.:. art / women of science 

Anselm Kiefer. Le alchimiste
February 7 through September 27, 2026

Sophie Brahe was a Danish astronomer, Margaret Clifford an English noblewoman, Leona Constantia the pseudonym of a French treatiser, Isabella Cortese an Italian gardener, Martine de Bertereau a mineralogist from Touraine, Camilla Erculiani a Padoan pharmacist, Caterina Sforza a Milanese warrior, and Anna Maria Zieglerin a German sorcerer. All of them have been included by Anselm Kiefer (Donaueschingen, 1945) in his most recent work, just a bit less gigantic than his Seven Heavenly Palaces at the Pirelli HangarBicocca, also in Milan.
.:. Kiefer's huge painted/sculpted creatures do not stand in a former industrial plant, this time. Rather, they animate the beautiful former ballroom of the Milan Royal Palace, the Sala delle Cariatidi which was bombed during WW2 and has been left in a half demolished state as a reminder against wars. The exhibition is perhaps the most important, and certainly the most outstanding, in Milan's cultural contribution to its 2026 Winter Olympics.
.:. Do not expect that Kiefer's alchemists are actually portrays of historical figures. They are just people taken as inspirations, indisputably chosen by the artist, for a 16th-17th-centuries intellectual trend which developed across Europe in the early times of modern science. Isaac Newton, himself an alchemist, couldn't be considered. He wasn't a lady.

 Palazzo Reale
Piazzetta Reale 
Duomo
Duomo district

  Tue-Sun 10am-7:30pm, Thu till 10:30pm (last entrance an hour before closing time)
   Euro 17 / Euro 10
    [+39] 02 88445181