Five hundred years after the death of Renaissance artist Raphael, the Vatican Museums has returned the tapestries he designed to their original place in the Sistine Chapel for just one week.
“The value of these tapestries is above all the fact that they complete the religious message of the Chapel,” Alessandra Rodolfo, the exhibit’s curator, told CNA on February 17.
The ten tapestries, which show scenes from the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, were commissioned by Leo X in 1515. Raphael made full-size sketches for their design.
