Giorgio Morandi in the Eni Collection: Two Still Lifes and a Story of Corporate Culture

From 11 December 2025 to 11 January 2026, the Sala Fontana at Palazzo Esposizioni Rome hosts Giorgio Morandi in the Eni Collection. A journey through the cultural history of the six-legged dog and the legacy of Enrico Mattei.

Giorgio Morandi nella Collezione Eni. Un viaggio attraverso la storia culturale del cane a sei zampe e l’eredità di Enrico Mattei, Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

Exhibition promoted by the Department of Culture of Rome Capital and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, produced by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and conceived and realised by Eni.

At the heart of the exhibition are two still lifes by Giorgio Morandi, dated 1919 and 1941, belonging to the historic core of the Eni Collection. Seemingly silent works, they nonetheless open up a broader reflection on what it means to collect art, on how art can inhabit workplaces, and on the role played by Enrico Mattei’s vision in shaping a relationship between business and culture that is not ornamental, but structural.

The collection was established between the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Mattei launched a project that went beyond the logic of economic investment. His aim was clear: to create a stimulating environment for Eni’s employees, where the eye could be trained and creativity nurtured even within the everyday context of offices. This is why, alongside Morandi, artists such as Casorati, Sironi, De Pisis, Cantatore and Guttuso entered the collection—works not meant to remain hidden, but to live within working spaces as a constant presence.

Over the years, the collection expanded to include figures such as Boetti, Adami and Rotella, consolidating a principle of sharing: the free availability of the company’s artistic heritage to curators and institutions worldwide. Morandi’s two still lifes, in fact, have already travelled to Japan, Russia, the United States and Spain, carrying with them not only the language of the master, but also an Italian story of modernity and cultural vision.

The exhibition design at Sala Fontana guides visitors through this narrative, revealing a rare continuity: the affinity between Morandi’s painting—defined by restraint, concentration and essential form—and Mattei’s vision, which recognised art as an exercise in disciplined observation. In this encounter between two still lifes and an idea of corporate culture, the exhibition becomes an invitation to look more closely: at objects, at spaces, and at the possibility that art and technology are not opposites, but complementary forces.

Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

Via Nazionale 194

Date

11 Dicembre – 11 Gennaio 2026