Vatican Museums: The Apparent Failure”

As the Church marks Holy Saturday, we draw inspiration from Polidoro da Caravaggio’s “The Way to Calvary” from the Vatican Museum’s Pinacoteca (ca. 1530).

Polidoro da Caravaggio, The Way to Calvary; ca. 1530; oil on walnut panel, gilt frame; Pinacoteca Vaticana (© Musei Vaticani)

Polidoro da Caravaggio, The Way to Calvary; ca. 1530; oil on walnut panel, gilt frame; Pinacoteca Vaticana (© Musei Vaticani)

An intensely dramatic piece of art, it was part of the preparatory work for the altarpiece created for the Church of the Annunciation of the Catalani in Messina, installed in 1534. It was praised by the “Vasari” for the “number of figures accompanying Christ to death – soldiers, Pharisees, cavalry, women, cherubs and thieves in front of Him.”

“The Cross seems to confirm Christ’s failure, but in reality, it signals His victory. On Calvary, those who mocked Him said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’ But the opposite was true: it was precisely because Jesus was the Son of God, that He was there, on the Cross, faithful to the end to the loving plan of the Father. And for this very reason God exalted Jesus, conferring universal kingship on Him.”

(Pope Francis – Angelus, Sunday, 14 September 2014)

Under the direction of Paolo Ondarza

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