“An Infinity of Lights”
Gilded carvings in the restoration of an 18th century “Altar Machine”
The magnificent “Machine of the Quarantore” is the protagonist of the new appointment of Museums at Work, the exhibition programme that presents, in the spaces of Hall 27 of the Vatican Pinacoteca, works little known to the public which are usually conserved in storage, or the results of particularly significant restoration interventions.
The Machine belongs to both of these categories.
After months of intense work, it was decided to present the restoration of the sumptuous carved and gilded wooden structure identified by oral tradition as the Machine of the Quarantore – forty hours, at the end of Lent (the time of penance preceding Easter, in memory of Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the wilderness), recalling the forty hours of mourning and faith between death on the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.
The presentation will take place on Wednesday 20 March 2024 at 17.00 in the Vatican Museums Conference Hall in the presence of Barbara Jatta, Director of the Museums, and Alessandra Rodolfo, curator of the Department of Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Art.
ACCREDITATION PROCEDURE
Journalists and media workers who wish to participate must apply, up to 24 hours before the event, via the Holy See Press Office online accreditation system, at press.vatican.va/accreditamenti.
Vatican Museums Press Office +39 3666282947 www.museivaticani.va
+39 06 69883041 stampa.musei@scv.va
