Vatican Museums

The exhibition “Le Litanie della Vergine di Mario Deluigi. Dialogue between the Sacred and Abstraction” (Mario Deluigi’s Litanies of the Virgin Mary), curated by Rosalia Pagliarani and Assia Carpano, on display in the exhibition halls of the Papal Palace of Castel Gandolfo, is dedicated to the Venetian artist, one of the leading figures in the development of painting in the second half of the twentieth century. Mario De Luigi, known professionally as Deluigi, was born in Treviso in 1901 and died in Dolo, Venice, in 1978. He navigated the era of abstraction and spatial art with originality and rigour, adhering to the movement by signing its Manifesto in 1951.

In the context of his body of pictorial works, the work Litanies of the Virgin Mary (Homage to Mondrian), a large oil on panel from 1949–1950, stands out as a stylistically unique example: a composition conceived in the purest of abstract languages, giving rise to an authentic work of sacred art.

“The Litanies of the Virgin Mary” explains Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums, “is a Homage to Mondrian but, above all, a tribute to the Virgin Mary and her Litany. It was a groundbreaking work when Mario Deluigi created it in 1949, so much so that it was rejected by the Salesian fathers for whom he had conceived it. Exhibited at the 25th Venice Biennale in 1950, the painting was presented as a gift to Pope Paul VI by the Patriarch of Venice – Cardinal Albino Luciani, the future John Paul I – during a historic and evocative meeting that would foreshadow the future of the Roman Church, held in Saint Mark’s Square on 16 September 1972”.

Alongside the painting, a portfolio of ten silkscreen prints (1972) is exhibited, each dedicated to one of the titles associated with Our Lady of Loreto. A precious notebook, a sort of mock-up which the artist used to conceive the individual compositions, bears witness to this new creative process and is on display thanks to the generous support of the artist’s son, Gianni De Luigi, who has championed the rediscovery of the history of the Litanies. The exhibition is further enriched by two large textile panels, created by the historic Venetian manufacturer Rubelli and inspired by Deluigi’s silkscreen compositions: Rosa Mystica and Stella Matutina (Morning Star) on display here to commemorate the artist’s spiritual depth. In 1978, he wrote: “What can faith be? Trust in a force that you feel close to and that resembles you”.