Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque Art
from the Papal Collections
February 8-April 12, 1998
Curator's Article
The Exhibition at a Glance
Organizers
Highlights
Cleveland's Permanent Collection
Catalogue
Tickets, Hours, and Travelers'
Information
Acknowledgements
Related Programs
Map of Vatican City in Acrobat Format
(60k)
Vatican Treasures
by Diane De Grazia
The Clara T. Rankin Chief Curator
Organization of the remarkable Vatican Treasures exhibition
began almost two years ago with the encouragement of Bishop Anthony
Pilla and the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. The concept for this
undertaking--part of the year-long celebration of the Diocese's 150th
anniversary--is owed to CMA Director Robert Bergman, whose experience
in organizing a Vatican show at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore
inspired him to envision an exhibition of greater chronological and
historical breadth.
The exhibition focuses on art works of the highest quality from over
1,000 years of Church history. These objects, all commissioned by the
papal court, received as gifts, or purchased by the popes, were chosen
for their historical importance and beauty and the spiritual power
they possess for the Church's faithful. Divided into three sections
chronologically--early Christian, Renaissance, and Baroque--the show
includes unique masterpieces: reliquaries, manuscripts, vestments,
liturgical objects, sculptures, and painting from the 6th to the 17th
centuries. All have come to Cleveland for the first time.
The section of early Christian art consists of reliquaries and
devotional objects of great rarity. Never before seen in this country
and the most prized object of the Treasury of Saint Peter's is the
sumptuously decorated silver cross of emperor Justin II. Encrusted
with expensive gems and pearls, the cross is a reliquary that held in
its central roundel slivers from the cross on which Christ was
crucified, discovered in the fourth century by Queen Helena, emperor
Constantine's mother. The decoration on the reverse of the cross is
repoussé, that is, hammered by hand from behind to form a
relief.
Unprecedented also is the loan of seven objects from the Sancta
Sanctorum Treasure. These works are among the most valued medieval
objects belonging to the Vatican, both spiritually and artistically.
They housed sacred relics that were gathered by Pope Leo III in the
ninth century and added to subsequently. They survived at the church
of Saint John Lateran until their discovery in 1903. Because of their
importance, the chapel where the relics were found is called the
Sancta Sanctorum (Holy of Holies). Today the relics remain in the
chapel and the precious reliquaries and textiles have been moved to
the Vatican, where the public can see them in the Museo Sacro of the
Vatican Library.
Rarest among the treasures of the Sancta Sanctorum is the Reliquary
Box with Stones from the Holy Sites in the Holy Land. Within the
box are stones collected in the sixth to seventh centuries from sacred
sites in the Holy Land; on the cover are painted the events in
Christ's life that took place at these sites: the Nativity, the
Baptism, the Crucifixion, the Marys at the Tomb, and the Resurrection.
 
Remarkable for its beauty and craftsmanship is the Reliquary of
the True Cross and its casket, both commissioned by Pope Paschal I
in the ninth century and found in the treasure of the Sancta
Sanctorum. The cross is an amazing work of colorful splendor and
narrative complexity. Scenes from Christ's early life are depicted in
cloisonné, a medium in which heated enamel is poured within the
confines of designs made by placing wires on a gold background. The
casket that holds the reliquary has come down to us intact. The
partially gilt silver box is decorated with scenes from Christ's
infancy. Its rich narrative and that of the cross suggest that they
were intended as gifts for a church dedicated to the Virgin, for whom
many popes had a special devotion.
The illustrated manuscripts presented in Vatican Treasures
reflect the splendor of the papal court in the 15th and 16th centuries
and the intellectual and scholarly pursuits of the Renaissance
pontiffs. The Vatican Library was instituted in 1475 and was already
the largest library in Europe. Not only did the Renaissance popes
collect ancient and medieval texts, they also commissioned books for
liturgical use in the Sistine Chapel, their private place of worship.
In the 1490s Fra Antonio da Monza illustrated a missal to be used
exclusively by the pope in celebrating Mass on Christmas day. This
manuscript is ostentatiously elaborate for use on the most celebratory
day of the liturgical calendar. Letters introducing chapters are
sumptuously ornamented with scenes relating to Christ's life. The
Antiphonary of Pope Leo X was commissioned by the Medici pope,
whose interest in music and art resulted in a great surge of
decorations for the Sistine Chapel, including tapestries designed by
Raphael and elaborately decorated choral books, or antiphonaries.
Later in the century, Pope Clement VIII requested that a set of
tapestries be commissioned by the Medici family for use in the Sistine
Chapel during Passion Week. The result is the most richly designed
suite of vestments created in the Renaissance, richly woven with silk
and gilt silver threads at the Medici tapestry factory in Florence.
The vestments were meant specifically to complement the 15th-century
frescoes in the chapel with scenes from the lives of Moses and Christ.
Worn in the context of the Sistine Chapel decorations, they certainly
would have made a sumptuous visual impact on the participants at Mass.
The exhibition concludes with key works in the Vatican collections
from the baroque period, when papal power in Europe was strong and
Rome was the international center of diplomacy and art. Artists from
all of Europe arrived in Rome to study its ancient monuments and
Renaissance masters. At the same time, the city was in the midst of an
architectural expansion. The newly finished Saint Peter's basilica
influenced the numerous churches built or refurbished to reflect the
continuing Catholic struggle against Protestantism and its belief in
ultimate victory. Works from 17th-century Rome are often celebratory
and richly decorated; however, their basic devotional message and
spirituality are never lost. Pope Urban VIII can be credited with much
of the embellishment of Rome during these years. Under his reign, the
new Saint Peter's was decorated with major works of art under the
direction of the greatest sculptor and architect of the 17th century,
Gian Lorenzo Bernini. In the exhibition are a bust by Bernini of Urban
VIII and models for the figure of Charity on the pope's tomb, which
was erected in Saint Peter's.
The painting gallery of the Vatican Museums possesses major works by
primary artists of the Renaissance and baroque eras, including
Michelangelo Merisi, called Caravaggio, the best known and most
imitated painter of the 17th century. The exhibition closes with
Caravaggio's Entombment, considered the artist's masterpiece
even before its installation in the Vittrici Chapel of Rome's Chiesa
Nuova in 1604. Known for his realism and dramatic lighting effects,
Caravaggio used both here to depict the intense emotional feelings of
Christ's mother and followers as they placed his body on the stone of
unction.
These masterpieces from the Vatican, created by the most noted
artists of their day, reflect the spiritual and temporal aims of the
papacy over the period of its greatest influence and growth. The
splendor of these works attests to their importance within the
Church's artistic history; their religious sincerity reflects the
lasting power of sacred imagery over the centuries.
Captions for all works illustrated
At a Glance
The Cleveland Museum of Art is presenting some of the most sacred
and artistically important works from the Vatican museums in a
Cleveland-only exhibition, Vatican Treasures: Early Christian,
Renaissance, and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections. The
exhibition focuses on supreme examples of art whose spiritual
dimension is of enormous power—works by the greatest artists of
their time, commissioned by and for popes who were the greatest
patrons of art. These thirty-nine masterpieces include manuscripts,
reliquaries and liturgical objects, vestments, paintings, and
sculpture from the 6th through the 18th centuries. The 1,400-year-old,
gem-encrusted, gilt silver Cross of Justin II, commissioned by
the Byzantine emperor as a gift to the pope in the 6th century, is the
centerpiece of the Treasury of St. Peter’s in Rome. This
extraordinary object is crossing the Atlantic for the first time for
this show. Vatican Treasures celebrates the 150th anniversary
of Cleveland’s Catholic Diocese.
Organizers
Museum director Robert P. Bergman, a medievalist, co-curated the
show with chief curator Diane De Grazia, who specializes in Italian
Renaissance and baroque art. Both are experienced in organizing
exhibitions involving works from the extensive collections of the
Vatican. In this case, commenting on this remarkable set of loans and
on the museum’s cooperation with Cleveland’s Bishop Anthony
Pilla and the diocese, Bergman said: “It is my humble belief that
the audacity of those of us at the museum could never have yielded
positive results without the sanctity of our clerical partners—and
vice versa. The enterprise was an ideal partnership and collaboration.”
Bishop Pilla observed: “Down through the centuries, art and
religion have been deeply entwined. Many of our greatest artworks also
have great spiritual significance. The Roman Catholic Church has
assembled one of the most important collections of Christian
liturgical art on Earth. Unfortunately, until now only a relative few
who could travel to the Vatican had any chance to view these
enlightening masterpieces. The Diocese of Cleveland is honored that
one of the world’s great museums, the Cleveland Museum of Art, is
presenting Vatican Treasures.”
In a letter dated the feast day of St. John the Evangelist, for
whom Cleveland’s Cathedral was named, the Secretary of State of
His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Angelo Cardinal Sodano, said of the
works in this exhibition: “They illustrate the ageless dialogue
between the message of the Gospel and its cultural expression....[and
enable] us to perceive the infinite interior harmony of the Divine in
the beauty of the universe and in the beauty of human creativity.”
Highlights of the Exhibition
The exhibition is arranged in roughly chronological order,
beginning with the most significant group of Byzantine and early
medieval objects ever to leave the Vatican, and climaxing with the
nearly-ten-foot-high oil painting by the baroque master Caravaggio:
his masterpiece, The Entombment of Christ.
Joining the sumptuous Cross of Justin II is an
unprecedented loan of eight early medieval works from the Sancta
Sanctorum (“holy of holies”) treasure discovered in 1903 in
the Lateran Palace, the papal residence prior to the Renaissance
relocation to the Vatican. A wooden Reliquary Box with Stones
from the Holy Sites of Palestine, a small souvenir of pilgrimage,
contains stones from the places associated with the key moments in
Christ’s life, from the Nativity to the Ascension, and is adorned
with corresponding paintings in tempera and gold leaf that comprise
the most important early cycle of holy site pictures known. The enamel
Cross of Pope Paschal I—the most important enamel to have
survived from the days of Charlemagne—like the Cross of Justin II
was intended to hold splinters of the cross on which Christ was
crucified, believed to have been discovered by Constantine’s
mother Helena in the 4th century.
Renaissance works on exhibition were meant for use in the Sistine
Chapel, the pope’s private chapel in the Vatican. One of the
manuscripts on view served as a book of statutes governing the use of
the chapel by the papal household, while another, an antiphonary, was
actually used in the conduct of the Mass in the Sistine Chapel in the
16th century. The Christmas Missal of Alexander VI (1492-94)
is one of the Vatican Library’s most superb examples of
Renaissance manuscript illumination.
A suite of vestments now numbering thirteen works was presented to
Clement VIII by Ferdinand I de Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. The
finest liturgical garments and altar cloths extant from the
Renaissance, they were woven in the late 16th century at the Medici
family tapestry works in precious gold, silver, and vividly colored
silk threads. They are covered with pictures that are like intricate,
individual paintings with scenes of Christ’s ministry and
Passion, which suggests that they were created mainly for Holy Week
ceremonies. Bergman points out: “When on special occasions these
luminous pieces were used in the Sistine Chapel—the most exalted
of papal spaces with its frescoes of Michelangelo, its 15th-century
wall paintings, and magnificent tapestries designed by Raphael for its
lower walls—it must have been one of the most remarkable
kaleidoscopes of sacred imagery the world has ever seen.”
Caravaggio’s Entombment is among the signature
paintings in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, or picture gallery. The pinnacle
of this revolutionary baroque artist’s career, it is filled with
life-sized figures of the Virgin and Christ’s disciples, mourning
and tending to the dead Christ, conveying all the emotion and high
drama that appealed to post-Reformation patrons at the turn of the
17th century. It is exhibited here with terra cotta sculptures by Gian
Lorenzo Bernini, the greatest of the papal architect/artists of the
period.
In addition to these Vatican objects, six works from the CMA
collection and from the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland,
are included that were also commissioned by, or gifts to, the popes;
plus, for context, a painting by Panini from the Saint Louis Art
Museum, depicting the interior of St. Peter’s in the early 18th
century. CMA works in the special exhibition include a rarely
exhibited study by Michelangelo for a figure on the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel.
Cleveland's Permanent Collection
Visitors to the exhibition may want to see related masterpieces
elsewhere in the galleries of CMA’s permanent collection. The
so-called “Jonah Marbles” from the 3rd century are among the
earliest known Christian free-standing sculptures, symbolically
linking the biblical story of the Old Testament prophet with the
resurrected Christ. The museum’s famed collection of medieval
gold and silver objects include the largest group in the U.S. of
reliquaries and other works from the Guelph Treasure dispersed in the
1920s and 1930s. Having seen Caravaggio’s Entombment in
the Vatican Treasures show, visitors may view his Martyrdom
of St. Andrew in the CMA old master paintings galleries, one of
only a handful of paintings by Caravaggio in American collections.
Catalogue
The 111-page catalogue for Vatican Treasures contains color
illustrations and descriptions of every Vatican object on view as well
as a checklist of all the works included in the show, including CMA
objects and additional loans. It is available in softbound for $19.95.
Tickets and Hours
Advance purchase of tickets to Vatican Treasures is strongly
recommended. Tickets can be purchased at the museum’s new ticket
center or by phone. Ticket prices are $7 Tuesdays-Fridays and $10
Saturdays and Sundays, with discounts for students, seniors, and
groups. Exhibition hours are Tuesdays & Thursdays 11 a.m. to 6
p.m., Wednesdays & Fridays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. , Saturdays &
Sundays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
CMA members are admitted to Vatican Treasures free, but
need admission tickets; memberships are $40 for individuals and $55
for families with discounts for students and seniors.
For more information, call 421-7350 or (outside 216)
1-888-CMA-0033. Museum admission is free. Museum hours:
Tuesdays-Sundays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesdays & Fridays until 9
p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays.
Recorded Tour
A 40-minute recorded tour narrated by CMA director Robert P.
Bergman is available for $4 per person ($3 for CMA members). This
Antenna® tour can be rented at the door or reserved in advance
through the CMA ticket center.
For Travelers
For a list of hotels offering special room packages for Vatican
Treasures, call (216) 421-7350 or 1-888-CMA-0033. For information
about visiting Cleveland, call the Convention and Visitors Bureau of
Greater Cleveland at 1-800-321-1004.
Special Events
In preparation for the exhibition, CMA director Robert Bergman’s
annual January lecture series will focus on “St. Peter’s in
Rome: The Most Important Church in Christendom.” The Acting
Director General of the Vatican Museums, Francesco Buranelli, will
come to Cleveland to lecture on Wednesday evening, February 25, at 7
p.m. A wide variety of music programs is planned for Friday evenings
and Sunday afternoons, including sacred music from Gregorian chant to
the baroque as well as medieval folk music. Family hands-on workshops
will take place every Sunday. Many of these events are free. See
Programs for more information.
Merchandise Available at Museum Store and Beachwood Place Store
The museum has developed gifts for all ages inspired by the
religious art in CMA’s medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque
masterpieces, especially those chosen for the Vatican Treasures
exhibition. Silk neckties and scarves incorporate the musical angels
and floral designs from a 15th-century silver gospel book cover. A new
holiday ornament is based on the dove and olive branch motif in the
vestments worn by Pope Innocent X in CMA’s 17th-century bronze
portrait bust by Algardi. Jeweled pendant crosses have been based on
masterworks of medieval German metalsmithing in the Guelph Treasure on
view in CMA’s rotunda. Works in the Vatican collections have
inspired a variety of jewelry and ornaments ranging from $10 to $300.
In addition to the exhibition catalogue, the stores will carry an
extensive selection of books on the Vatican collections, the Sistine
Chapel, and such major artists as Michelangelo, Rubens, and
Caravaggio. Souvenirs bearing the exhibition title include postcards,
posters, mugs, and leather bookmarks.
Acknowledgements
Funding for Vatican Treasures: Early Christian, Renaissance,
and Baroque Art from the Papal Collections, is provided in part by
the Illuminating Company, a FirstEnergy Company. The exhibition, which
honors the 150th Anniversary of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, is
also supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts
and the Humanities. Promotional support is provided by The Plain
Dealer, WDOK 102.1 FM, and AM850 WRMR.
Illustrations
The
Cross of Justin II, 565-78 (gilt silver and precious stones,
Treasury of Saint Peter's) was probably an imperial gift to Pope John
III from the Byzantine emperor because portraits of Justin II and his
wife are on the back.
Reliquary
Box with Stones from the Holy Sites of Palestine, 6th7-th century
(wood, tempera, and gold leaf, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana), a
marvel of pilgrimage souvenir art, is part of the Sancta Sanctorum
Treasure.
Reliquary
of the True Cross, 817-24 (gold and cloisonné enamel,
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana) is certainly the most important
surviving object of the early Christian period.
The
large format of the handsomely ornamented Antiphonary of Pope Leo
X, c. 1520(?) (ink, tempera, and gold on parchment, Biblioteca
Apostolica Vaticana) enabled Sistine Chapel choir members to read
their parts from a distance.
Caravaggio's
The Entombment of Christ, 1602-4 (oil on canvas, Pinacoteca
Vaticana).
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