VATICAN ART

Evening Star, Issue 20687, 9 January 1931, Page 9

VATICAN ART

MEW PICTURE GALLERY The building of the new Picture Gallery of the Vatican City is awakening the greatest interest among art lovers. It has been designed and built by Senator Luca Beltrami for the wonderful paintings owned by the Holy See. The whole building is of pure Renaissance style, it covers an area of 2,600 square metres, and will be eighteen metres high. It is built along the avenue called delle Zitellc, in one of tho most suggestive parts of the Vatican Gardens. The south side will face a beautiful square, which will in time be adorned with more trees and flowers. The background of this scenery will bo filled by tho wonderful vision of the Dome of St. Peter’s, Michelangelo’s m The*' fa cad c of the gallery will be 100 metres Jong, consisting of five parts, though all united architecturally in one body rich and at the same time imposing. Visitors will have access to the gallery from the eastern side of the building, which will bo adorned with marble. Next to the entrance there will bo largo halls, high, well supplied with light, and subdivided according to the number of paintings of certain periods and authors. There will he thus a first group of rooms reserved to the “Primitives”— namely, to the Byzantines, to Giotto and the painters of the early 1400. This first wonderful group will close with a beautiful hall all dedicated to Melozzo da Forli. The second set of rooms starts with the painting of Beato Angelico, then follow painters of tho fifteenth century and Perugiuo. Next we come to tho huge room dedicated to Raphael. It is hardly possible to imagine a hall more worthy of this great painter. _ It is 28 metres long, 14 wide, and 10 high, and may well be defined a royal hall for the prince of painters. Raphael’s three largo paintings will bo placed on the walls toward south, on the other walls there will come_ all his large tapestries now in possession of the Vatican. It is self-understood that this room will be tho central feature of the whole picture gallery, which explains the particular and assiduous care devoted to it by its renowned architect. In the set of rooms which follow there will be displayed all Raphael’s smaller paintings and works by his pupils, by Leonardo, Titian, Caravaggio, Domenichino, Roni. Following these collections, visitors will then see rooms dedicated to Maratta, Murillo, Crespi, to portraits and to arasses. Tho large number of rooms and their uncommon size arc evidence of the artistic and ornamental conception set forth in this building, which will certainly be one of the most conspicuous works carried out by the munificence of Pope Pius XI. The external decoration will he severe, yet enriched by decorations in terracotta, majolica, and mosaic. As a whole, tho Vatican Picture Gallery will be quite worthy of the purpose it was built for. It is a gallery built to suit the existing collections, and not like all other galleries where paintings have to be placed to fit tho walls of old palaces. Rather than a home, it will bo a royal palace to hold masterpieces unique in the whole world and by tho whole world admired.