3-028-258 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Exhibition of church decorative art at Rome, 1870. View of '...an attractive exhibition of ecclesiastical decorative art and ornamental church furniture. This exhibition is held in the cloisters of the church and monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, which was built, from the designs of Michel Angelo...an awning of cotton has been spread to temper the glare of sunlight; and the sides are filled with counters and cases, displaying a great variety of beautiful objects. Pictures, mosaics, statues, crosses, bells and books, chalices and plates, vestments and altar-cloths, all kinds of mouldings, paintings, carvings, and weavings, all fashions of work in all sorts of material, gold, silver, bronze and iron, marble, ivory, wood, and textile fabrics, are shown in profuse variety. The exhibition is frequented by a motley crowd of visitors, cardinals and monsignori, priests, monks, and Italian laymen, resident artists, and travelling English families. One of the large pictures which has gained some notice is that of "The Three Marys," by Mr. Severn, the British Consul, which is shown hanging in a conspicuous place in our Correspondent's sketch of the general scene'. From "Illustrated London News", 1870.