{"id":139182,"date":"2025-04-23T07:25:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/the-art-of-pope-francis-what-was-the-catholic-spiritual-leaders-cultural-legacy\/"},"modified":"2025-04-23T07:25:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T04:25:54","slug":"the-art-of-pope-francis-what-was-the-catholic-spiritual-leaders-cultural-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/the-art-of-pope-francis-what-was-the-catholic-spiritual-leaders-cultural-legacy\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of Pope Francis: What was the Catholic spiritual leader\u2019s cultural legacy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button \" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139182\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>From Biennale visits to calls for restitution, the late Pope Francis left an indelible mark on contemporary art and cultural ethics. When Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88, headlines understandably focused on his role as a global spiritual leader. As the proprietor in trust of the Vatican&#8217;s library and art collections, his cultural legacy \u2014 especially in the arts \u2014 was also significant.<\/p>\n<p>He was the first pontiff to visit the Venice Biennale, the world\u2019s most prestigious contemporary art exhibition. He also opened a gallery for contemporary art inside the Vatican Library, made high-profile statements on cultural restitution, and repeatedly invoked the power of creativity to forge human connection. Francis saw artists, in his own words, as architects of a better future: \u201cI beg you, dear artists, to imagine cities that do not yet exist on the maps: cities where no human being is considered a stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His views on art were deeply shaped by the saint whose name he adopted. Like St Francis of Assisi \u2014 who appears frequently in Renaissance painting, preaching to birds or receiving the stigmata \u2014 Pope Francis was drawn to nature, poverty, and pastoral simplicity. His 2015 encyclical on climate change, Laudato Si\u2019, took its name from St Francis\u2019s Canticle of the Creatures, and cited Giotto\u2019s frescoes in Assisi as inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>But for all his spiritual leanings, Francis didn\u2019t keep art in the realm of the abstract. In 2023, he returned three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece, saying bluntly: \u201cThe Seventh Commandment comes to mind: If you steal something you have to give it back.\u201d He continued, \u201cIn the case where you can return things, where it\u2019s necessary to make a gesture, better to do it. [&#8230;] So you don\u2019t get used to putting your hands in someone else\u2019s pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The restitution was framed as a \u201cdonation\u201d to the Orthodox Church of Greece and timed with his efforts to deepen ecumenical relations. During a 2021 visit to the Parthenon, Francis said: \u201cHistory makes its weight felt, and here, today, I feel the need to ask anew for the forgiveness of God and of our brothers and sisters for the mistakes committed by many Catholics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, Francis extolled the power of art \u2014 and artists themselves \u2014 in societal transformation. In Venice in 2024, he arrived at a women\u2019s prison on Giudecca island, where the Holy See Pavilion had been set up as part of the Biennale. Some works on display were created with inmates. In his remarks, Francis cited Corita Kent, Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois as artists who had \u201csomething important to teach us,\u201d and praised the transformative power of creativity: \u201cThe world needs artists. This is demonstrated by the multitude of people of all ages who frequent art venues and events.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That year&#8217;s Biennale, themed Foreigners Everywhere, had a particular focus on marginalised voices. The pope\u2019s visit, said the Biennale organisers, was an \u201cextraordinary gesture of closeness\u201d and reflected \u201cthe building of a culture of encounter\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>An installation by artist Sonia Gomes inside the Santa Maria Maddalena Convertita church at the women&#8217;s prison on Giudecca islandLuca Bruno\/Copyright 2024 The AP. All rights reserved<br \/>\nBeyond the Biennale, he personally authorised major art restoration projects and continued the acquisition of contemporary works\u2014a tradition that dates back to Pope Paul VI. The Vatican\u2019s collections now include works by Chagall, Picasso, Dal\u00ed and Matisse, alongside biblical interpretations by more recent artists like Studio Azzurro and Richard Long.<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the National Gallery in London staged the first UK exhibition dedicated to St Francis. The pope sent a message, describing the saint as \u201cthe beloved minstrel of God.\u201d That show blended historic works by Botticelli and El Greco with modern interpretations by artists like Antony Gormley.\u00a0The gallery\u2019s director Gabriele Finaldi noted that St Francis appeals \u201cfor Christians and non-Christians alike, for utopians and revolutionaries, for animal lovers and for those who work for causes of human solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Still, Francis\u2019 cultural tenure was not without criticism. In 2024, nearly 50 Vatican Museum workers filed a class-action complaint against the administration, alleging poor working conditions and unsafe practices. The petition described employees as being treated like \u201ccommodities\u201d and called for better transparency and basic labour protections.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.euronews.com\/culture\/2025\/04\/22\/the-art-of-pope-francis-what-was-the-catholic-spiritual-leaders-cultural-legacy\">Euronews Culture<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/eurozone-consumer-confidence-falls-to-18-month-lows-as-tariffs-bite-2\/\">The art of Pope Francis: What was the Catholic spiritual leader\u2019s cultural legacy?<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,1042,566],"class_list":["post-139182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csr-news-en","tag-culture","tag-pope"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}