An interview with Barbara Jatta, Director of the Directorate of Museums and Cultural Heritage
Art: beauty and instrument of evangelization
The Vatican Museums complex is a priceless heritage of creativity, civilization, art, history and tradition at the service of faith, with a staff of some 780 people, a number which reaches 1,000 when taking into account all its collaborators. Its exhibitions were viewed by about seven million people in 2023, and the same number of people is expected to have visited by the end of 2024. These are only some of figures of the Vatican Museums complex. At the request of Pius XI, following the Lateran Treaty, it became an organic and efficient institutional system, open to the world with an entrance built on the Vatican Walls. Barbara Jatta, who was Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums from 15 June 2016 to 1 January 2017, when she was appointed Director of the Directorate of Vatican Museums and Cultural Heritage of the Governorate of Vatican City State, speaks about the Museums in the following interview with www.vaticanstate.va.
How do see your role as Director of the Vatican Museums?
I live it as a service, a mission and a privilege. Eight years ago, when I arrived here, I did not think that I was in the condition to be able to take on the role, because it required many different skills which cannot be acquired in a short while. I am an art historian by training and therefore I am aware that it takes great balance and common sense to be in charge of the Museums. Above all, I repeat, I consider it a beautiful privilege to be the director of such a wonderful place as this, with its unique collections. In my role, I can make a contribution to my city, to what Rome has represented throughout the centuries.
Which section of the Museums is your favourite?
It’s hard to say because in these years I have come to know the Museums’ collections in greater depth, and each of them has a particular aspect that interests me. Each of them attracts me in a different way. In the past, I had not dealt with Egyptology. It is an entire world I knew very little about as I had studied the Etruscan period and archaeology, but had never directly dealt with Egypt and the chronology and dynasties of the Pharaohs. On the other hand, in the Museums, there are places and particular works that touch my heart. One of them is certainly the Terrace of the Belvedere. It was designed by Bramante and built in the 16th century by Pirro Ligorio in the niche of the Pigna. It was recently restored and can be reached both by lift and by stairs. We use the area for small get-togethers and receptions with illustrious guests, as it is closed to the public. The terrace dominates over the seven kilometres of the Museums, from which one can note its relation to the smallest state in the world. Across its 44 hectares of surface area, half of which includes the gardens and forests, and more or less half of which comprises the built-up part, one can also see the State in relation to Rome, with a breathtaking view from one horizon to the other, up to the Castelli Romani.
What are the Vatican Museums, precisely?
They are a priceless heritage of creativity, civilization, art, history and tradition at the service of faith, not so much because of what these wonderful objects represent, but because of the faith and devotion that led to their preservation and collection, and their inclusion in the Museums so that they could be passed on. We also have enormous collections of pagan works. For example, Greek and Roman antiquities and ethnological works by the most varied civilizations. The inspiring principle was the idea of preserving works that would allow visitors to make a spiritual journey. The works speak of spirituality both in the sense of their artistic creativity, and the commitment of those who preserved them, so they could be passed on. These values are inherent in the principles, but also in the works of art that are the strength of these Museums, making them different from any other museum. In fact, as with the Capitoline Museums, the Pontiffs wished to provide the citizens of Rome with access to the tradition on which the Chair of Peter was built. The papacy had understood the need to show what had come before and to consider what was good from the point of view of values and morals. In this sense, the collection of preceding traditions was a gift from the Pontiffs to the people of Rome.
A spiritual itinerary is thus possible?
We already have a spiritual itinerary, both of art and of faith, as well as educational opportunities provided by our guides, that are available to everyone, and individual experiences in which visitors can decide which rooms and masterpieces to visit. In order to make this more accessible, we have reduced the number of people who can access at a given time, to ensure that visitors can find a place that allows for the rediscovery of their own roots. Take for instance, the ethnological museum, Anima Mundi, in which there are works from all the continents, including expressions of other religions, thus building bridges at a spiritual level. Moreover, our website includes all the works on display, a task that was completed before the Covid-19 pandemic. Each work is online with a description, so that our visitors can prepare their visit ahead of time or access the details at a later stage.
Which work is dearest to you?
Undoubtedly a small painting by Fra Angelico that no one takes much notice of. On display in Room IV of the Pinacoteca, the Madonna and Child’s expressions are so unique that they draw forth an emotional response in any viewer. Fra Angelico, whose liturgical memorial is celebrated on 18 February, is also remembered for the Niccoline Chapel in the Vatican Palace, where he worked in the 15th century.
What do the Museums represent for Catholics?
They represent an important place. They make people understand the attention that the Church of Rome has given to a series of works that many artists have put at the service of the faith. We have various collections that come from the most diverse places. Think of Raphael’s three panels in the Pinacoteca. They come from Perugia, Foligno and the Church of San Pietro in Montorio. They arrived here via a special route. They were taken away by Napoleon and then returned by Antonio Canova, who rescued them from the imperial Museum of Louvre in Paris. Think of the Madonna of Foligno, which reveals the tenderness of the Virgin Mary, in her greatest expression. It is the result of a magical time in Raphael’s career, during the time of the Room of Heliodorus in the second decade of the 16th century, shortly before the artist’s death. Raphael unites his mastery with Michelangelo’s sculptural art and Venetian colourism, at the same time expressing his exceptional and profound spirituality and devotion. The painting of the Virgin Mary is both marvellous and inspiring. It was commissioned by a secretary of Julius II, and later of Leo X, the Popes of Raphael. The secretary’s name was Sigismondi de’ Conti and he had commissioned it for the family chapel in Santa Maria in Aracoeli. The painting passed from owner to owner until one of his nieces entered a cloistered monastery in Foligno. It remained there until the Napoleonic campaigns at the end of the 18th century.
When Canova brought it back from Paris, he realized that it could not be shut away in a chapel to be seen only by a few people because its spiritual power had much to offer. Canova believed that such important works, not only from the artistic point of view, but also from the aspect of faith, were to be placed in special places, such as the Vatican Museums, where millions of visitors could admire them. With the opening of the entrance on Viale Vaticano, one no longer has to be a Catholic or a diplomat or an artist to view the collections. They are open to everyone. This is a beautiful thing because everyone can access this valuable heritage.
Can you provide some information on the Museum’s organization?
Some 780 people work in the Vatican Museums, and taking account our collaborators, the number increases to 1,000. Last year, we received seven million visitors and we are expecting the figures to be the same for 2024. We have extended daily opening hours by two hours. In order to do this, we had to reduce reserved access to people who paid a surcharge to visit the collections in private. This allowed us to extend the time, and to reduce the flows of visitors, by allowing a fixed number of people to access the museum each hour, and by introducing mandatory tickets with visitors’ names, to tackle secondary tickets. And we succeeded.
The queues one often sees outside the Museums are essentially due to security checks, as everyone has to go through metal detectors. Another reason for them is that visitors often arrive before the time mentioned on their tickets, and we cannot let them in early, to maintain a good viewing experience of the collections and to make the museum more sustainable. We are trying to install air conditioning in the Galleries and we hope we will be able to do so by the Jubilee Year. However, it is no easy task, considering the Museums’ seven kilometres, the presence of frescoed walls everywhere and the historical buildings outside. We are also in the process of installing photovoltaic panels in the covering above the Museum’s entrance.
What projects are you currently undertaking?
We have many initiatives planned for the Jubilee. The objective is to welcome the many pilgrims in the best way possible, showing them not only the restored and newly fitted areas, but also a wider range. This year, we opened two new rooms: one dedicated to Canova and one to the Vatican Pharmacy, with an exhibition of ceramics and decorative art. We hope to also open a Room of Icons by the end of the year. Unfortunately, we have lost the exhibition space in the Charlemagne Wing because during the Jubilee, it will be used as an aid station for pilgrims. Other projects include many exhibitions in rooms 17 and 18 of the Pinacoteca. They are small, but have significant themes, just as the small rooms that contain modern and contemporary art collections. We will do 3-4 Jubilee inspired initiatives. A space will be dedicated to photographs, including historical photographs of the seven Jubilee Basilicas, the work of Romualdo Moscioni, on the centenary of his death.
I would like to point out Pope Francis’ gift, a painting by El Greco which depicts the Saviour. There are also initiatives being planned for the Pontifical Villas of Castel Gandolfo for the Holy Year, and collaborations with various institutions in Rome, such as with the Embassy of France to the Holy See, which will house an exhibition in Villa Medici, and with the Fondazione Roma and Maxxi, which will set up an exhibition on Castrum Caetani in the Archaeological Park of Appia Antica. Moreover, a painting by Caravaggio has been lent to the EXPO 2025 in Osaka.
Can you give us some detail about the restoration laboratories?
The fortune of being a director of the Vatican Museums is being able to rely on a team of professionals and restorers and many outside collaborators, which makes an enormous difference. The Vatican Museums have seven laboratories dedicated to restoration. With the Conservator’s Office, which monitors all areas and external factors, the Cabinet of Scientific Research Applied to Cultural Heritage, and the Photographic Laboratory, they add up to ten.
The seven laboratories were requested by Pius XI after the Lateran Pacts. He had a Pinacoteca built, in which in addition to 18 rooms of noble paintings, he had seven laboratories established for restoration, according to their characteristics: tapestries and textiles, paintings and wooden materials, multi-materials, stone materials, metal and ceramics, mosaics and works on paper. About 100 professionals work in these laboratories. It is an exceptional international centre which many institutions look upon as an example.
The decision of Pius XI was part of a tradition dating back many centuries aimed at preserving the patrimony, expressed in a series of chirographs, which spanned the work of the Pontiffs. Raphael and Bembo had jointly written a letter to Leo X, asking him to be careful not to allow the fragments of ancient Rome that were discovered underground, to be quarried or used as mortar, because each one of them could be part of history. It is not by chance that Leo X appointed him Commissioner of antiquities, that is, the person in charge of the protection of ancient works, including pagan ones.
(Nicola Gori)
