Of Books Art and People

Vatican Museums open ancient roman necropolis to tourists

By Lucy Gordan Panoramic view of part of the Vatican necropolis In preparation for 2025’s Jubilee, The Vatican Museums have opened to individual tourists and pilgrims an ancient Roman pagan necropolis or burial grounds. Previously it had been accessible only to select groups of scholars. Now underground, it was once street-level along the Via [...]

St. Peter’s baldacchino under restoration for 2025 holy year

By Lucy Gordan Bernini’s Baldacchino (Photo, Wikipedia) Self-portrait by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1623), now in Rome’s Borghese Gallery. (Photo, Wikipedia) Gian Lorenzo Bernini was Cardinal Maffeo Barberini’s favorite artist. On his ascent to the papal throne in 1623 Urban VIII remarked, “It’s a great fortune for you, O Cavaliere, to see Cardinal [...]

Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art

Anne de Bretagne,Queen of France, commissioned thisprayer book for her son Charles-Orland in c. 1494 On display in a splendid exhibition called “Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art” until September 2 are 65 of the some 1,300 medieval and Renaissance illuminated manuscripts belonging to New York’s Morgan Library. Here illuminating means [...]