The Vatican's modern art collection, the museum nobody expects

Hardly anyone goes into the Vatican Museums looking for Van Gogh, and yet there he is, on the same route that leads to the Sistine Chapel. The Modern and Contemporary Art Collection is, for me, the museum’s big surprise and also its most wasted part. Here’s where it came from, who’s in it and how to see it without missing the Sistine.

A pope who wanted to make peace with the art of his time

The collection has a named father and a date. On 7 May 1964 Paul VI received artists in the Sistine Chapel and told them something unusual for a pope, that the Church and contemporary art had drifted apart and needed to come closer again, as they once had been. That meeting led to an invitation to the art world, and the invitation led to donations.

The legwork fell to his private secretary, Mgr Pasquale Macchi, who spent about ten years gathering works given by artists, collectors and public and private bodies. They joined a small group of 20th-century pieces that had entered the Vatican Pinacoteca in the late 1950s under Pius XII. On 23 June 1973 Paul VI opened the collection.

Which artists are there?

Today there are about 8,000 paintings, sculptures and prints, from the late 19th century through much of the 20th. The Museums’ official site highlights Van Gogh, Bacon, Chagall, Carrà, De Chirico, Manzù, Capogrossi, Fontana, Burri and Matisse, and another of its pages adds Dalí. Only a selection is on display, so don’t expect all 8,000.

The highlight for me is Matisse. Since 2011 he’s had a whole room of works connected with the making of the Vence Chapel, which came to the Vatican in 1980 as a gift from his son, Pierre Matisse. To me it’s a quieter, more spiritual Matisse than most people expect.

A 20th-century museum inside a 15th-century palace

What I find most interesting isn’t only the works but where they hang. The display runs from the Borgia Apartment to the Sistine Chapel, so in several rooms you’ll see 20th-century painting beneath the gilded lunettes Pinturicchio painted for Alexander VI. Some visitors find it a clash. I find it a conversation between eras you won’t get in any other museum.

And there’s a detail that closes the circle. The collection was born of that 1964 meeting in the Sistine, and its route ends right at the Sistine’s door. When you walk in, remember that a pope once asked artists to come back from that very spot. It’s one of the Sistine Chapel facts that rarely gets told.

How to see it without missing the Sistine

There’s no separate ticket. You see it on the normal Vatican Museums ticket, and for nothing on the last Sunday of the month. The problem isn’t money, it’s pace. The flow of people pushes you towards the Sistine and it’s hard to stop.

Here’s my advice. Go in on the first slot, at 08:00, and keep twenty minutes in hand. Start with the Matisse room, look out for Van Gogh and Bacon along the way and don’t try to see everything. If you arrive at midday with the route packed, at least don’t walk past Matisse.

Is it worth it if you know nothing about modern art?

I think so, and that’s exactly why. You don’t need to know Burri or Capogrossi to be struck by a 20th-century canvas under a ceiling painted for a 15th-century pope. It’s the part of the museum that tells you least about how you’re supposed to feel, and after hours of queued-for masterpieces I find that a relief.

With children or teenagers it’s often the stretch they get most, because they recognise colours and shapes they’ve seen elsewhere. And if you’re travelling with someone who glazes over in classical galleries, the Matisse room might be where they make peace with the day. To plan the rest of it, with the Sistine Chapel straight after, my guide to how long the Vatican Museums take will help.