Vatican Museum: Beauty that Unites 34

Beauty creates communion. It unites onlookers from a distance, uniting past, present and future. Pope Francis has recalled this on a number of occasions. The Church has always translated the universality of the Good News into the language of art. From this premise, this dramatic moment in history characterized by uncertainty and isolation, gives rise to this initiative which is a partnership between the Vatican Museum and Vatican News: Masterpieces from the Vatican Collection accompanied by comments from the words of the Popes.

Influenced by Sebastiano Conca (1680-1764), attributed to Polidoro da Lanciano or Polidoro Veneziano, Madonna, oil on canvas with gilded frame containing the Colonna coat of arms, at one time in the Antonio Castellano Collection, Vatican Museum, Art Gallery, © Musei Vaticani

Hence it follows, as we have already pointed out,
that the Virgin is more powerful than all others
as a means for uniting mankind with Christ.
Hence too since, according to Christ Himself,
"Now this is eternal life: That they may know
you the only truly God, and Jesus Christ whom
you have sent", and since it is through Mary
that we attain to the knowledge of Christ,
through Mary also we most easily obtain
that life of which Christ is the source and origin.

(Pius X, Encyclical Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum, February 1904 )

Under the direction of: Paolo Ondarza

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