Catholic style takes over New York’s Metropolitan Museum
Church-influenced creations by Versace and Dolce & Gabbana, and papal robes and accessories from Vatican feature in ‘Heavenly Bodies’ exhibition
Vatican officials lingered over images of Balenciaga evening coats, Madame Grès capes and the Schiaparelli gown embroidered with the keys of St Peter – pieces that clearly referenced the familiar silhouettes of their ecclesiastical and monastic garments, but flipped past the more risqué looks.
Ultimately, they agreed to lend 41 items from the Sistine Chapel sacristy to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Met would have been grateful for even six.
The items on loan – which include papal robes and accessories never viewed outside the Vatican – will make their debut on May 10 as a part of the “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” exhibition, which runs until October 8.
Organised by Andrew Bolton, head curator of the Costume Institute (the beneficiary of the famously fashion-forward annual Met Gala), the exhibition has attracted attention for its seemingly provocative juxtaposition of religion and fashion.
Church leaders have enthusiastically supported the celebration of Catholic art and fashion.
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, wrote an introduction to the exhibition’s accompanying catalogue, referencing the mock ecclesiastical fashion show in Fellini’s 1972 film Roma, and reflecting on the significance of God clothing Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The show is about Catholic symbolism and Catholic iconography ... and about how designers and artists, raised Catholic, were [affected] by that in their creative life
The Reverend David Tracy, one of the most significant Catholic theologians of the past half-century, wrote a preface. And local Catholic schools have been clamouring to schedule tours.
“I almost fell out of my chair when they told me they had [got] David Tracy writing for them,” said the Reverend James Martin, a Jesuit priest and the author of several popular books on Catholicism.