"The Splendor of 18th Century Rome." March 16, 2000 - May 28, 2000, 1984-2003

In 2000, "The Splendor of 18th-Century Rome" exhibition was finally put on display after 10 years of planning by curators Joseph J. Rishel (Senior Curator of European Painting and Sculpture before 1900), Ann Percy (Curator of Drawings), and Dean Walker (Senior Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture before 1700) along with an international team of scholars. The exhibition was designed to highlight art made in the independent papal state of Rome in the early 18th century before the city became the capital of a united Italy in 1871. The exhibition combined approximately 380 works (e.g. drawings, paintings, and sculptures) created by over 160 artists. An exhibition catalogue was also published at the same time the exhibition was presented to the public with contributions from the curators along with other authors. The exposition was also shown in Houston. The files stored by the PMA archives from the European Decorative Arts Department contain object information, correspondence between various museums, curatorial research, and other miscellaneous notes and documents. The bulk of the files are dated from 1997 and 2000.