Posted on 10/20/2007 3:53:49 PM PDT by NYer
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In an unusual exhibit, the Vatican Museums has assembled 100 art works inspired by the New Testament vision of the Apocalypse.
While the paintings, statues and engravings depict some catastrophic scenes, the emphasis is on hope and the victory of good over evil.
In that sense, the exhibit takes a page from Pope Benedict XVI's audience talks last year, in which he said the Book of Revelation -- also known as the Apocalypse -- should not be read as a frightening warning of imminent destruction, but as an encouraging Christian vision.
The images unveiled at the Vatican Oct. 18 include ancient and modern interpretations of scenes from the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament.
The text is believed to have been written by St. John the Apostle based on visions he received on the island of Patmos, just off the coast of Ephesus. It is full of dramatic figures and images, including a woman giving birth, the book of seven seals, the lamb, the dragon and the beast.
The exhibit avoids excessive commentary. Instead, it presents a few lines of the text and lets the art speak for itself.
"It's interesting that the book of the Apocalypse has continued to inspire artists through the centuries. This show includes works dating from the fourth century right up to our own time, like Henri Matisse's design for 'The Tree of Life,'" Francesco Buranelli, director of the Vatican Museums, told Catholic News Service.
Other works depict the defeat of Satan, the Last Judgment and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
The exhibit is on display until Dec. 7 in the Sistine Hall of the Vatican Museums.
Regretably, the article does not indicate which artwork is being shown. Care to conjecture?
Cool. Any chance any of it’s one the web anywhere, I wonder.
I went searching but came up empty. That is why I posed the question of speculation as to which works might have been included. If you find something, would you be so kind as to post it to this thread and ping me? Thank you!
The works range from the 4th to the 20th centuries, and include masterpieces from the Louvre and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Thyssen-Bonemisza Museum in Madrid, the Capilla Real in Granada, the Tret'jakov Gallery in Moscow, the National Galleries in Berlin, Budapest and Warsaw, St. Marc's Basilica in Venice and the Vatican Museums themselves.Among the artists on display are El Greco, Salvador Dali and Giorgio de Chirico. Another of the exhibits includes Byzantine and Russian icons, including one of the vision of the Apocalypse from the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Patmos, the Greek island where St. John wrote the last book of the Bible.
Nothing I can see at the the Vatican Museum website.
The Telegraph says that good Lutheran "Albrecht Dürer’s The Opening of the Sixth Seal is among the works on show at the Vatican."
Hey, it's a start.
Is the picture just below the article two of the horsemen of the Apocalypse?
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