Quiet as a tomb no more: Vatican hopes crowds visit sarcophagi museum

Published: 2005-09-30

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- By far, the Vatican Museums' most popular destinations are the Raphael Rooms and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel. Visitors pack themselves in, wall-to-wall, to revel in the splendor of the artists' colorful frescoes of biblical scenes. But the museums' corner gallery housing mammoth, carved marble sarcophagi depicting equally unique scenes from the Bible has, up to now, been quieter than a tomb. However, this early Christian funerary art gallery, called the Pio Christian Museum, is hoping to come back to life with a new initiative sponsored by the Vatican Museums, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and the United Bible Societies. The permanent exhibit of sculpted stone caskets is now supplemented with "didactic panels that give a biblical reading" of the carved friezes, said Francesco Buranelli, director of the Vatican Museums. The explanatory placards together with a beautifully illustrated free guide will allow visitors to "understand the biblical sources of inspiration" for the carvings, he said at a press conference to inaugurate the new project. The guide, called "The Engraved Word: The Bible at the Beginning of Christian Art," merges fourth-century Roman funerary art and sacred Scripture.

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