‘The exhibition was organised with the aim of increasing the awareness in Europe of a very broad cultural phenomenon, with many different aspects and a unique configuration. Latin American Baroque carried on for much longer than European Baroque, spreading throughout a few centuries over a whole continent, although with characteristics particular to each individual country. The European inheritance can be seen in the sensitivity, in the culture and in popular attitudes, giving rise to something truly original and characteristic, with achievements of great novelty, complexity and quality which, as many experts underlined, cannot be adequately defined as “provincial art”. The exhibition was shown in Rome in 1980 for the first time and, after three years in Spain, is now being presented in Rimini in a totally revised structure. The exhibition is made up of wide photographic panels, of different items (decorative sculpture, painting, craftsmanship) gathered for the occasion by private collectors, of slides with special effects, and of a film by Folco Qui-lici: “The angel and the mermaid, a journey through Latin America Baroque”. Architecture, which is undoubtedly the richest and most complex aspect of Latin American Baroque, plays a fundamental role in the exhibition. The main themes analysed are: the sinusoid curve (“the line of life”, which constantly re-occurs) of the apse and the chapel, the processes of illusory dilation of space in deepness and width, clearly visible in the contrast between the simple walls and the luminous vibration of the “retablos” (architectural organisms in wood and plaster, placed at the end of the presbytery, ‘theatre with multiple scenes of saints and their virtuous actions’). The exhibition on Latin American Baroque is the result of a programme of international co-operation promoted by the Italian Latin American Institute and achieved thanks to the Institute’s widespread popularity and cultural prestige.’