Vatican Museums

On the eightieth anniversary of the appointment of Jacques Maritain as Ambassador of France to the Holy See, the Vatican Museums are celebrating the great French philosopher with an exhibition that retraces his thought, relationships and cultural legacy through the prism of twentieth-century sacred art.

Displayed in the heart of the exhibition itinerary dedicated to the art of the present, the exhibition – curated by Micol Forti, director of the Vatican Museums’ Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art – will be open to the public from 13 June 2025.
The project invites the visitor to rediscover the central role of Maritain in promoting renewed dialogue between spirituality and artistic creation in one of the most intense and complex periods of the twentieth century. The starting point is his stay in Rome as Ambassador of France to the Holy See from 1945 to 1948, which saw the intensification of his discussion with Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Paul VI, on the meaning of art in contemporary society and its power to elevate the human soul.

Paintings, drawings, documents and books illustrate the intellectual and spiritual ferment that swept through Europe in the postwar period. On display, among others, are the works by Georges Rouault, Marc Chagall, Gino Severini, Jean Cocteau, William Congdon, Henri Matisse, and Alfred Manessier, artists who – each one according to his own sensibility – explored the relationship between art and transcendence.
The itinerary is divided into seven thematic sections, following the main phases of the philosopher's aesthetic reflection, the influence exerted on the magisterium of Second Vatican Council and the fundamental contribution to the birth of the Collection of Modern Religious Art of the Vatican Museums.
The exhibition also aims to convey the cultural and spiritual climate in which Jacques and Raïssa Maritain lived, in dialogue with some of the most authoritative voices of the twentieth century such as Paul Claudel, Maurice Blondel, Paul Valéry and Jean Guitton.

With this exhibition, the Vatican Museums confirm their commitment to promoting contemporary art as a locus of research, memory and contemplation, renewing their mission to preserve and promote a heritage of ideas, images and inspirations that continue to speak to the present day.