Who doesn’t know a work by Botero when they see it? Throughout his career—which began in 1950 when he was 16—Fernando Botero depicted living forms with an exaggerated volume, as if they’d been inflated like balloons. The style was called “Boterismo,” and as Botero said, “I described in a realistic way an unrealistic reality.” His works have been read as critiques directed at the upper classes, and at the drug cartels of Medellin, Columbia, and at a pompous middle class. The grandiose figures make fun of convention. Botero died in 2023. This summer, eight of his sculptures have been scattered around Rome, in celebration of a powerful legacy. —Elena Clavarino