The Burial and Glorification of Santa Petronilla
Musei Capitolini
The Capitoline Museums are one of the must-sees during your stay at The Goethe Hotel. Here you will find wonderful paintings and sculptures, as well as a work of art cherished by the German poet, writer and philosopher: Guercino’s “Sepoltura e gloria di Santa Petronilla (Burial and Glorification of Saint Petronilla)“.
The Capitoline Museums were created in 1471. As the oldest public museums in the world, the Capitoline’s halls and works of art can reveal many details about Rome’s immortal soul.
Some of the most famous art collections are housed in the halls of Palazzo dei Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo. There are masterpieces such as the statue of Marcus Aurelius on horseback, the Capitoline She-Wolf and the Dying Galata, Guido Reni’s Bust of Medusa and St. Sebastian, which have reached us through the centuries to tell us about glory and downfall, power, humanity and transience.
The Burial and Glorification of Santa Petronilla
Inside the Capitoline Museums you will find the Burial and Glory of Saint Petronilla, a masterpiece by Guercino that won Goethe’s heart during his stay in Rome.
Goethe admired the Burial and Glorification of Saint Petronilla when it was exhibited in the Quirinale Palace. It is a solemn and delicate oil painting on canvas that evokes a deep and quiet spirituality. It is a sacred image and yet, in a unique way, a worldly one.
This is what Goethe wrote about it: “… Guercino’s Saint Petronilla used to be in St. Peter’s, with the original now replaced by a mosaic copy. The saint’s body was lifted from the tomb and she was greeted in the empyrean by a celestial youth who had risen to life. This double feat can be debated, but the picture is priceless.”
