Vatican Museum in the Tretyakov Gallery. Roma Aeterna

Let’s admit right away: buying a ticket will be difficult, almost impossible, but it’s worth it. Never before have the Vatican Museums exported so many masterpieces from their permanent exhibition outside their borders.

What is “mission impossible” in the modern cultural space of Moscow? That's right, go to an exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery. Moreover, you can even stand in a queue for many hours, and still this will not give you absolutely any guarantees of the successful completion of this undertaking.

Are you a fan? latest technologies and decided to book a ticket online? Surprise! All tickets until the end of December have long been sold out, and from January 1 to January 15, entry to the exhibition is possible only with personalized tickets in the exact time period allotted to you. There are absolutely no complaints about the museum’s management: they are doing everything right, there’s just a stream of people wanting to go to the “Roma Aeterna” exhibition. Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca. Bellini, Raphael, Caravaggio” is so large that the museum is working at the limit of its capacity, and all visits had to be strictly regulated so that chaos does not prevail inside the exhibition space.

Melozzo degli Ambrosi. “Aangel playing the viol"

What is the reason for such a stir? Now we'll tell you! The fact is that the current exhibition is truly unique. First and main reason- The Vatican has never before provided any museum in the world with such a number of works from the best part of its collection at the same time, and these are as many as 42 paintings! What is unfolding before us now is an essentially unprecedented project not only for the Russian and European cultural space, but, obviously, for the whole world.

Pietro Vannucci. “Saint Placidas” PRESS SERVICE OF THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY

It would not be an exaggeration to say that every painting presented at the exhibition is outstanding. The Vatican Pinacoteca contains the most significant artistic heritage of the history of the Papal State from the 12th to the 18th centuries. The works of such giants as Giovanni Bellini, Melozzo da Forli, Perugino, Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino and Nicolas Poussin are presented here. The current exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery is a kind of reminder to all of us that “Moscow is the third Rome,” and what Rome means for Russia, we don’t even need to remember, enough has been said and written about this.

Paolo Cagliari. “Vision of Saint Helena” PRESS SERVICE OF THE TRETYAKOV GALLERY

Visitors should pay special attention to the painting that opens the exhibition - “Christ Blessing” - the earliest Roman icon, painted in the 12th century under the strong influence of Byzantium. IN in a certain sense this is a landmark work for Orthodoxy and Catholicism, since it contains a reminder of their common source, which gave rise to both Russian and Italian art. This icon is the cornerstone that provides the key to understanding the entire current exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery.

What else is worth standing in line for? Of course, for the sake of the most iconic of the imported works - “Entombment” by Caravaggio, which radically influenced the entire history of world painting. Secondly, for the sake of three frescoes by Melozzo da Forlì, which depict angels who, without undue modesty, can be called the most famous angels in the world. Can you guess what we're talking about? Yes, yes, that's exactly them. Well, and of course you can’t help but see “Saint Francis”, written by Margaritone d’Arezzo in the 13th century. Not a single modern history textbook can do without this picture. And the visit to the exhibition should be completed with two grandiose works by Crivelli and Bellini - “Lamentations”.

Pinakothek collection

The Pinacoteca is one of the collections of the Vatican Museums complex. The first of them were established in the 16th century by Pope Julius II, who ordered the painting of the Sistine Chapel from Michelangelo, and the frescoes for stanzas from Raphael. The art gallery appeared much later: it was founded in the second half of the 18th century by Pope Pius VI. Her collection demonstrates the main milestones of Italian religious painting: from the Proto-Renaissance, the era preceding the Renaissance, to the Old Masters. The collection includes artists from Giotto and Simone Martini to Caravaggio and Guido Reni. However, you can see not only Italians in the Pinakothek: large-format paintings by the French classicist Poussin and the Spanish master Murillo are not inferior to national painting.

Exhibition concept

The issue of an exhibition of masterpieces from the Vatican Pinakothek was decided at the highest level: negotiations were conducted by Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis personally. The scale is quite understandable: this is the first time that paintings have left the Vatican in such quantity - 42 works. In addition, next year the Tretyakov Gallery will send its exhibition to Rome - works on gospel subjects. The curator was Arkady Ippolitov, a senior researcher at the Hermitage, a writer and a brilliant exhibitor who works wonderfully with both the Renaissance and modernity. Not only has he organized exhibitions from Parmigianino to the Kabakovs, but he was the first Russian curator to combine Mapplethorpe's photography and mannerist art in a 2004 exhibition.

Last year, Ippolitov curated the large-scale exhibition “Palladio in Russia”, held at the Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve and the Museum of Architecture. Shchuseva. It showed the connection between one of the main architects of the Italian Renaissance and Russian architects of different eras, from the Baroque to the Soviets.

Exhibition plan: from celestial beings to celestial bodies

The exhibition at the Tretyakov Gallery is presented in three halls, and it opens with “Christ Blessing” - the most early work, icon of the second half of the 12th century. It is in this that the creators of the exhibition see the kinship between Italian and Russian art, which takes Byzantine traditions as a basis. It was Byzantine icons and foldings that became the prototype for both the medieval art of Italy and for ancient Russian religious images. Among the masterpieces of the first hall are the master of International Gothic Gentile da Fabriano and the Venetian of the early Renaissance Carlo Crivelli. Their techniques are conventional and sometimes grotesque: Crivelli, for example, deliberately lengthens left hand Christ to unite him with Mary Magdalene and the Virgin Mary. However, the main masterpieces are ahead - Bellini, Perugino and Melozzo da Forli. In his Lamentation of Christ, Bellini resorts to unusual iconography: instead of the Virgin Mary, Christ is supported by Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene are depicted nearby. He was one of the first Venetians to switch from tempera, a paint based on egg yolk, to oil painting - a technique that was brought to Italy from the Netherlands.

Raphael's teacher Pietro Vannucci, better known as Perugino, is represented in the exhibition by two works. These are strong images of Saint Placidus and Saint Justina: and although their features are similar to Raphael's painting (the same soft tilt of the head, for example), we can see how the famous student surpassed his teacher. Next to them, attention is drawn to the pretty angels of Melozzo da Forli, playing the lute and viol. Their spontaneity, liveliness and colorfulness (which is especially difficult to achieve in fresco technique) distinguish da Forli’s angels from the background of many restrained images by other artists of the same era. The frescoes were part of the multi-figure composition "The Ascension of Christ" in the Church of Santi Apostoli in Rome.

The main hall of the exhibition is built in the shape of a semicircle, similar to the square of St. Peter's Basilica, the symbol and heart of the Vatican and the entire Catholic Church. In the center are paintings by Correggio and Veronese, next to them are small grisailles and monochrome paintings by Raphael. The main masterpiece of the exhibition, “Entombment” of Caravaggio, is in the right semicircle, surrounded by followers - Guido Reni, Orazio Gentileschi and student Carlo Saraceni. Caravaggio painted “Entombment” as the personal painter of Cardinal Francesco del Monte in 1602-1604 for the Roman temple of Santa Maria della Vallicella. Features characteristic of Caravaggio's painting - contrast of light and shade and monumental form - distinguish this work from others at the exhibition. And in the Vatican Pinakothek it is considered one of the main masterpieces: Nicodemus and John lay the heavy, pale body of Christ in the tomb. The silent gestures of the grieving Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene and the young Mary behind are even more emotional than their faces. Opposite is “The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus” by French classicist Nicolas Poussin, painted for St. Peter’s Basilica.

The history of the Papal State ends with the work of Donato Creti. A multi-leaf polyptych dedicated to astronomical observations is located in a separate room. On eight canvases there are the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and a certain falling comet. The learned monk Luigi Marsili commissioned the work from the artist in the early 18th century as a gift to Pope Clement XI to hint at the need to sponsor an observatory. Creti's paintings also include "recent" observations: for example, the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, discovered in 1665. But Uranus, discovered only in 1781, is not captured by Donato Creti. The 18th century was, by and large, the last in history when the papacy played a decisive role - this is where the exhibition ends.

Moscow has never seen such an exhibition before. IN Tretyakov Gallery brought 42 canvases from the Vatican Pinakothek. And, according to the deputy director Vatican Museum Barbara Yatta, this amounted to 10% of the collection that is exhibited in the Vatican Museum.

The idea to hold such an exhibition arose several years ago. And, as the director said Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova, it came from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis.

“The idea was to present two exhibitions in Russia and the Vatican. The collection of the Vatican Museums will be shown in Moscow, and an exhibition from the collection of Russian museums will be shown in the Vatican. Since the Russian exhibition was composed of 90% of the works included in the collection Tretyakov Gallery, then the exhibition from the Vatican should logically open within these walls,” Tregulova explained the choice of location for the exhibition. She also noted that this exhibition might not have happened.

Melozzo degli Ambrosi. "Angel Playing the Viola"

Funds for the expensive museum project were initially supposed to be provided by the Vatican. But at the last moment it was decided to donate the money to help children from Syria. Then entrepreneur Alisher Usmanov came to the rescue. In his foundation "Art, Science and Sports" They do not name the amount spent on the exhibition, but they note that this is not the first supported museum project for Usmanov. Previously, the billionaire sponsored exhibitions of William Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites in Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkina, as well as expositions "Whistler and Russia" V Tretyakov Gallery.

For the sake of the exhibition "Roma Aeterna. Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca. Bellini, Raphael, Caravaggio" some paintings were abandoned Pinakothek for the first time. And paintings in such quantities have never been taken out of Vatican museums before either. In three halls Tretyakov Gallery houses paintings created from the 12th to the 18th centuries. “We are convinced that for a world that is becoming increasingly polarized and increasingly torn apart by conflicts, art, especially with religious themes, offers hope,” said Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the governorate of the Vatican City State, who arrived in Moscow.

Exhibition curator Arkady Ippolitov noted that for obvious reasons, bringing frescoes to Moscow "Sistine Chapel" and Raphael's Stanzas was impossible. But otherwise, “masterpieces, super-masterpieces and even super-super-masterpieces” came to Moscow. The first hall of the exhibition opens with a rare icon "Christ the Blesser" XII century, which is an analogy of ancient Russian images of the Savior Almighty. And next to it is a painting "Saint Francis of Assisi" Margaritone d'Arezzo, included in all art history textbooks. This is one of the earliest images of the saint, made after his canonization in 1228. And it was his name that the current pontiff chose.

Icon "Christ the Blesser" and Margaritone d'Arezzo "Saint Francis of Assisi"

press service of the Tretyakov Gallery

Exhibition in Tretyakov Gallery decorated symbolically - in the form of a circle reminiscent of St. Peter's Square. “Everything in the project was thought out, right down to the color of the walls - so typical of Rome and at the same time appealing to the halls of the Vatican,” noted Arkady Ippolitov. And the words were included in the title Roma Aeterna- “eternal Rome”. The triumph of the eternal city consists of its masterpieces.

Exhibition name: Roma Aeterna. Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca. Bellini, Raphael, Caravaggio

Where: Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane, Engineering Building

Number of exhibits: 42 paintings from the permanent exhibition of the Vatican Pinacoteca

An exhibition of masterpieces from the permanent collection of the Vatican Museum, which extremely rarely leave their native walls, will be opened at the Tretyakov Gallery on November 25, 2016. The head of the gallery, Zemfira Tregulova, previously reported that the implementation of this project is carried out on the initiative of Pope Francis and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The title of the exhibition contains the famous Latin phrase about the eternal city – Roma Aeterna, which means “Eternal Rome” in Latin. Undeniable influence fine arts Italy on the cultures of other countries. This exhibition will be continued with a subsequent return exhibition of works Russian artists from museums in Russia.

The halls of the Tretyakov Gallery will display masterpieces of the 12th–18th centuries, including works by Giovanni Bellini, Melozzo da Forli, Perugino, Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino, Nicolas Poussin.

The curator of the exhibition, Hermitage specialist Arkady Ippolitov notes: “These are things that almost never leave Rome, and Zelfira Tregulova and I, when we managed to get them, were absolutely happy. Of course, not everything was given according to the preliminary list, but that’s what I was counting on: the Tretyakov Gallery, and with it Moscow and Russia, received the most important things.”

The exhibition will feature three angels playing musical instruments, Melozzo da Forli- these are frescoes removed from the wall of the Church of the Holy Apostles in Rome back in the 18th century. These frescoes were preserved despite the fact that Pope Clement XI ordered in the 18th century to remove all the paintings in order to repaint the walls in a modern style. From the grandiose ensemble of Melozzo, pieces of frescoes depicting his angels remained, which are now carefully preserved. But even what remains is truly beautiful.”Removed frescoes are not easy to transport; they are provided by the Pinakothek for exhibition to other museums extremely rarely, but we will have as many as three angels,” noted Arkady Ippolitov.

If you haven’t had time to visit the Vatican Museums, then this exhibition is a chance to see masterpieces in the originals. Tickets are already on sale on the Tretyakov Gallery website. Visiting the exhibition will be organized in sessions of 30 minutes each. The cost of visiting is 500 rubles.

An article about Raphael's paintings at the exhibition of masterpieces at the Vatican Pinacoteca is located