Presentation of the book “Le Raccolte del Museo Profano, V”
Vatican Museums Conference Hall – in person and live streaming
The new edition of Thursdays in the Museums on 27 November will be dedicated to the presentation of the book “Le Raccolte del Museo Profano, V. Ori precolombiani” (The Collections of the Profane Museum, V. Pre-Colombian Gold), edited by Jean-François Genotte and published by Edizioni Musei Vaticani.
The result of a long process of research and cataloguing, begun in 2016, the volume is intended as a scientific support tool for scholars and, at the same time, an opportunity to promote a hitherto little-known collection. The book begins with a brief historical introduction that traces the arrival of the collection in the Vatican and is part of a larger editorial project aimed at making the precious collections of the Profane Museum accessible to both specialists and the general public. Founded in 1761 by Pope Clement XIII, the Museum was intended to house collections of sumptuary art, instrumentum domesticum (cameos, ivories, rock crystals and small bronzes) and, until the early nineteenth century, the papal medal collections.
The Pre-Colombian gold artefacts held in the Vatican Museums represent, in terms of their heterogeneity and complexity, one of the most curious and unique collections in the Vatican. The publication examines seventy-five archaeological finds, almost all made of gold or tumbaga, an alloy of gold and copper. Seventy of them belong to the most well-known pre-Hispanic cultures of Colombia, while the other five come from Peru, Mexico and Panama. The collection includes minute votive figures, breastplates and pendants.
Among the most notable pieces are the three large Muisca breastplates, donated in 1893 to Pope Leo XIII by Miguel Antonio Caro (Bogotá, 1843-1909), then Vice-President of the Colombian Republic, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Pope’s episcopal ordination. Another group of works was most likely sent as a gift by the South American government to Leo XIII himself on the occasion of the Vatican Exhibition of 1888, organised to celebrate his priestly jubilee.
The speakers at the event will be Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums; Luca Pesante, Curator of the Department of Decorative Arts; Davide Domenici, Professor of the Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, and Jean-François Genotte, Assistant of the Anima Mundi Department of Ethnological Collections.
The presentation will conclude with a visit to admire the Pre-Colombian gold artefacts.
