The Vatican: All the Paintings: The Complete Collection of Old Masters, Plus More than 300 Sculptures, Maps, Tapestries, and other Artifacts
Ross King, author of many works of vivid art history, including Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling (2003), introduces this sumptuous showcase of 976 of the Vatican’s art treasures, observing that “the Vatican has always been a place sacred to the arts,” reaching back to the ancient Romans, for whom this hill overlooking the Tiber was a place of poets and seers, and forward through centuries of church patronage. Five million visitors a year tour this uniquely opulent citadel of art and its 21 museums, from the Pinacoteca (the picture gallery) to the Tapestry Gallery to the Egyptian and Etruscan collections. Now everyone everywhere can experience the Vatican’s magnificent collections in this veritable pageant of art history. Art historian Grebe provides to-the-point commentary, covering various popes’ commissioning of specific works and, beginning in the seventeenth century, avid acquisition of masterpieces. Here are exceptionally fine photographs of the Borgia Apartments, intricate frescoes, rare manuscripts and maps, the glorious Raphael Rooms, and the Collection of Modern Religious Art. An accompanying DVD provides additional portals onto the artistic wonders of the Vatican. --Donna Seaman