In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel: through January 31, 2027

In Arcadia XXI, the painting exhibition by Eleonora Barnia, can be visited through January 31, 2027 at the Warmthotel, at Via Giuseppe Prezzolini 5, 00143 Rome, in the EUR area. The works are set up in the hotel lobby, turned into an exhibition area by the WarmtHub project, and can be seen every day from 10:00 to 22:00. The exhibition has been open since April 24, 2026. By reservation you can take guided tours with the artist, and the works are for sale. The contacts for booking are published on the exhibition's official page on the Warmthotel website, and for general information there is the hotel's number, 06 5014283. The hotel gives the Laurentina metro station at about 3 kilometers. For buses all the way to the entrance, it's best to use the ATAC route calculator.

It rarely happens that we recommend an exhibition inside a hotel. This one deserves a detour for a precise reason: the theme. Eleonora Barnia, a Roman painter, rereads the myth of Arcadia, and Arcadia in Rome is not only a Greek myth, it is a literary academy born here in 1690, with a garden on the Janiculum Hill that still exists. A hotel lobby in EUR hosting golden, silent figures inspired by that world is a small short circuit worth knowing about. Below you will find the exhibition, the artist, the history of the Roman Arcadia, the hotel and the neighborhood, and how to plan the visit.

In Arcadia XXI at the Warmthotel: the exhibition in brief

In Arcadia XXI is a painting exhibition by Eleonora Barnia presented by WarmtHub, the art and cultural space of the Warmthotel in Rome, which rereads in a contemporary key the myth of Arcadia as a symbolic construction of an ideal elsewhere.

Dates and hours

The exhibition is open from April 24, 2026 to January 31, 2027, every day from 10:00 to 22:00. These are rare hours for an art exhibition: in the evening, after work, or on Sunday, the lobby stays accessible. There are almost four more months of opening.

Where it is

The works are displayed in the lobby of the Warmthotel, at Via Giuseppe Prezzolini 5. There is no separate room: the painting coexists with the life of the hotel, with guests coming and going, suitcases, the reception desk. It is a particular condition, which must be taken into account.

Guided tours and purchase

The Warmthotel states that guided tours can be booked and the works purchased, by contacting the artist directly at the contacts published on the exhibition's official page. For a small group, the tour with the painter is the best solution.

What you see in In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia

The exhibition presents paintings in which hieratic figures, immersed in a contemplative dimension, emerge from a nature treated as emotional scenography, with diffuse light, rarefied atmospheres and the presence of gold.

Arcadia as a non-place

In the official presentation Arcadia becomes a suspended non-place, in which nature turns benevolent, order prevails over chaos and the human being regains a possible harmony with the cosmos. Nature is not botanical description: it is an inner space that evokes the calm of the locus amoenus, the pleasant place of ancient poetry.

Figures as apparitions

The figures emerge from the painted surface as hieratic presences, which the exhibition's text calls hierophanies, that is, manifestations of the sacred. They seem isolated, but they dialogue silently with each other. The overall tone is solemn and suspended: it is not a painting that tells stories, it is a painting that stops time.

The gold

Gold has a central role: according to the presentation it removes the scene from the flow of time and opens the space to contemplation. In the artist's statement of poetics, gold is always reduced to the essence, and becomes an emblem of the reconciliation between major and minor art. Anyone who knows icons or medieval gold grounds will recognize the kinship.

Nostalgia for the future

The whole project revolves around the concept of nostalgia for the future: classical language as a tool to remember that beauty and harmony are not only aesthetic values but necessary refuges. It is an idea you can share or not, but it gives the exhibition a clear thread.

Who Eleonora Barnia is: the painter's biography

Eleonora Barnia was born in Rome in 1978. After her artistic high school diploma she graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts, and today she teaches art in upper secondary schools.

Her education

Her academic training was followed, from 2002, by post-academic training, along with work as an interior decorator in ateliers in the Monti district and the San Lorenzo neighborhood. According to the official biography, that workshop experience enriched her stylistic research: you see it in the care of the surfaces and in the use of gold.

The exhibitions

Since 2000 she has taken part in art competitions and group painting exhibitions. In Arcadia XXI is a solo show that gives her a large space and a long period, nine months, for an audience very different from that of galleries: business travelers, conference attendees, tourists.

Chromatic destratification

In her statement of poetics Barnia describes her research as chromatic destratification: a path through which latent images emerge to the surface, like silent, intimate evocations. The figures are two-dimensional, the gold reduced to the essential, the white in contention with the subjects, up to monochrome or dichrome images that define, in her words, a neoclassical concept of painting.

Self-portraits and known faces

The protagonists of her paintings are known subjects and self-portraits. What emerges, the artist writes, is the passion of the subjects for something apparently ephemeral when considered in relation to the eternal: necessary evocations. It is a useful key in front of the paintings: look for the faces, and ask yourself what they are looking at.

Arcadia in Rome: the academy born in 1690

In Rome Arcadia is also a true story: the Accademia dell'Arcadia was founded on October 5, 1690 by Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina and Giovanni Mario Crescimbeni, with other men of letters from the circle of Queen Christina of Sweden, gathered in the convent of San Pietro in Montorio.

The shepherd poets

The Academy took its inspiration from the tradition of the shepherd poets of mythical Arcadia. The members were called Shepherds, each took a pastoral name of Greek inspiration, the emblem was the panpipes of the god Pan wreathed with laurel and pine, and the protector chosen was Baby Jesus, adored first by the shepherds. The name of the academy, according to tradition, was found by Agostino Maria Taja during a meeting at the Prati di Castello, then a pastoral landscape.

Against the Baroque

Arcadia was not a simple school: it was a literary movement that spread throughout Italy in the 1700s in response to what was considered the bad taste of the Baroque, with a program of clear, regular, classicizing poetry. It founded colonies in dozens of cities, from Venice to Palermo, from Milan to Ljubljana.

The Bosco Parrasio

After years of temporary seats, from the garden of Palazzo Riario to the Palatine Gardens, from the Esquiline Hill to the Aventine, the Academy had a seat of its own thanks to a donation of 4,000 scudi from John V of Portugal, himself an Arcadian. On the slopes of the Janiculum, along the climb of Via Garibaldi, the architect Antonio Canevari transformed the Orto dei Livi into the Bosco Parrasio, with an oval theater, a fake Arcadian grotto and a commemorative aedicule.

Arcadia today

The Academy is still active. In 1925 it became an institute of historical and literary studies, and its seat is at the Biblioteca Angelica, in Piazza di Sant'Agostino. Anyone who leaves the exhibition with their curiosity lit knows where to go to look for the original Arcadia.

The Warmthotel and the WarmtHub project

The Warmthotel is a four-star business hotel of the AXYHOTELS group in the EUR area, a few minutes from the Nuvola and the Palazzo dei Congressi. With the WarmtHub project its lobby hosts temporary exhibitions by emerging artists.

Art in hotels

The AXYHOTELS group, which also includes the InnStyle in Milan, declares that it wants to bring the city inside its hotels through art: commissioned works, temporary installations, exhibitions and partnerships. At the Warmthotel the Graffiti Urban Bistrot is part of this idea, and WarmtHub is its exhibition program.

A patron's spirit

The hotel speaks of a patron's spirit directed to emerging artists, and presents the lobby as an art incubator in all its forms, from painting to sculpture, from photography to comics. Artists interested in exhibiting can put themselves forward through the website.

The verdict

Exhibitions in hotels are not museums, and it would be wrong to judge them as such. They are, however, a real space for artists who find no room in galleries, and an opportunity for those who stay or work in the area. A nine-month solo show, open 12 hours a day, is a serious commitment on the part of a hotel.

A curiosity about In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel: through January 31, 2027

The best curiosity concerns the names. Whoever entered the Accademia dell'Arcadia received a pastoral name of Greek inspiration: the first part was drawn by lot, the second chosen by the candidate, provided it recalled a place of mythical or geographical Arcadia. So Pietro Metastasio became Artino Corasio, Carlo Goldoni Polisseno Fegejo, Arcangelo Corelli Arcomelo Erimanteo, Alessandro Scarlatti Terpandro Azeriano, Giambattista Vico Laufilo Terio, Luigi Vanvitelli Archimede Fidiaco, Giovanni Battista Piranesi Salcindio Tiseio. Even Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an Arcadian, with the name Megalio Melpomenio, and in the 20th century Benedetto Croce, with that of Eudoro Dionea.

The second curiosity is tied to the number in the exhibition's title. XXI indicates the century: an Arcadia of the 21st century. But it is also a tasty coincidence with the history of the Academy, which from the late 1600s to today has gone through more than three centuries and has had a long series of Custodians General, up to the one now in office.

The third: among the Arcadians there were also women, admitted by enrollment. One of them, Maria Maddalena Morelli, was Corilla Olimpica. In front of the female figures in Barnia's paintings, the thought of those pastoral poets comes naturally.

Something nobody tells you about In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel: through January 31, 2027

What almost nobody says is that the exhibition is open until 22:00, every day. It is an hour that no Roman museum offers continuously. For those who work in EUR, or who attend a conference at the Nuvola or the Palazzo dei Congressi, it means being able to see it after dinner, without taking time away from the day. It is the real advantage of an exhibition in a hotel.

The second thing concerns the context. The works are in the lobby, and a hotel lobby is a place of passage: there are guests arriving, people waiting for a taxi, people on the phone. Anyone looking for the silence of an exhibition room has to choose the right time. The best moment is mid-morning or early afternoon, when the guests have gone out for work and the new arrivals have not started yet.

The third: you can talk to the artist. The official page gives Eleonora Barnia's contacts for booking a guided tour. In a museum this almost never happens. A painter who explains chromatic destratification in person in front of her own paintings is worth more than any caption.

The advice I give you for visiting In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel: through January 31, 2027

It's worth building a small Arcadian route in two parts. First part, on the Janiculum: a morning at the Bosco Parrasio, along the climb of Via Garibaldi, and at San Pietro in Montorio, where the founders of the Academy met in 1690. Second part, at the Warmthotel: in the evening, after dinner, in front of Barnia's paintings. The comparison between the 18th-century garden of the shepherd poets and their contemporary rereading, between gold and white, makes the visit much richer.

If instead you are in EUR for work, reverse the order: see the exhibition during a break, and then, on a free day, go up to the Janiculum. In both cases, book the visit with the artist if you can: it is the added value of this exhibition.

Finally, look at the paintings up close and from far away. From far away the figures seem motionless, almost icons. Up close you see the work of the surface, the layers removed and the colors that emerge. It is in that distance that you understand the painter's poetics.

Another well-known fact, yet rarely cited

Many people know that Arcadia was born as a reaction to the Baroque. Less often remembered is how hard it was for the Academy to find a place to meet. The Arcadians began in the gardens of the Duke of Paganica at San Pietro in Vincoli, sitting on the ground or on stones to recite verses. From 1691 they moved to the garden of Palazzo Riario, once the residence of Christina of Sweden. In 1693 to the Palatine Gardens, where the Duke of Parma allowed them to build a rustic theater of wood and earth, covered with laurel. In 1699 to the garden of Duke Salviati, then to Prince Giustiniani, and from 1707 to the villas of Francesco Maria Ruspoli, on the Esquiline Hill and the Aventine.

Only with the donation of John V of Portugal did the Bosco Parrasio arrive. A second rarely cited fact: in 1711 the Academy split, and the followers of Gravina founded a Second Arcadia, later called the Accademia de' Quirini. The two branches reunited in 1719 to honor Gravina, who had died the year before. An exhibition that speaks of harmony and order against chaos evokes, without knowing it, an institution that had to win that harmony through moves and splits. This story makes Arcadia more human and more Roman.

The right photo to take at In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel: through January 31, 2027

Before photographing the works, ask permission from the hotel staff or the artist: they are paintings for sale and copyright must be respected. If you are allowed, the right photo is not that of the whole painting, which the lobby light hardly renders well, but a detail of the gold: a few centimeters of gilded surface next to the white, where you see the destratification the painter speaks of. Tilt the phone slightly to avoid reflections.

The second photo is one of context: a painting in the lobby with an element of the hotel in the frame, an armchair, a lamp, the reception desk. It is the image that tells the meaning of the WarmtHub project, art inside the daily life of a hotel.

The third photo should be taken another day, on the Janiculum: the oval theater of the Bosco Parrasio, if you manage to see it, or the view from the climb of Via Garibaldi. Put the two images side by side: the Arcadia of the 18th century and that of the 21st century.

Some important events that happened here in history

October 5, 1690: 14 men of letters from the circle of Christina of Sweden found the Accademia dell'Arcadia in Rome, in the convent of San Pietro in Montorio.

May 27, 1691: the Arcadians move to the garden of Palazzo Riario. 1693: the Duke of Parma grants them the Palatine Gardens. 1699: the garden of Duke Salviati.

September 11, 1707: Francesco Maria Ruspoli makes one of his parks on the Esquiline Hill available, then a villa on the Aventine, the seat until 1725. 1711: the split of the Second Arcadia. 1719: the reunification.

After 1725: with the donation of John V of Portugal the Bosco Parrasio is born on the Janiculum, the work of Antonio Canevari. 1838: Giovanni Azzurri renovates the Serbatoio, the Academy's archive, with the exedra facade.

1925: Arcadia becomes an institute of historical and literary studies. 1972: the statute in force today.

2026, in EUR: on April 24 WarmtHub inaugurates in the Warmthotel lobby In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia, after the exhibitions of other emerging artists that the hotel hosted in previous years.

Who passed through In Arcadia XXI by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel: through January 31, 2027

Several artists passed through the Warmthotel lobby, with the WarmtHub project, before Eleonora Barnia. The hotel recalls the solo show Astrazione by Luigi Athos De Blasio, with canvases and sculptures that tell of the passage from figurative to abstract, the photo exhibition L'amore non è questo by Cristina Rezzi, 30 color shots on the theme of intimate partner violence, {S[he(art)]} by Federica Anna Molfese, Uomo e Natura by Mauro Romano, born during the lockdown, Astrattismi by Giorgio Binda, Frammenti di vita by the Colombian Zahira Rodríguez Amaya, the two-person show Forme non forme dell'anima by Mauro Romano and Ana Paula Torres, and 3C, Cieli Cromie Concetti by Creola Carla Cristofari.

Through the theme of the exhibition, then, the Arcadians ideally pass through this lobby: Gravina and Crescimbeni, the founders, Metastasio, a pupil of Gravina, Goldoni, Vico, Corelli, Scarlatti, Vanvitelli, Piranesi, Goethe, poets such as Corilla Olimpica, sovereigns and popes who entered among the shepherds, from John V of Portugal to Innocent XIII and Pius VI. An academy born under the trees of the Janiculum, which finds an unexpected echo in a hotel in EUR.

How to look at the paintings of In Arcadia XXI: three keys

Eleonora Barnia's paintings are best read with three keys, all suggested by the exhibition's official texts and by the artist's statement of poetics: white, gold and silence.

The white

In Barnia's paintings the subjects are in spatial contention with white. The result is monochrome or dichrome images, that is, built with only one or two colors. In front of each canvas try asking yourself how much space the figure occupies and how much the emptiness around it: often the emptiness wins, and it is deliberate. That is where the artist places her idea of neoclassical painting, made of measure and subtraction.

The gold

Gold always appears reduced to the essence, the painter says. It does not fill the background as in an icon, it hints at it. Look for it: it may be a halo, a border, a fragment of background. According to the exhibition's presentation it is the element that removes the scene from the flow of time. In the artificial light of the lobby it changes a lot depending on where you stand: move one step and look again.

The silence

The presentation speaks of a dense and eloquent silence and of figures suspended in an eternal instant. It is the hardest key in a hotel lobby, where silence is not guaranteed. For this reason I advise choosing the time with care and giving each painting at least a minute. The figures, which seem isolated, according to the official text establish a silent dialogue among themselves: look at the paintings in pairs, and you will see that they answer each other.

The locus amoenus

The exhibition's text cites the locus amoenus, the pleasant place of the classical poetic tradition: a benevolent landscape made of shade, water and calm. It is exactly the landscape that the Arcadians of the 1600s were looking for, reciting verses in the shade of the plants in the gardens of Rome. Barnia turns it into an inner space, made of diffuse light more than of trees and streams.

How to get to the Warmthotel

The Warmthotel is at Via Giuseppe Prezzolini 5, 00143 Rome, in the southern EUR area. The hotel gives the Laurentina metro station at about 3 kilometers and the Nuvola and the Palazzo dei Congressi at about 3.5 kilometers.

By public transport

From the Laurentina metro station you continue by bus or taxi. The surface lines change with works and seasons: the most reliable way to find the right combination is the ATAC route calculator.

By car

The hotel stresses its closeness to the Grande Raccordo Anulare and to the roads for the Fiumicino and Ciampino airports and for Ostia. For those arriving by car the location is convenient. For parking conditions, it's best to ask the hotel.

By taxi

From the center of Rome the Colosseum is about 12 kilometers away, according to the hotel: for an evening visit to the exhibition the taxi is often the most practical solution, especially on the way back.

Around the Warmthotel: what's in EUR

The Warmthotel lists nearby the Atlantico at about 2 kilometers, the Palalottomatica at 2.5, the Parco Avventura Eur Park at 2, the Parco Centrale del Lago dell'EUR at 3, the Nuvola and the Palazzo dei Congressi at 3.5 and the Luneur Park at 5.

Conferences and concerts

The Nuvola and the Palazzo dei Congressi are the conference hubs of the neighborhood. The Atlantico is one of the most frequented concert venues in Rome. Anyone coming to the area for an event can add the exhibition with a few minutes by taxi.

The lake and the amusement park

The EUR lake is the most pleasant walk in the neighborhood. With children there is the Luneur Park. For an overview of EUR there is the listing on what to see in EUR.

Toward the sea

The hotel recalls that from here you can easily reach Ostia Lido and the archaeological park of Ostia Antica. A day with the exhibition in the morning and Ostia Antica in the afternoon is an original program.

Where to eat near the Warmthotel

Inside the hotel there is the Graffiti Urban Bistrot, which the AXYHOTELS group presents as part of its art-in-hotels project: for an evening visit to the exhibition, a dinner at the hotel's bistrot is the simplest solution.

In the neighborhood

The southern EUR area is residential and office-oriented: bars, cafeterias and restaurants are concentrated along the main axes and toward the center of EUR, around the lake and the office buildings. On weekdays at lunch they are frequented by people who work in the area.

In the evening

With the exhibition open until 22:00, a dinner out before the visit and a stop in the lobby afterward is an excellent combination.

Accessibility, children and practical information

The exhibition is set up in the lobby, at the hotel's entrance level. For information on accessibility for people with mobility disabilities the Warmthotel website has a dedicated section, and the reception staff can answer by phone before the visit.

With children

A painting exhibition in a hotel lobby is not designed for children, but the golden figures and the story of the shepherd poets of Arcadia may intrigue the older ones. Paired with the Luneur Park or the EUR lake, the visit becomes a short stop in a family day.

How much time you need

To see the works, 20 or 30 minutes are enough. With the artist's guided tour, count on an hour. If you pair the exhibition with a dinner at the hotel's bistrot, the evening organizes itself, with no travel.

Respect for guests

You are visiting a working hotel: low voice, no crowding in front of the reception desk, and a greeting to the staff on arrival.

Rome between autumn and winter: the months of the exhibition

The exhibition stays open through January 31, 2027, going through the Roman autumn and the end-of-year holidays. For those who come to EUR for the autumn conferences or for the December events at the Nuvola, it is an addition that requires neither a museum ticket nor rigid hours.

The December evenings

On December evenings, with the lobby lit and the dark outside, the gold of the paintings looks its best. It is the period I recommend.

The last days

January 31, 2027 is a Sunday: anyone who wants to book a visit with the artist in the last days should do so in advance.

Frequently asked questions about In Arcadia XXI at the Warmthotel

Until when is the In Arcadia XXI exhibition at the Warmthotel open?

The In Arcadia XXI exhibition by Eleonora Barnia at the Warmthotel in Rome is open through January 31, 2027, every day from 10:00 to 22:00. It was inaugurated on April 24, 2026 in the hotel lobby, at Via Giuseppe Prezzolini 5, in the EUR area.

Where is the Warmthotel?

The Warmthotel, home of the In Arcadia XXI exhibition, is at Via Giuseppe Prezzolini 5, 00143 Rome, in the southern EUR area. The hotel gives the Laurentina metro at about 3 kilometers and the Nuvola and the Palazzo dei Congressi at about 3.5 kilometers.

Can you take guided tours of Eleonora Barnia's exhibition?

Yes, for the In Arcadia XXI exhibition at the Warmthotel you can book guided tours by contacting the artist Eleonora Barnia directly, at the contacts given on the exhibition's official page on the hotel's website. The works on display are also for sale.

Who is Eleonora Barnia?

Eleonora Barnia, author of In Arcadia XXI, is a painter born in Rome in 1978, with a degree in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts. She has worked as an interior decorator in ateliers in Monti and San Lorenzo, has exhibited since 2000 and teaches art in high schools.

What do the paintings of In Arcadia XXI represent?

The paintings of In Arcadia XXI reread the myth of Arcadia as an ideal elsewhere: hieratic and contemplative figures immersed in a nature treated as emotional scenography, with diffuse light and the presence of gold, according to the concept of nostalgia for the future indicated by the Warmthotel.

What was the Accademia dell'Arcadia?

The Accademia dell'Arcadia, to which the title of the exhibition at the Warmthotel refers, is a literary academy founded in Rome on October 5, 1690 by Gravina and Crescimbeni. The members were Shepherds with Greek names. The historic seat is the Bosco Parrasio on the Janiculum, and the Academy is still active.

What is WarmtHub?

WarmtHub is the art and cultural space of the Warmthotel in Rome, which turns the hotel lobby into an exhibition area for emerging artists. Before In Arcadia XXI it hosted painting, sculpture and photography, including the exhibitions of Luigi Athos De Blasio and Cristina Rezzi.

Final Advice on In Arcadia XXI

A clear opinion: small exhibitions outside the main circuits should be taken for what they are, and this one offers something rare, a painter willing to explain her own work and a deeply Roman theme. Go on an autumn evening, after dinner, and the next day climb the Janiculum Hill to look for the Bosco Parrasio. Arcadia, in Rome, is best understood in two stages.

Article written by the editorial team of Tour Leader Pro, contact them for Tours and Private/Corporate/V.I.P. Experiences.

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