The Vatican Museums

The Vatican houses what is easily one of the world's most magnificent collections of art, and this set—co-produced by the Vatican for Italian television and presented here with English narration—offers a fine overview. In addition to the 11 half-hour segments on all the major areas of the museum—the Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Etruscan rooms, the museum of early Christian art, the Sistine Chapel of Michelangelo, the rooms and loggia of Raphael, the historical museum, the ethnographic museum, the picture gallery, and the collection of modern religious art—The Vatican Museums features an hour-long historical introduction to the entire collection, as well as what amounts to an architectural tour of Vatican City as a whole in three segments devoted to the papal palace, St. Peter's Basilica, and Vatican City itself. While the cinematography seems fine, with smooth camera moves through hallways and across the sky via helicopter shots, the transfer doesn't match it, looking a bit blurred and unfocused. And the narration, especially in the hour-long overview, is a bit stilted, sounding like a professorial lecture. It should also be noted, moreover, that since this is a production of the Vatican Museum, the tone isn't always one of dispassionate art history—religious (or, more properly, theological) assumptions abound, particularly with respect to the doctrine of papal primacy. Despite these imperfections, however, this set presents a good introduction to one of the major collections of art, and can easily be recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (F. Swietek)