From Van Gogh quoted in St. Peter’s Square to the chalice with rock quartz for Turkey: Pope Leo XIV marks a new relationship between Church and art
When Pope Leo XIV had concluded his first general audience on May 21 citing the «Sower at sunset» Of Vincent van Goghsomething seemed to have changed in the pontifical language. At that moment, in addition to his actual role as Pontiff, Leo appeared almost as a “painter of the word”, a “theologian of the brush”, who expertly uses the art to explain the parable of the sower to the faithful. The 1888 masterpiece, preserved at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, has become an interpretative key to the Gospel which is sown without distinction, like Van Gogh’s farmer throws the seed into the earth at sunset.
A symbolic gesture that reveals a lot about the new direction: Leo XIV, the first American pope in history, is not afraid to draw on contemporary visual culture (and not only) to talk about faith. The sower who makes no distinction between the soil represents the generous love of God, and the seed that must “die” like the one in the earth becomes a metaphor of hope even in the driest moments.
The chalice holding a suspended cross
But Leo XIV’s relationship with art does not stop at cultured quotation. It manifests itself in the commission of works that recover the tradition of Wunderkammer, the “chamber of wonders” born with the Crusades. The chalice, made by the goldsmith from Reggio Emilia Giuliano Tincani for the papal trip to Türkiye on the occasion of 17th centenary of the Council of Nicaeais a concentration of symbolism and craftsmanship.
In silver and gold, with 520 Greek letters of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed soldered one by one on the surface, the chalice hides a carved rock quartz in its center. Inside the transparent sphere, suspended thanks to crystalline supports, a four-armed cosmic cross which interacts with the light with the movement of the chalice, creating the impression of moving. A Wunderkammer intervention that recalls ancient objects containing relics of the Holy Land.
The writing is read from bottom to top, in a spiral shape, as in Trajan’s Column: a narrative that wraps around the object and tells its profound meaning. «The idea is that the craftsman’s gesture itself becomes a prayerpronounced letter after letter”, explains Tincani.
Appreciation for miniaturized memory
Leo XIV also showed attention to more traditional forms of sacred art. He received and appreciated the commemorative medal created by the artist Luigi Oldani from Dalmine for the hundred years of the cross on the Resegone. The patinated bronze work, with a diameter of 60 millimetres, merges the profile of the mountain, the effigy of San Giovanni XXIII, the Madonna della Cornabusa and Alessandro Manzoni, who wrote about Resegone narrating the adventures of Renzo and Lucia. «A small compendium of our identity: faith, history, literature», in the artist’s words.
The Vatican Secretariat of State sent an official letter, confirming reception and papal appreciation. A gesture that enhances the work of those who, like Oldani, work “like a miniaturist of memory”, fixing territorial identities and local devotions in metal.
A pontificate that also speaks in symbols
A rather clear thread emerges: Leo XIV seems to want to recover the symbolic dimension of sacred artnot as a simple decoration but as a vehicle of profound meanings. From Van Gogh’s sower to the Wunderkammer chalice, from the commemorative medal to the writing that becomes a prayer, the new pontiff builds a language where artisanal beauty and theological depth merge. An approach that rediscovers tradition without nostalgia, looking at art’s ability to convey faith through beauty.
