
Miniature Mosaics: a new layout in the Vatican Museums
New Wing – in person and live streaming
On 16 May 2025, the new layout of the collection of the Vatican Museums’ Miniature Mosaics will be presented, in the Library Galleries in the historic Pauline Hall II.
A renovated, permanent exhibition route, which invites the visitor to rediscover one of the most fascinating expressions of eighteenth-century decorative arts, the micromosaic.
At the heart of the layout is the arrangement of the works in the Gallery’s original eighteenth-century cabinets, furniture produced to conserve knowledge and now transformed into treasure chests to house the art of detail.
An exhibition selection full of meaning, reconnecting the micromosaic to its universe of reference: that of private wonder, silent contemplation, the precious object to be discovered close-up.
The origin of this expressive form is closely linked to Saint Peter’s Basilica, where, at the end of the sixteenth century, the Vatican Mosaic Studio was established, with the intention of substituting paintings with longer-lasting mosaic works.
The micromosaic stems from this tradition: a meticulous technique, initially applied to luxury objects, later to become a distinctive sign of the cosmopolitan taste of the Grand Tour.
The Vatican Museums collection – among the world’s most important – demonstrates the refinement of an art that transforms enamel tesserae just a few millimetres long into delicate and very powerful visions.
The new layout, curated by the Department of Decorative Arts, will be presented on 16 May in the presence of Sr. Raffaella Petrini, F.S.E., President of the Governorate of Vatican City State, the Director of the Vatican Museums Barbara Jatta, Alvar González-Palacios, art historian, and Luca Pesante, head of the department.
The public opening is scheduled from Saturday 17 May 2025.
The initiative is part of a broader project to promote the collections of applied arts in the Vatican Museums.
An invitation to slow down, to come closer, to observe. Because only in this way – from close up – does the infinitesimal reveal all its greatness.