Subject: VISnews 110714   
   Organization: VIS - Ufficio Stampa della Santa Sede   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
   VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
      
   TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 131   
   ENGLISH   
   THURSDAY, 14 JULY 2011   
      
   SUMMARY:   
      
   - Exhibition in San Marino of Works from Vatican Museums   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   EXHIBITION IN SAN MARINO OF WORKS FROM VATICAN MUSEUMS   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 14 JUL 2011 (VIS) - An exhibition entitled "the Man, the Face,   
   the Mystery" was presented this morning in the Vatican Museums. The   
   exhibition is due to be inaugurated in the State Museum of the Republic of   
   San Marino on 20 August. Participating in today's presentation were Antonio   
   Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums; Romeo Morri, secretary for   
   culture and education of the Republic of San Marino; Sante Carlucci,   
   ambassador of the Republic of San Marino to the Holy See, and Giovanni   
   Gentili, an art historian and curator of the exhibition.   
      
     The works on display in the exhibition, which was organised in the light   
   of the Holy Father's recent visit to San Marino, all come from the Vatican   
   Museums. They "document how artists (from Greeks to Romans and moderns) have   
   represented the facial features of men and women in an attempt to portray   
   the soul which, together with the countenance, makes up the identity of each   
   individual". According to a communique released today, such attempts were   
   characterised in portraiture "by the imitation of models - either gods or   
   heroes of the classical age - until that crucial moment of history when the   
   'model' par excellence appeared. With His face Christ revealed the face of   
   the Father, God the Creator, and since then man's history, also as   
   documented in the figurative arts, has been played out in the acceptance or   
   rejection of that fact".   
      
     The Vatican Museums' Department of Classical Antiquities has provided a   
   number of masterpieces such as the famous "head of Athena", an original   
   Greek work from the fifth century BC; the "bust of Antinous" from Hadrian's   
   Villa in Tivoli, and the "portrait of Claudia Semne in the guise of Venus".   
   Other pieces have come from the Department of Etruscan-Italic Antiquities   
   (two extraordinary terracotta heads, one masculine and one feminine), from   
   the Department of Paleochristian Art (the rare fourth century mosaic   
   "portraits of Flavius Julianus and his wife Simplicia Rustica"), and from   
   the Department of Oriental Antiquities (the "portrait of a woman from   
   Palmyra" formerly in the collection of art critic Federico Zeri).   
      
     Other depictions of man in the classical age have been provided by the   
   Department of Decorative Arts, including the "bust of Trajan" and the   
   "portraits of Peter and Paul". The latter date from the fifth century and   
   are considered to be among the oldest of their kind in the world. A large   
   number of the works on display in the exhibition come from the Department of   
   Mediaeval Art; they include the twelfth-century painting of "Christ   
   delivering a blessing" and the mosaic "portrait of St. Luke", which   
   decorated the facade of the Vatican Basilica in the Middle Ages. Among the   
   paintings and sculptures from the modern age are various works by Guercino   
   and Guido Reni, as well as the "portrait of a man" by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.   
      
     The last section of the exhibition is dedicated to the "Holy Face". It   
   includes a seventeenth-century copy of the image of "Christ acheiropoieta"   
   from the Lateran (the original being impossible to move); the famous veil of   
   the "Veronica" from the Pontifical Sacristy, normally inaccessible to the   
   public and the only surviving reproduction of that venerated relic which was   
   held in the Vatican but lost in the Sack of Rome in 1527, and the "Sainte   
   Face" by George Rouault. The exhibition ends with works by a number of   
   twentieth-century artists including Fausto Pirandello, Francesco Messina and   
   Graham Sutherland.   
   .../                                                                    VIS   
   20110714 (580)   
      
   OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 14 JUL 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:   
      
    - Bishop Mario Alberto Molina Palma O.A.R. of Quiche, Guatemala, as   
   metropolitan archbishop of Los Altos Quetzaltenango - Totonicapan (area   
   3,012, population 1,404,000, Catholics 1,123,000, priests 52, permanent   
   deacons 1, religious 166), Guatemala.   
      
    - Msgr. Jean-Marie Mate Musivi Mupendawatu, under secretary of the   
   Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, as secretary of the same   
   council.   
      
    - Fr. Augusto Chendi M.I., official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of   
   the Faith, as under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral   
   Care.   
   NER:NA/                                                         VIS 20110714   
   (100)   
   _____________________________________________   
      
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