The exhibition in halls 28-31 of the Winter Palace, near the Saltykov Entrance, displays around 70 photographs from the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and around 50 Mannerist prints from the collection of the State Hermitage dating back to the 16th century. Works by one of the most important American photographers at the end of the 20th century are presented in an unusual context - alongside Dutch prints from the 16th century: works by Jan Muller and Jan Saenredam made in the traditions of Hendrick Goltzius and Adrian de Vries, as well as works by Jacob Matham and Cornelis Cornelissen. The exhibition is complemented by three sculptures from the collection of the State Hermitage and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Four centuries separate the prints by 16th century Dutch masters and the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989), who was a cult figure of world art in the second half of the 20th century. By exhibiting them in juxtaposition, we establish a dialogue between classical and contemporary art, something which makes this exhibition unique not only for Russia, but also for most of the world's museums. Robert Mapplethorpe was 30 years old when, in 1976, his first exhibition entitled Polaroid met with stunning success in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Over the next 13 years till his death in 1989, he participated in 103 one-man shows and was published in more than 50 catalogues. Mapplethorpe was studying painting and sculpture in New York's Pratt Institute when he became involved in photography. His first collages in the 1970s were made from newspaper clippings, but then he moved on to create his own photos using a Polaroid camera. He rarely worked in color photography. Mapplethorpe remained true to the canons of minimalist elegance in black-and-white photography. The exhibition is set out in 5 different rooms, each illustrating a separate theme: "analogies with Mannerism", "analogies with antiquity", "flowers", "the creation of the world", and, in the last room, a "hall of death", which displays a self-portrait of the artist taken not long before his death. The self-portraits which Mapplethorpe made at various times in his life evoke special interest. They show completely different people who are united by an unusual sensitivity and defenselessness in the face of the modern world with its sins and passions. The similarity between 16th century prints and Robert Mapplethorpe's photographs is amazing. The artists of Northern Mannerism and one of the best photographers of the late 20th century have in common a special relationship to form which one might define as the cruelty of beauty. Mannerism is a harsh artistic style which entails constant search for beauty and for an ideal form; it demands unbelievable effort and concentration. The world of Mannerism and the world of Mapplethorpe - with his Thomas, Dovanna, Aitto, Liza, Tyler, and Lydia, who are turned into mythological personages, akin to Mercury or Psyche - are fragile and delicate in their cruelty, like the presentation of the spirit Ariel which is summoned up by the magician Prospero in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. The exhibition has been presented in the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, and following the showing in the State Hermitage it moves to the Center of Photography in Moscow and then to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.