EDVARD MUNCH

In the heart of Rome, Palazzo Bonaparte became an unexpectedly fitting setting for the emotional world of Edvard Munch. Munch. Il grido interiore brought together around 100 works from the MUNCH Museum in Oslo, tracing the artist’s life and practice through painting, drawing and printmaking.

Best known for The Scream, Munch’s work extends far beyond a single image. The exhibition explored the themes that repeatedly occupied him — love, anxiety, loneliness, illness and death — and showed how intensely personal experiences became the foundation of his visual language. Among the works on display were Melancholy, Girls on the Bridge, The Death of Marat, Starry Night and a lithographic version of The Scream from 1895.

There was something particularly striking about encountering Munch’s psychologically charged work inside the elegant rooms of Palazzo Bonaparte. The contrast between the grandeur of the setting and the vulnerability of the paintings made the exhibition feel intimate rather than overwhelming.

More than a retrospective, The Inner Scream was a reminder of Munch’s ability to turn private emotion into something universal — work that still feels remarkably immediate more than a century later.