Top artists, writers and musicians from around the world will meet with Pope Benedict XVI later this year as part of a Vatican celebration of art, a senior official announced on Thursday. Unveiling the event at a press conference, the Holy See's 'culture minister' Gianfranco Ravasi said almost 500 people had been invited to attend the meeting at the Vatican on November 21.
The event is being organized to commemorate two key events: the ten-year anniversary of ''a letter to artists'' by the last pontiff, John Paul II, and a meeting between artists and Paul VI, which took place 45 years ago in the Sistine Chapel.
In his now-famous letter, John Paul set out why he thought art was so important, explaining that artists ''ensure the growth of the person and the community''.
''Creating works both worthwhile and beautiful not only enriches the cultural heritage of each nation and of all humanity, but also renders an exceptional service to the common good,'' the Polish pontiff wrote.
Commenting on the letter and his own view of art, Ravasi said that November's encounter was designed to forge closer ties between the Vatican and the art world.
''The concept that artwork should incarnate a transcendental vision of being has been abandoned,'' he said. ''Instead art devotes itself to self-referential explorations, sometimes designed to be provocative''.
Ravasi, who heads up the Pontifical Council of Culture, said it was important that artists engaged with transcendence in their work, as art was closely linked to spirituality. The meeting with the pope is designed to encourage dialogue ''in the hope of reviving a fertile alliance'' between religion and art, he added.
The meeting, which like the 1964 event will take place in the Sistine Chapel, will not just be attended by painters and sculptors but by artists operating in a variety of fields.
The invitees, who come from every continent, have been divided into five broad groupings: painters and sculptors; architects; writers and poets; musicians and singers; and film directors and actors.
A number of prominent Italian artists have already confirmed their attendance at the event, including filmmaker Giuseppe Tornatore of Cinema Paradiso fame and Academy Award-winning composer Ennio Morricone, whose music has appeared on films as diverse as A Fistful of Dollars and Kill Bill.
Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro and US director and set-designer Bob Wilson have also confirmed they will attend, although a complete list of all those coming will not be published for some weeks.
The day prior to the meeting with the pope, the guests have been invited to a private viewing at the Vatican's Collection of Contemporary and Modern Art.
The Sistine Chapel meeting will be accompanied by music and followed by speeches from Ravasi and the pope.
In the evening there will be reception in the new wing of the Vatican Museum.
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