Vatican Museums

From 23 March, and on the occasion of the Easter solemnities, Correggio’s Redeemer and the tapestry of Raphael’s Miraculous Draught of Fishes will leave the Vatican Museums, headed for the Castel Gandolfo Museum Complex, to inaugurate the new season of exhibitions at the Papal Palace.
Following the historic exhibition “Castel Gandolfo 1944”, which opened last 10 February, the Palace will enrich its cultural offering with two new projects, displaying two masterpieces from the Pope’s Museums. The initiative, the first of a series, will mark the launch of a new exhibition format, designed to bring the papal collections to Castel Gandolfo.

For over six months, therefore, pilgrims and tourists visiting the Museum Complex will be welcomed in the Hall of Popes by the exhibition “Raphael. The tapestry of the Miraculous Draught of Fishes for the Sistine Chapel”, curated by Alessandra Rodolfo, Head of the Department of Tapestries and Textiles of the Vatican Museums. The display of the precious textile artefact, made of wool, silk, and gold and silver threads (of Flemish manufacture), belonging to the series of tapestries of the Acts of the Apostles, is intended as a tribute to the genius of Urbino, who produced the preparatory cartoons at the behest of Pope Leo X so that they could further embellish the Sistine Chapel on the occasion of solemn ceremonies. The reconstruction of the of the grandiose display of tapestries designed by the “divin pittore” in the ancient Cappella Magna for just seven days in 2020, as part of the celebrations for the fifth centenary of the death of Raphael Sanzio, was indeed memorable.

“Correggio. The Redeemer of the Vatican Museums” is the second exhibition project that will enrich the new museum spaces on the lower floor of the Papal Palace with ideas and suggestions. Curated by Fabrizio Biferali, Head of the Department of XV-XVI Century Art, the exhibition will focus on another masterpiece of the Vatican Pinacoteca: the Redeemer (Christ in Glory) by Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio (1489-1534). The work in oil on canvas, originally the cymatium of the Triptych of the Humanity of Christ, was painted by the artist around 1525 for the great altar of the Church of Saint Mary of Mercy in Correggio (Reggio Emilia). However, its definitive attribution to the Emilian master is rather recent. In fact, it was only in 2011 that the authorship of the painting of Christ the Redeemer was confirmed, following scientific investigations carried out during the last Vatican restoration under the direction of the late Professor Antonio Paolucci (1939-2024).

Access to all the current exhibitions is free and included in the entrance ticket to the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo (which may be visited, with a guide or independently, along with the Garden of the Moor and the Secret Garden).