the end of the 16th century, Via Tecta hosted metallurgical workshops - which then settled permanently at the beginning of the 17th century - representing an original ideal place where, in the specific context of Tivoli, the four elements of nature, water, fire, air, and earth, blended and confronted for a new cosmic order.