An exhibition in honor of World Youth Day, featuring 13 masterpieces
of sacred art, opened at Madrid's Prado Museum on July 21, and will run
until September 18.
Entitled “The Word Made Image,” the show highlights
aspects of Jesus' life and character.
“I am sure that tens of
thousands of young people will be able to not only enjoy the aesthetic
beauty of these images of Christ on display by the Prado, but many of
them will also have a profound experience of faith,” said Madrid's
Cardinal Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, expressing his gratitude
to the Prado Museum at the exhibit's opening presentation.
World
Youth Day organizers say the art show contains portrayals of the
“metaphorical descriptions that Christ used to refer to Himself” – such
as the Good Shepherd, the Light of the World, the Way, Truth, and the
Life. Through the experience of “visual theology,” they hope viewers
will come “to know Christ through beauty.”
“The Word Made Image”
gathers together some remarkable and renowned works of Spanish and
Italian art. Spanish Culture Minister Ángeles González Sinde said the
show “offers a unique opportunity to see a real baroque jewel like the
Caravaggio piece, along with the great masterpieces of Fra Angelico, El
Greco, and Velázquez on the iconography of Christ.”
The
exhibition will have signs in Spanish and English, displaying the World
Youth Day 2011 logo, which will elaborate on the work from an artistic,
iconographic, and religious perspective.
There will also be a free
brochure and a pocket guide available in English and Spanish.
Museum
admission is free for all pilgrims who present their World Youth Day
accreditation at the entrance from August 16 to 21.
The museum will also
open the two main floors of their collection on the nights of August
16, 17 and 18 from 8:30 p.m. to 12 midnight.