The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art

by Art Institute of Chicago, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nearly three hundred illustrations and a text reveal the entire range of the Vatican's artistic holdings, replete with priceless masterworks from all periods

Genres: Art, Art History, Nonfiction, Reference

255 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Founded in 1879, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the world’s major museums, housing an extraordinary collection of objects from across places, cultures, and time. We are also a place of active learning for all—dedicated to investigation, innovation, education, and dialogue—continually aspiring to greater public service and civic engagement.

Reviews

[Laura]

You may read online at MetMuseum

[Wendelle]

From 11th century onward, political dominion and a potent checkbook empowered the papacy to cultivate havens for aesthetic treasures. Labors from Giotto and Michelangelo; in tapestry and sculpture and precious metalwork and Byzantine mosaic; portraying Biblical narrative or Greco-Roman history-- only the first-rate of specimens in art and the recesses of human imagination fill the Vatican catalogue. To roam the Vatican collection is to visit the nearest mirror of Borges' Library of Wonders the real world probably has. This book introduces the history of construction of the Vatican collections as directed by a lineage of popes, which were then parceled into different locations and museums as the collections grew. Book chapters follow various locations and study the creation and history of representative pieces. As one of the accompanying essays point out-- the collections are thrice important as historical records, as documentation of religious sentiment, and as assemblage of classical, medieval and Renaissance art styles. Utterly wonder-inducing to contemplate the heights of human imagination from the best among us. Probably best appreciated with an art and architecture picture dictionary in tow to visualize the various art/architectural terms used.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong]

History and overview of the art that is housed in the Vatican. Maps provide the halls each museum is houses in.