Cartier Revisits the Ancient World in a New Roman Exhibition

Image Credit: CARTIER

Cartier returns to Rome with a focused look at how classical antiquity has shaped the maison’s aesthetic language for more than a century.

Cartier has long turned to Greece and Rome for visual cues — from sculptural profiles to mythological symbols — but its newest exhibition places that dialogue directly in front of viewers. “Cartier & Myths at the Capitoline Museums” brings the maison’s high jewelry into conversation with ancient works housed at Palazzo Nuovo, creating a clean, contemporary frame for one of jewelry’s enduring exchanges with the past.

The presentation moves beyond simple references. Cartier pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries — many drawn from the Cartier Collection — sit alongside marble sculptures from Cardinal Alessandro Albani’s historic holdings as well as selected artefacts from the Capitoline Superintendency and international lenders. Seen together, they show how classical forms have persisted, shifted, and resurfaced inside the maison’s creative vocabulary.

Image Credit: CARTIER

Curator Bianca Cappello, working with archaeologist Stéphane Verger and Superintendent Claudio Parisi Presicce, outlines a progression rather than a catalogue: early 19th-century interpretations of antiquity, neoclassical decorative codes, and later, the unexpected influence of Jean Cocteau on Cartier’s avant-garde direction. The exhibition also includes a precise look at craftsmanship — juxtaposing Roman techniques with modern atelier practices — and a section that examines how mythology continues to inform the maison’s contemporary designs.

The result is a streamlined, visually coherent reading of Cartier’s relationship with the ancient world: not nostalgia, not pastiche, but a steady exchange of forms, symbols, and proportions that still carry weight in high jewelry today.

“Cartier & Myths” remains on view at the Capitoline Museums until March 15, 2026.

Image Credit: CARTIER