Vatican Museums

Through music is it possible to understand a work of art? Yes, "Art & Music" is proof. This cultural-didactic initiative is designed and promoted by the Vatican Museums for the New Year 2011.

The privileged visitor will be taken on a unique guided tour, the itinerary of which will change monthly. The itinerary will wind its way through suggestive visual sights, enhanced by sound references, culminating in a commentary of what has been seen, though music, performed on renaissance instruments, such as lutes, cymbals and flutes.

This new opportunity, offered by the Vatican Museums, gives visitors the chance of living the museum space as an area where seemingly distant cultures and arts meet, antique and modern, in a perceptual experience that is not only visual but also aural. Through different itineraries the masterpieces of the Pontifical Galleries are interpreted through music, giving voice to the sonority of every "image" and "stone".

The Bow and the Lyre theme inspire the first Art & Music itinerary for the month of February 2011. The first event takes place Saturday 5 February 2011, with a careful selection of the Museum's heritage, which is the protagonist and pretext for recounting the myths linked to Music, such as the sculptural group of Atena and Marsia with aulos, the Belvedere Apollo, Apollo the Cithara Player with Bow and Lyre, as well as the paintings from the Room of the Segnatura where the musical element is an integral part. It is in this area, considered to be one of the most beautiful in the Vatican Museums, in respect of and for the valorisation of the artistic context, which will echo the notes of musical pieces chosen for lutes, flutes and voice following the seigniorial practice of the renaissance. A unique appointment for the lover of art and of ancient music! It is as well a great opportunity for many to approach with an open heart the "vision" and the sound of a musical expression impregnated with great artistic value.

On 5 - 12 - 19 and 26 February 2011 visitors can avail themselves of a guided tour: The Bow and the Lyre, while March will be devoted to The Mythical Birth of the Musical Instruments (5 - 12 - 26).