World Youth Day sponsors sacred art exhibit, 'The Word Made Image'

Madrid, Spain, Jul 23, 2011 / 05:14 am

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.