Jean Cocteau’s “vivacity of intelligence caused him to live in a world of accelerated images, as if a film were run in fast motion,” wrote William Fifield in a 1964 issue of The Paris Review. In many ways, Cocteau embodied the experimental impulse of the early–20th century—the Surrealists and avant-garde art and philosophy. “I feel myself inhabited by a force or being—very little known to me,” he told Fifield. Cocteau worked in many mediums. He wrote poetry, criticism, plays, and novels, directed films, and made visual art. Organized by the Cocteau specialist Kenneth E. Silver, this is the first major retrospective in Italy dedicated to the French art world’s “enfant terrible.” The exhibition looks at Cocteau’s versatility, influence, artistry, and the development of his personal style. —Jeanne Malle