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Futuro Antico. Interview with Barbara Jatta
17 mag 2022
Marco Bassan
From the future of museums to the task of repositioning Raphael's tapestries in the Sistine Chapel, Barbara Jatta (Rome, 1962), director of the Vatican Museums, reflects on tomorrow starting from the present.
What are your inspirational references in art?
Definitely the harmony of shapes and colors. I would say beauty in the broadest sense in any of its expressions.
What project represents you most? The exhibition of Raphael's tapestries in the Sistine Chapel in February 2020 and their arrangement during the pandemic in the Eighth Room of the Vatican Art Gallery. In that period we took care of the restoration of the tapestriesof Raphael's school conceived for the Sistine Chapel and commissioned by Leone Raphael: the coronation altarpiece, the wonderful and extraordinary Madonna of Foligno and then the most beautiful, the most celebrated, the most divine of Raphael's works which is the Transfiguration.
Can you tell us about the genesis of the project?
The idea was born from the synergy with the many collaborators of these museums: first of all the restoration laboratory and the department responsible for tapestries and fabrics.
The idea was to recall this wonderful day of 26 December 1519, when in the presence of Raphael, who was still alive, Leo These tapestries were displayed and hung in the lower part of the Sistine Chapel and the Pope's master of ceremonies reports that nothing so wonderful had ever been seen before by the whole court. When we were almost at the end of the restoration work on these tapestries, we thought that, to close the 2020 Raphael celebrations, it would be nice to reposition them in the Sistine Chapel and it was wonderful for those who had the opportunity to see them.
When we carried out the assembly, on a Sunday when the museums were closed, all of us who participated realized that in fact nothing more wonderful had ever been seen. It was almost too much to see the Sistine Chapel adorned with Raphael's Acts of the Apostles.
What importance does the genius loci have for you in your work?
It matters wherever you are and obviously here in particular, given that there is an energy made up of 500 years of history, emotions and art at the service of devotion and faith. From buildings to Sistine Chapel at the Pio Clementino Museum, which is a marvel where generations of artists came to copy his sculptures. Wandering around these rooms after hours feels like returning after the era of Winckelmann, who in some way inspired that museum even though he died immediately before seeing it built.
Each of these museums has its own specificity and this incredible richness is the fruit of the attention to creativity that the Popes have had over the centuries, of their idea of art collecting at the service of faith.
How important is the past for imagining and building the future? Do you believe that the future can have an ancient heart?
It's fundamental, of course. It is part of the job of anyone who wants to deal with museum collections or even art. Over the centuries, we have always looked to previous traditions to draw lifeblood from them, to draw from them the models and spiritual values that are then used to build and move forward.
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to embark on their own path?
Follow your passions, never stop, but above all do what your passion is. Don't look for a job for the job's sake, because then the job will come, even if we work in fields that we think are not productive, the important thing is to follow your passion.
And also have a bit of luck, which in some cases you have to want.
In a defined post-truth era, does the concept of the sacred still have importance and strength?
Let's look around, let's look at what we have experienced in these last two years and what we are experiencing now here in Europe, beauty, and above all the beauty that leads to the sacred, is the only form of consolation and salvation of the soul.
How do you imagine the future? Can you give us three ideas that you think will guide the coming years?
In the coming years, museums will have to face problems related to the situation of uncertainty which is lasting longer than we would have thought. The use of the museum will be more complex, but I am very sure that we will return to the museum, because the museum is not only a place for preserving works of art, but above all it is a place for the memory of the soul, for spirituality and for the search for beauty we need.
What reassures me is that we have discovered that museums are much more frequented than before by younger generations and this, starting from June 2020, is perhaps the best data that has emerged.