“Dialogue” Between Scriptures and Art: Fr. Marko Rupnik’s Frescoes

Yellow, orange and red.  Fr. Marko Ivan Rupnik, the Jesuit artist who founded the Aletti Centre, chose to use warm colors to fresco the entire walls of the nave and apse of the Major Chapel of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary. The gaze of the visitor who crosses the inlaid wooden portal is immediately attracted and wrapped by the colors of the apse which is accessed through a pedagogical path in which the Old and New Testament are in dialogue with each other. On the occasion of the blessing of the Chapel presided by  Card. Angelo De Donatis, in reference to this cycle of biblical-themed frescoes, stresses that “only by proceeding slowly from the entrance doors one understands the artistic project, without having the pretense of understanding everything immediately, as it happens in life and vocation.” However it is clear how “the images invite us to decide to be more and more like Christ, who fulfilled all the promises, starting from those made to Noah and Moses until the wedding of Cana of Galilee.”

Below is a profound reading of the scenes proposed by Father Marko I. Rupnik, author and coordinator of the pictorial cycle. His works are wonderful examples of the dialogue between the Bible and art.