Catholic Tastes: The Vatican Enters the World of Contemporary Art
It wasn’t the type of gift you would normally think of for an 84-year-old Pope best known for conservative theology and critiques of secular culture. And indeed, as Benedict XVI moved through the exhibition of contemporary art that had been installed in his honor — one work for each of the 60 years he has been a priest — there were times when he looked more than a little bemused: pausing, say, in front of a flat blue canvas broken by a raised geometric pattern, or staring up at a metal etching of a face with a thin tree branch sprouting from between its eyes.
And yet, the Pope was clearly pleased with the project — the first incarnation of an effort he has championed to reconnect the Catholic Church with the world of art. It was a realm the Vatican once dominated, but one in which it has had little presence for more than a century. “Make the truth shine in your works — never separate artistic creation from truth and charity,” Benedict urged the assembled artists, who had joined him at the show’s opening in Rome in early July. They ranged from Ghanaian sculptor El Anatsui to American painter Max Cole.
The Vatican’s undertaking is by any measure ambitious. The modern church’s influence in the world of art is all but non-existent — a far cry from the time when the Pope could commission Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the papal chapel or when Cardinals could call upon Caravaggio to ornament the churches of Rome. Depending on who is talking, it’s been at least a century — and maybe a couple more — since the Vatican was an important patron of the arts. Certainly, in the 20th century, the schism between the two worlds yawned larger than ever. Popular culture swerved toward the secular, modern art fled sacred spaces for the world of galleries, foyers and museums, and the church retreated into tradition.
There’s little question that church grandees, left to their own devices, would prefer to tread the safe ground of figurative religious art. But there’s also a recognition that if the Vatican is to reassert itself among the artistic class, it will have to learn the vocabulary of modernity. “It’s another language, something completely different,” says Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who has been leading the effort.