Deep Space 8K

Gigapixel Images from the Vatican Museums — The Frescoes by Pietro Perugino in the Sistine Chapel: Beauty Leading to Faith

Dr. Barbara Jatta (IT), Dr. Rosanna Di Pinto (IT)

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Fri Sep 9, 2022, 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
All times are given in Central European Summer Time (CEST / UTC +2).
Deep Space 8K, Ars Electronica Center
+ via the livestream of the Ars Electronica Channel
Admission with ticket only. Tickets for this presentation in Deep Space 8K will be available on the same day starting at 10:00 a.m. at the Infodesk of the Ars Electronica Center.
Photography and filming during this presentation is not permitted.

For the first time, the Vatican Museums will be guests at the Ars Electronica Center for a special Cultural Heritage Series based on a cooperation with the Vatican Museums and the Embassy of Austria to the Holy See in Rome. Gigapixel images of two outstanding artworks by the Great Master Pietro Perugino in the Sistine Chapel — the main Chapel in the Pope’s Palace — will be presented at Deep Space 8K. Both frescoes belong to the narrative cycle depicting the life of Christ. Vatican Museums’ Director Dr. Barbara Jatta recommended these masterpieces for this presentation as the most significant and easy-to-understand within the theological message which frescoes by the fifteenth-century artists convey. They also have been chosen as an introduction to Pietro Perugino’s extraordinary work in view of the upcoming 500th anniversary of his death in 2023. Thanks to the use of very high-resolution digital images provided by the Vatican Museums, created by use of gigapixel photography technology, this immersive presentation offers a privileged and spectacular view of these timeless frescoes by Perugino that can be viewed and admired with absolute clarity and accuracy in perfect detail, allowing the visitors to have a unique experience. They will find themselves indeed inside the Beauty That Leads to Faith in harmony with the values and priorities underlying the Vatican Museums’ mission. Director Dr. Barbara Jatta will explain these masterpieces at Deep Space 8K providing insights into Pietro Perugino’s wonderful work, while Dr. Rosanna Di Pinto, Head of the Vatican Museums’ Images and Rights Department will comment on the photographic survey, the gigapixel images of Perugino’s artworks in the Sistine Chapel belong to.

Speakers

Dr. Barbara Jatta (IT)
Dr. Rosanna Di Pinto (IT)

Biographies

Dr. Rosanna Di Pinto (born in Rome November 5, 1962) has worked in the Vatican Museums’ Photographic Department since 1989. In 2004 she progressed to the role of the Head of the Photographic Archives and Service converted in 2010 in Images and Rights Department. Degree in Literature at the “Sapienza” University in Rome with a thesis on Luigi Pirandello, awarded a special mention for research and writing. In the course of her career in the Vatican Museums she has attended specialization courses on the history of photography and photographic techniques, managed many projects for the Vatican Museums’ Directorate, gone on missions, participated in conferences and published several articles on the Vatican Museums’ photographic collections and video materials. Among these the first pioneering studies on the history of the Vatican Museums’ Photographic Archives. Since 2016 has taken over the co-ordination of a systematic digitalization process of the vast Vatican Museums’ colour analogue archive, carried out by the Images and Rights Department’s internal staff.

Dr. Barbara Jatta (born in Rome on October 6th, 1962) obtained a degree in Letters, with a thesis on the History of drawing, engraving and graphics, from the “La Sapienza” University of Rome. She collaborated with the National Institute for Graphic Design, working first as a restorer of graphic materials and then on the cataloguing of the Institute’s portfolios of drawings, engravings, woodcuts and lithographs.
From 1996 to 2016, she was the director of the Cabinet of Prints at the Vatican Apostolic Library, where she was also a member of the Exhibitions, Accessions, Acquisitions, Publishing and Cataloguing commissions. In 2010 the Holy Father Benedict XVI appointed her as Curator of Prints at the Vatican Apostolic Library. She was then called to be the Deputy Director of the Vatican Museums and in 2017 Pope Francis appointed her to guide the papal collections in the role of Director of the Vatican Museums.

Credits

This presentation will be kindly supported by the Embassy of Austria to the Holy See in Rome and our media partner Wiener Zeitung.

Photo Scripta Maneant G. Roli and C. Vannini © Governorate of the Vatican City State – Directorate of the Vatican Museums. All rights reserved.

This year’s Festival programme in Deep Space 8K is kindly supported by Dorotheum and Linz AG
DorotheumLinz AG

Gigapixel images from the Vatican: when beauty leads to faith

Experience spectacular gigapixel images from the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican Museums in Rome up close in the Deep Space 8K.