On the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of the writer Marguerite Yourcenar (8 June 1903 - 17 December 1987), the Directorate of State Museums of the city of Rome directed by Mariastella Margozzi and the International Center "Antinoo per l'Arte" - Marguerite Documentation Center Yourcenar chaired by Michele Amici gives life to the exhibition project Alchimia di una vita. Works by Laura D'Andrea Petrantoni dedicated to Marguerite Yourcenar on the 120th anniversary of her birth (1903 - 2023). The exhibition will be set up in the spaces of the Boncompagni Ludovisi Museum for Decorative Arts, Costume and Fashion of the 19th and 20th centuries, directed by Matilde Amaturo.

The artist Laura D'Andrea Petrantoni has interpreted the female universe in its various forms and the beginning of women's emancipation between the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibition celebrates the first Academic Academy of France (1981), an institution commissioned by Cardinal de Richelieu in 1635, whose title placed the writer Yourcenar among the "Immortals" of literature.

The occasion will allow you to admire the project of the dress created by Yves Saint Laurent for Marguerite Yourcenar's entry as a member of the French Academy. Faithful reproductions of some precious documents subject to the protection of the Archival and Bibliographic Superintendence of Lazio will be exhibited, the originals of which are kept in the Archive of the International Center "Antinoo per l'Arte" - Marguerite Yourcenar Documentation Center at the Fondazione Terzo Pilastro Internazionale - Palazzo Onion, Rome.