ROME.- Just opened at the Capitoline Museums’ Centrale Montemartini, a remarkable exhibition is finally pulling back the curtain on a woman who served as the eyes and hand of a rapidly vanishing Rome. "Maria Barosso, artist and archaeologist in a transforming Rome" is the first monographic show dedicated to Maria Barosso (1879–1960), a pioneering figure whose unique watercolors meticulously documented the tumultuous urban and archaeological transformations of the Eternal City in the early 20th century.

Open from October 17, 2025, to February 22, 2026, the exhibition celebrates the work of a woman who achieved a true rarity for her time: becoming the sole female draftsperson to collaborate with the Superintendency of Rome and Lazio. Barosso’s career began in 1905 when she started working with the legendary Giacomo Boni on the Roman Forum excavations. She wasn't just an illustrator; she was an artist-archaeologist, combining the scientific rigor of documentation with a distinct aesthetic sensitivity.

The exhibition, co-promoted by Roma Capitale and produced in collaboration with Sapienza University of Rome, is more than a display of beautiful artwork—it’s a crucial historical archive. It presents approximately 100 of Barosso's delicate prints, drawings, and watercolors, sourced from Capitoline Superintendency deposits, the National Roman Museum, the Colosseum Archaeological Park, and private collections.

Witness to a City’s Radical Transformation

Barosso’s work captures one of the most explosive periods in Roman history. With an unblinking eye and a steady hand, she documented the wholesale destruction of neighborhoods, the discovery of ancient ruins, and the grand, often controversial, urban projects of the Fascist regime. Her watercolors are a precious record of the complexity of an era where monuments were isolated and celebrated, but entire medieval quarters were sacrificed to create monumental roads and squares.

Visitors are guided through a series of sections focusing on the locations she documented, placing her artistic interpretations in dialogue with historical photographs and artifacts. Her pieces bring to life moments like the leveling of the Velia Hill to construct the Via dei Fori Imperiali, an act of erasure meant to create a stage for the regime's ambitions.

Crucially, Barosso was present for the astonishing discovery in the Largo Argentina Sacred Area, documenting the emergence of four Republican temples and the Curia of Pompey—the very spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated. Her work along the new Via del Mare recorded the isolation of the temples in the Forum Boarium and the Forum Olitorium, dramatically changing the skyline.

Rescuing the "Lost" from Oblivion

Perhaps the most poignant aspect of the show is the rescue of forgotten history. For the first time, the exhibition displays Barosso’s representations of the Compitum Acilium, a small shrine discovered in 1932. Due to the rapid pace of the works, the monument was destroyed, but its precise forms and proportions were preserved solely through Barosso’s sketches. Her work transformed a lost relic into a vibrant, living memory.

The exhibition itinerary also touches on her work documenting fresco and mosaic reproductions during restoration projects in Roman churches, as well as her private commissions. It concludes with paintings by contemporary artists like Mario Mafai and Tina Tommasini, providing a final moment of reflection on the irreversible urban changes that reshaped Rome from a city of hidden layers to one exposed to modernity.

Through Barosso’s rare combination of scientific diligence and artistic flair, the exhibition finally gives this pioneering woman her deserved place in both the history of art and the history of Rome. It’s an unmissable opportunity to see the capital’s past through the eyes of a meticulous observer who saved the memory of what was deliberately made invisible.