![]() ![]() Cameras clicked furiously as the cardinal left the event with Donatella Versace, one of the chief funders of the show along with Christine and Stephen Schwarzman.Īlmost all the designers included in the show have some relationship to Roman Catholicism, even if they were just born into Catholic families, Bolton says. "The truth, goodness and beauty of God is revealed all over the place, even in fashion," he said. He was backed up on Monday morning by none other than Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, who greeted the crowd at the official press preview by saying, "You may be asking, what's the Church doing here?" He explained that the Catholic imagination embodied not only truth and goodness but beauty, too. But, as he writes in the catalog, "Dress is central to any discussion about religion: it affirms religious allegiances and, by extension, asserts religious differences." And, he points out, he always wants to confront timely cultural issues in his exhibitions. The Vatican collection even has its own separate volume in the show's huge catalog.īolton says he realizes people may think there's something unseemly about connecting the commercial theme of fashion with lofty theme of religion. "I ended up with 42." The Vatican's only condition was that its works be exhibited on their own, separate from the fashion part of the show. Bolton made 12 trips over two years to secure the items, many which had never been outside the Vatican in an interview this weekend in the galleries, he described hunching over to get through "an itty bitty door" at the edge of the chapel, where inside, untold treasures awaited.Įach time he looked in the labyrinthine sacristy, he would see more tantalizing items. They are just a few of the 42 items that curator Andrew Bolton, who has become known for his blockbuster Met exhibits, brought back from the Sistine Chapel's sacristy at the Vatican. ![]() A set of 12 such vestments took 15 workers some 16 years to complete, the museum says. Or a huge white-and-gold papal mantle - a voluminous cape of taffeta embroidered with gold metal thread, tinsel and paillettes. It was a gift from Queen Isabella of Spain to the 19th-century Pope Pius IX, who wore it at Christmas Mass in 1854. Take, for example, just one stunning tiara that glimmers in the Institute's galleries, a three-tiered concoction that gleams with 19,000 gems - 18,000 of them diamonds, along with rubies, sapphires and emeralds. Will the celebrity bling match the Vatican bling? Not likely. As always, the show makes its debut at the star-studded Met Gala on Monday night. But examples go back earlier - WAY earlier, according to "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination," the Met's annual spring fashion exhibit and the biggest one yet, spanning a full 25 galleries and stretching from the Metropolitan on Fifth Avenue to its Cloisters branch in upper Manhattan. ![]()
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