Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art

by Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Vatican Collections : the Papacy and Art : Official Publication Authorized by the Vatican Museums [Hardcover] [Jan 01, 1982] The Vatican Museums

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Reference

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, (colloquially, the “Met”) is the largest art museum in the United States.

It was founded on April 13, 1870, "to be located in the City of New York, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said city a Museum and library of art, of encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and, to that end, of furnishing popular instruction."

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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