There is much that is unprecedented in this exhibition. These are 42 exhibits from the permanent exhibition (at the opening it was said that almost 10% of the Vatican Pinakothek came to the State Tretyakov Gallery), which rarely leave their native and almost literally sacred walls. This is also a political component that patronizes the current artistic tours at the highest state level (the Tretyakov Gallery managed to bring to Moscow almost all the works commissioned from the Vatican, which is why a series of religious subjects turns into an almost continuous history of the development of styles in Italian art from the 12th to the 18th centuries) . This is also a special scenographic solution for the exhibition area - with a huge, illuminated logo from the inside and false walls that change the usual geometry of the halls on the third floor of the Engineering building of the Tretyakov Gallery (design “Roma Aeterna” and Agnia Sterligova). One of them, like the architectural plan of St. Peter's Church, has an octagonal shape, and the other, like the square in front of the main Vatican Basilica, is round.
Set of rules
The strict rules of accreditation and photography at the exhibition also have no analogues. At the press screening, journalists were repeatedly warned (and even forced to sign a special receipt for non-violation of the requirements set by the management of the Vatican Museums) that the paintings could not be removed entirely or, especially, in parts. It is possible only in the interior, against the background of a wall, and even better, so that several canvases fall into the frame at once. TV crews were prohibited from zooming in on the works with television cameras and taking close-ups of the paintings. This, however, is quite problematic in itself due to the specific exhibition design of the two main halls, covered to the top with wooden panels. In order to protect the paintings from visitors, the designers made smooth but high plinths that set the exhibits back to a distance slightly more than an arm's length. Because of which they all acquire an additional aura (“distance of the close,” if you remember the definition Walter Benjamin), finally turning into sacred objects of religious worship.
Light and color
As a result, you don’t get very close to masterpieces - except perhaps for tiny grisailles Raphael, exhibited in a separate showcase, and the astronomical cycle of Bolognese Donato Creti. His eight paintings are shown in the additional, well-lit third room. Less fortunate were the paintings from Baroque times, which occupied the largest hall, where twilight reigns.
Exhibition lighting, which museum workers constantly use on imported projects, creates additional difficulties of perception. Of course, it is extremely impressive when light rays directed at paintings turn them into windows of the heavenly world. However, this approach has many disadvantages associated with uncontrollable glare and blind spots creeping inside the frames. (stops working with small-sized exhibits that tell some particularly narrative stories with a lot of miniature details.) At the current exhibition, in addition to proto-Renaissance and Renaissance paintings Pietro Lorenzetti, Alesso di Andrea, Mariotto di Nardo,Giovanni di Paolo, this especially applies to the horizontally elongated two-meter composition “The Miracles of St. Vincenzo Ferrer” by the Bolognese master Ercole de Roberti, occupying a separate fence.
In the first room, where the lighting is normal, the oldest - and even ancient - exhibits are located. This is where two works are shown Perugino, large compositions Giovanni Bellini(pinnacle “Lamentation of Christ with Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and Mary Magdalene”) and lunette Carlo Crivelli, as well as even earlier Fra Beato Angelico, Gentile da Fabriano And Margaritone d'Arrezo, whose “Saint Francis of Assisi” of the 13th century is not yet the earliest work in the exhibition (the epigraph to it is the very Byzantine-like “Christ Blessing” of the Roman school of the 12th century). However, the most noticeable decoration of the first hall are three fragments of the fresco Melozzo da Forli with angels playing musical instruments (in the Vatican Pinacoteca there are 14 such individual episodes from the once single painting “The Ascension of Christ”). It is their graceful emblematic faces that are featured on posters, billboards, banners and the cover of the catalogue.
Explanations below and personalized tickets
Now that the press screenings have passed and the halls of the Tretyakov Gallery are filled with ordinary visitors, it will be interesting to see how the inscriptions and explanations located on the plinths will work: will they be visible in the dense stream of spectators? And finally, a completely new situation arose with the sale of tickets allowing access to the third floor of the Engineering Building on Lavrushinsky Lane. There is simply no online sale of tickets for the Vatican exhibition, this is written on the museum’s website. Regular paper tickets are sold out until December 31 of this year. From December 15, the Tretyakov Gallery box office will begin selling tickets for the 2017 sessions (the exhibition will last until February 19). And these tickets will be personalized, since during the previous ones, which were accompanied by long queues, museum workers were faced with numerous resellers offering tickets at prices that were several times inflated.
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 a 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 earliest work, an icon of the second half of the 12th century. It is in it that the creators of the exhibition see the kinship of Italian and Russian art, which takes Byzantine traditions as a basis. It was Byzantine icons and foldings that became the prototype for both medieval Italian art and 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, specially lengthens the left hand of Christ in order to connect 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 the 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.
On November 25, one of the most significant and unique exhibitions of recent years opens in the Engineering Building of the Tretyakov Gallery. 42 works of art from the Vatican Pinacoteca will be presented in Moscow for three months.
The popularity of various exhibitions with masterpieces from different eras in Moscow has recently been incredibly high. Tickets must be purchased in advance. People dress warmly and stand in long lines to look at unique paintings. What can you see this time? The answer is in the report.
1. The exhibition is located in the Engineering Building of the Tretyakov Gallery. This is the closest building to Tretyakovskaya metro station. Three halls on the third floor. Large, medium and small. 
2. The middle hall greets visitors first. A short introduction to the Vatican Museums and the plan of St. Peter's Basilica with the square in front of it. 
3. It all starts with an exhibit that has never left the Vatican before. "Christ the Blesser." 12th century, Roman school. 
4. The middle room is filled with small-sized paintings. In addition to the works of Bellini, Raphael and Caravaggio, mentioned in the title of the exhibition, you will be able to see Margaritone d’Arezzo, Pietro Lorenzetti, Gentile da Fabriano, Fra Beato Angelico. 
5. The Vatican Pinacoteca was founded by Pope Pius VI in the second half of the 18th century. By order of Napoleon Bonaparte, they were taken to Paris, but later returned to their place. For many years, the collection was replenished and decorated only the pope’s chambers and some rooms. Only in 1908 did the collection join the ranks of museum exhibits available to the public. At first it was located in the premises of the Belvedere Palace, and later received its own building. 
6. Most of the works in the Vatican Pinacotene are by Italians. A smaller part is the acquired collection of Byzantine art, and even fewer works from other countries. 
7. 42 works arrived in Moscow. This is almost 10% of the entire collection. Previously, such a large number of works had never been exported from the Vatican. The decision to hold temporary exhibitions of Russian works in the Vatican and the Vatican collection in Russia was made at the highest level. Financial support for this project was provided by Alisher Usmanov’s charity foundation “Art, Science and Sports”, which has repeatedly supported exhibitions at the Tretyakov Gallery. 
8. The importance of the event is emphasized by the visit of Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello. He is the governor of the Vatican City State, which is roughly equivalent to the position of prime minister in Russia. 
9. The second hall in line is large. The largest works in the collection are collected here. 
10. All paintings are signed in Russian and English. The inscriptions are under your feet. emphasizing the large threshold. 
11. And don't forget to look into the small hall at the far end from the entrance. These 8 works feature the series "Astronomical Observations" by Donato Creti. 
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In my unprofessional opinion, this is a very interesting exhibition. Small, but even in this form it looks complete. The religious themes of all the works are not surprising, but they are not striking either. We all understand that the Vatican is the center of Catholicism in the world. His collections of religious themes are very diverse.
Will you go to this exhibition?
Thank you for your attention! Stay in touch!
An exhibition of masterpieces from the Vatican Pinacoteca has opened at the Tretyakov Gallery on Lavrushinsky Lane.
In Moscow, 42 paintings of the 12th-18th centuries will be shown by such masters as Giovanni Bellini, Fra Beato Angelico, Perugino, Raphael, Caravaggio, Paolo Veronese, Nicolas Poussin, reports “ Interfax".
Entrance to the exhibition is organized in half-hour sessions. Meanwhile, as the museum’s press service reported, tickets to the exhibition have already been sold out until the end of the year. The museum noted that a new batch of tickets will arrive in mid-December.
The exhibition is unique in that the Vatican Museums have never previously provided paintings of this level and in such quantity for any event. Let us add that paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael Santi, Giovanni Bellini, Guercino, Pietro Perugino and Guido Reni rarely leave the Vatican.
/ Friday, November 25, 2016 /Topics: Culture
Exhibition of works from the collections of the Vatican Museums "Roma Aeterna. Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca. Bellini, Raphael, Caravaggio" will be held at the Tretyakov Gallery from November 25 to February 19, mos.ru reports.
The Vatican Museums brought masterpieces from the 12th to 18th centuries to Moscow. The exhibition includes 42 paintings by Giovanni Bellini, Melozzo da Forli, Perugino, Raphael, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Guercino, Nicolas Poussin.
In 2017, the Tretyakov Gallery will come to the Vatican on a return visit. The Vatican Museums will exhibit paintings by Russian masters based on gospel subjects.
An exhibition of masterpieces from the Vatican Pinacoteca, which have never before left Italy in such numbers, opened on Friday in the Engineering Building of the Tretyakov Gallery in Lavrushinsky Lane. .
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The exhibition reflects all stages of the artistic development of painting. It is opened by a 12th century icon “Christ Blessing”
, who had not previously left the Vatican, reports “ Interfax". Next in chronology is Margaritone d'Arezzo's work "Saint Francis of Assisi" from the 13th century, perhaps the earliest depiction of the saint. Frescoes depicting angels by Melozzo da Forlì are also exhibited separately.
The High Renaissance is represented at the exhibition by works by Perugino, Raphael, Correggio and Paolo Veronese. The colossal paintings “Entombment” by Caravaggio and “The Martyrdom of St. Erasmus” by Nicolas Poussin are placed opposite each other. The exhibition continues with works by Caravaggists and artists of the Bolognese school, and the final section is a cycle “Astronomical observations”
Donato Creti.
Entrance to the exhibition is organized in half-hour sessions; tickets until the end of the year have already been sold out, the gallery’s press service reported. A new batch of tickets will arrive in mid-December, and from January, in order to combat speculators, tickets to the exhibition will be personalized. There will be no restrictions on time spent at the exhibition. As practice shows, viewers usually only need an hour to view the exhibition. .
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"Roma Aeterna. Masterpieces of the Vatican Pinacoteca"
42 works of art from the heart of Rome
Date: November 25 - February 19
Location: Lavrushinsky lane, 12, Engineering building
Why go: to see a tenth of the entire collection of the Vatican Museums - 42 masterpieces out of 4 .
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Never before have so many outstanding works from the permanent exhibition left the walls of the Pinakothek at the same time.
And in 2017, a reciprocal exhibition will be held in the Vatican, at which the Tretyakov Gallery will show unique works of Russian painting on gospel subjects.
What else: electronic tickets for all sessions until January 1 are already sold out. The new batch will appear on the Tretyakov Gallery website on December 1. But this does not mean that it is impossible to get to the exhibition: at the box office of the museum itself, 30 additional tickets are sold every half hour.
Price: 500 rubles.
You can follow news and changes in the exhibition schedule on the Tretyakov Gallery website.
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
Melozzo da Forli. Musical Angel
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. The influence of Italian fine arts on the cultures of other countries is undeniable. This exhibition will be continued by a subsequent return exhibition of works by Russian artists from Russian museums.
Carlo Crivelli. Pieta (Lamentation of Christ)
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.”
Guido Reni. Apostle Matthew with an angel
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 exhibiting to other museums extremely rarely, but we will have as many as three angels,” noted Arkady Ippolitov.
Paolo Veronese. Saint Helena
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