The aim of the exhibition, made clear in an entryway introductory section, “The Audience’s Expectation”, is for the visitor to participate in the painting; metaphorically-speaking to enter its canvas, to be part of the action, not just an observer. This point is made clear immediately by two antique mirrors at...

The Uffizi’s celebration started on January 29, when the Museums posted “The Doni Spouses,” narrated by the retired head art historian at the Uffizi, Marzia Faietti, on Facebook. As for Massari’s three-part sweet, “crema di bianca mangiare”, it’s a work of art in itself. Only an expert pastry chef like...

“With these short videos, each lasting approximately five minutes, we aim to create an even stronger bond with our public thanks to these artworks by including them in a contemporary and vital context”, says Director Eike Schmidt… Fabio Picchi, owner of Cibrèo, Dario Cecchini, butcher and restaurateur of “Antica Macelleria...

The white metal roofing may protect the statues from rain, but it belongs at the entrance to an airport, shopping center, or hospital, not as the roof of a crèche. At night the lighting is very dim so the statues are in the dark. As for the stark scenario there...

Two weeks ago, I received a press release from Sarah Lemieux, the Publicity Coordinator of Sophia Institute Press, about its hot-off-the-press publication, The Vatican Christmas Cookbook. It’s the sequel to the Institute’s best seller The Vatican Cookbook, which I reviewed on June 21, 2018. Since home-prepared food may be the...

They used a 33-foot tall scaffold and rig to capture every inch of the Chapel’s frescoes with advanced optics and digital photography. “The team was able to utilize three-dimensional reconstruction software to stitch together seamlessly all 270,000 individual frames to reproduce the Chapel to an unprecedented level of color and...

When I moved to Rome after my college graduation, it took me only one holiday season to realize that in Italy there was no national repertoire of popular Christmas music. I was unaware that Christmas hymns praising the Baby Jesus had been sung during processions in central Italy since the...

This year the celebrations to honor St. Francis of Assisi on his name day are particularly festive. We can draw much courage and inspiration from his exemplary life during these difficult times. In New York City the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, in the Madison Square Garden area, first...

Longhi’s lifetime ambition was the artistic re-evaluation of Caravaggio and his importance to seventeenth-century Baroque painting. He reached his goal by curating two mega-exhibitions in Milan: “Caravaggio e i caravaggeschi” in 1951 and “I pittori della realtà in Lombardia” in 1953. Besides Caravaggio, Longhi also put Piero della Francesca on...