Collection of Modern Religious Art, Vatican Museums

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The Collection of Modern Religious Art of the Vatican Museums is a collection of paintings, graphic art and sculptures. It occupies 55 rooms: the Apartment of Alexander VI (in the first floor of the Apostolic Palace), the two floors of the Salette Borgia, a series of rooms below the Sistine Chapel, and a series of rooms on the ground floor.

The collection consists of almost 800 works of 250 international artists, for example of Auguste Rodin, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Maurice Denis, Odilon Redon, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Maurice Utrillo, Giorgio de Chirico, Giorgio Morandi, Georges Rouault, Oskar Kokoschka, Bernard Buffet, Renato Guttuso, Giacomo Balla, Alfred Manessier, Francis Bacon, Giacomo Manzù, Eduardo Chillida, Salvador Dalì, Pablo Picasso. The majority of these works of art were donated by artists and collectors to the Holy See.[1].

The prehistory of the Collection of Modern Religious Art begun with the homily of Pope Paul VI during his encounter with artists in the Sistine Chapel on May 7, 1964.[2].

Pope Paul VI inaugurated the Collection of Modern Religious Art in 1973 [3]. Mario Ferrazza is responsable for the collection since 1973.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Ralf van Bühren 2008, pp. 319-323, fig. 18
  2. ^ Homily of Pope Paul VI at the “Mass of the Artists” in the Sistine Chapel on May 7, 1964 [1]
  3. ^ Speech of Pope Paul VI on the occasion of the Inauguration of the Collection of Modern Religious Art in the Vatican Museums on June 23, 1973 [2]

[edit] References

  • Ralf van Bühren: Kunst und Kirche im 20. Jahrhundert. Die Rezeption des Zweiten Vatikanischen Konzils (Konziliengeschichte, Reihe B: Untersuchungen). Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh 2008 (ISBN 978-3-506-76388-4)
  • Francesco Buranelli: Art and Faith in the Vatican Museums. The artistic Collections of the Popes, spiritual Treasure of Mankind, in: „Images of Salvation“, Pomezia 2002, pp. 63-71
  • Mario Ferrazza (Ed.): Collezione d'Arte Religiosa Moderna, presentation by Francesco Buranelli, Vatican City 2000.