Vatican Museums

To pay homage to Pope Montini in the month of his canonization, which occurs officially on 14 October, the Vatican Museums will hold a symbolic exhibition event in the spaces that house the art collection – now known as the Collection of Contemporary Art – which was conceived by Paul VI himself and which he strongly desired and supported during the years of his papacy.

“The Artist is Prophet and Poet” is the title chosen for this intimate but dutiful photographic tribute by the Pope’s Museums, and it is a citation from the speech given by the Brescia-born Pontiff on 1973 to mark the inauguration of the new Collection. His words on that occasion had already been significantly preceded, ten years earlier, in his homily for the “Mass of Artists”, in which Paul VI clearly expressed his intention to cancel the distance that had been created between the Church and artists, and thus to recompose a bond that had been interrupted for too long.

From 12 October to 5 November, in an extraordinary form along the itinerary of the Collection of Contemporary Art, the visitor to the Vatican Museums will therefore find a small but significant selection of original photographs bearing witness to some fundamental phases in the history of the collection, expressing heartfelt acknowledgement of the modernity and farsightedness of its founder.