Page 241 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

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Raphael’s Last Painting Modern Religious Art
When Raphael died in 1520, the Modern artists exhibited in the
Transfiguration was found in his studio, Vatican Museums face daunting
almost complete. The wonderful competition from the great
luminous work was placed at the head works of the past. Few
of the bier where the great artist’s body modern works are displayed
lay. It depicts the episode in the Gospels in conspicuously, the exceptions
which Christ took three of the Apostles to being Momo’s spiral staircase
the top of a mountain, where he appeared of 1932, which greets visitors as
to them in divine glory. In the detail shown they enter the museums, and
here, Christ floats above the ground in a halo Arnaldo Pomodoro’s abstract
of ethereal light. sculpture in the center of the
Cortile della Pigna.
In 1973 a contemporary art
The galleries around the Cortile Wilderness. Of the great 16th- collection was inaugurated by
del Belvedere were all decorated century works, do not miss the Pope Paul VI. Housed in the
by great artists between the fine altarpiece by Titian, the Borgia Apartment, it includes
16th and the 19th centuries. The Crucifixion of St. Peter by Guido over 800 exhibits by modern
Gallery of Tapestries is hung with Reni, the Deposition by Cara- artists from all over the world,
tapestries woven in Brussels to vaggio, and the Communion of donated by collectors or the
designs by students of Raphael; St. Jerome by Domenichino. artists themselves. Works in a
the Apartment of Pope Pius V Raphael has a whole room great variety of media show
has beautiful 15th-century dedicated to his work. It contains many contrasting approaches
Flemish tapestries; and the the beautiful Madonna of Foligno to religious subjects. There are
Gallery of Maps is frescoed with and the Transfiguration as well as paintings, drawings, engravings,
16th-century maps of ancient eight tapestries and sculpture by 19th- and
and contemporary Italy. When made to his 20th-century artists, as well as
you go to visit the Raphael designs. mosaics, stained glass, ceramics,
Rooms (see pp240–41), you and tapestries. Well-known
should not overlook the near- modern painters such as
by Room of the Chiaroscuri Georges Braque, Paul Klee,
and Pope Nicholas V’s tiny Edvard Munch, and Graham
private chapel, frescoed Sutherland are all represented.
by Fra Angelico There are also drawings by
between 1447 Henry Moore, ceramics by
and 1451. Similarly, Picasso, and stained glass
before reaching by Fernand Léger. Projects for
the Sistine Chapel modern church ornaments
(see pp242–5), include Matisse’s decora-
visit the Borgia tions for the church of
Apartment, St. Paul de Vence, Luigi
frescoed in a Fontana’s models for the
decorative, bronze doors of Milan
flowery style cathedral, and Emilio
by Pinturicchio Lunette of the Adoration of the Magi by Pinturicchio in the Room of the Greco’s panels for the
and his Mysteries in the Borgia Apartment doors of Orvieto cathedral.
students in the 1490s. The
contrast with Michelangelo’s
Sistine Chapel ceiling, begun
in 1508, could hardly be greater.
Another set of fascinating
frescoes decorates the Loggia
of Raphael, but this requires
special permission to visit.
Many important works by
Renaissance masters are on
display in the Pinacoteca (art
gallery). Highlights among the
works by 15th-century painters
are the Lament over the Dead
Christ by the Venetian Giovanni
Bellini, and Leonardo da Vinci’s
unfinished St. Jerome in the City with Gothic Cathedral by Paul Klee (1879–1940)

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