Art
God Loves Versace in Met Museum’s Fashion and Catholicism Exhibit
The museum yokes the spectacle of fashion and the spectacle of Catholicism in its largest costume exhibition to date.
Vatican
In Brief
Vatican Digitizes a 1,600-Year-Old Illuminated Manuscript of the 'Aeneid'
In Rome, around the year 400, a scribe and three painters created an illuminated manuscript of Virgil’s Aeneid, illustrating the the ancient hero Aeneas’ journey from Troy to Italy.
Art
Soaking in the Materiality of the Vatican
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — For those who can't travel to the Vatican, a photographic series by Massimo Listro offers a chance to wander imaginatively through its halls.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: selfie-taking vandals at the Colosseum, former Vatican worker holds stolen Michelangelo letter ransom, and ISIS mounts cyber attack on Midwestern crafts museum.
In Brief
Vatican Rents Out Sistine Chapel as New Visitor Limits Are Announced
For the first time in its 600-year history, the Sistine Chapel has been rented out for a private event organized by Porsche, The Telegraph reported.
News
Vatican to Digitize 41 Million Pages of Ancient Manuscripts
What happens when a wide swath of history — previously only explored by white-gloved librarians and erudite historians — is made available to anyone with a solid internet connection? Thanks to the Pope, we’ll soon find out.
News
Vatican and Oxford Launch Ambitious Digital Archive of Ancient Texts
The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford and the Vatican Library have some of the richest collections of ancient biblical texts, but most of them are inaccessible to the general public. Now, through a collaborative project, 1.5 million manuscript pages are being digitized for public access o
Opinion
First Western Painting of Native Americans Discovered at the Vatican
During the recent restoration of Pinturicchio's Resurrection fresco (1494) on the wall of the Hall of Mysteries in the Borgia Apartment at the Vatican has revealed what may be the first images of Native Americans in European art.
News
The Vatican Will Mount a Pavilion Exhibition at the 2013 Venice Biennale
[This post has been corrected, see below for details] Just as Pope Francis begins his tenure at the head of the Catholic Church, the announcement comes that the Vatican will finally have its own pavilion at the Venice Biennale, themed around the Book of Genesis.
News
The Legacy of a Conservative Catholic Pope Who Was Surprisingly Open-Minded About Art
As the first Catholic Pope to resign from his position since Gregory XII in the 15th century, Pope Benedict XVI has startled the world with his announcement that he will step down by the end of this month. While controversially conservative (and much less benevolent-appearing than his predecessor th
Opinion
Wait, Raphael Painted Porn at the Vatican?
I don't know how I missed this detail in Renaissance art class, but here's a first-hand account of visiting a sexy bathroom in the Papal apartment painted by one of the masters of the High Renaissance.