This month’s Christian heritage column presents the Sermonetan pole of the Sacred Art Museums of the diocese of Latina (Italy).
The museum collects exhibits from churches in the municipality’s territory that are no longer officiated, and therefore unable to guarantee their proper conservation. The rooms in which the museum is set up date back to the first half of the 15th century and belong to the monumental complex of the collegiate church of St. Maria.
Exhibited masterpieces and artworks highlight the diversity of Roman painting between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries and the connections with other European painters, such as the Flemish. In the museum, visitors will have the chance to awe at five large altarpieces, one of which –“Siciolante’s Incoronazione della Vergine Maria” (1567) – is the most prestigious piece in the facility.
Equally worth of mention are the large altarpiece representing St. Michael, the archangel casting out demons, signed and dated by the Flemish artist Frans Van de Kasteele in 1595 and the arched wooden altarpiece with the blessing – “Jesus Christ the Savior”.
The diocesan museum, as many others in the EU Bishops’ Conferences, plays a fundamental role in preserving religious masterpieces and ensuring that their value for society is not lost or forgotten, for the sake of current and future generations willing to understand and learn about the Christian roots of Italy and Europe.