Bernini, Donatello and El Greco to accompany papal visit to Poland
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
19.01.2016 13:55
The National Museum in Kraków has revealed that works by a host of Old Masters will be exhibited in the southern Polish city to chime in with World Youth Day 2016 and the visit of Pope Francis.
The headquarters of the National Museum in Kraków. Photo: wikicommons/Andrzej Otrębski
Among the cultural highlights this summer will be the first ever exhibition in Poland of a work by Baroque sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, in this case a medallion of Pope Clement X, to be shown at the museum's Europeum Culture Centre.
In a separate show at the headquarters of the National Museum in Kraków, visitors will be able to savour over a hundred works by celebrated Old Masters including Donatello, Mantegna, El Greco and Vasari.
The exhibition, which is entitled 'Maria: Mater Misericordiae' (Mary: Mother of Mercy), is being organised in partnership with the Vatican's Foundation of John Paul II for Youth, and it will open on 23 June, running until 9 October.
World Youth Day officially lasts from 25 July to 31 July, and some 2000 groups of pilgrims from 138 countries - a total of almost 450, 000 people - have already confirmed their participation in the event.
The National Museum will also be promoting Polish art over the period in a specially curated series of initiatives.
The year 2016 also marks the 1050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland. (nh)