THE INVISIBLE MADE VISIBLE: ANGELS FROM THE VATICAN

Federici Fiori, called Barocci, painted the oil on canvas titled "The Annunciation." The date for the painting is 1582-84.

This gilded metal and silver sculpture is from the Pontifical Sacristy. It is titled "Saint Michael and the Dragon."

It's comforting to be reminded that even the Vatican is fascinated with angels.

In the wake of a tide of angel books, angel movies and angel TV shows, "The Invisible Made Visible: Angels from the Vatican" arrives in St. Louis to proclaim that people -- and especially artists -- have been interested in angels for thousands of years.

The national traveling exhibition opens Saturday at the Saint Louis Museum of Art and continues through Aug. 2. Previously it was at the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center in Los Angeles, where it drew the largest crowd of any loaned exhibition in the museum's history. After leaving St. Louis the show will continue to Detroit, Baltimore and West Palm Beach.

The exhibition is underwritten by the Chrysler Corp. The Vatican, which loaned the more than 100 rare works of art and artifacts never before seen outside its walls, makes no profit.

The exhibition is billed as a one-in-a-lifetime opportunity to view these works.

They were gleaned from the Vatican Museums as well as from other Vatican properties, including the churches of Santa Maria Maggiore and St. John Lateran and the private Vatican Apartments.

Besides paintings, sculptures and frescoes, the exhibition also includes liturgical vessels and vestments and tapestries from the Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Roman and Christian traditions.

Raphael, Fra Angelico, Reni, Ludovico Caracci, Georges Rouault and Salvador Dali are among the artists whose artworks will be displayed.

One of the works dates to the ninth century B.C.

The Vatican Museums started with only the sculpture collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513). Now there are 13 Vatican Museums in addition to the Sistine Chapel, the Apostolic Palace and the Apostolic Library. They are visited by as many as 20,000 people a day.

Judy Mann, curator of early European art for the museum, notes that not all the images are Christian. "The show is a history of winged beings."

The oldest piece in the exhibition, an Assyrian relief, shows a kneeling human figure with wings. "I think they linked together various traditions," Mann said, explaining how an Assyrian artist might have concocted a winged being.

Angels also are found in Judaism, Islam and Mormonism.

The angels in the Bible were described as indistinguishable from humans, Mann said. Halos don't appear in angel artwork until the 13th century.

The Vatican organized this exhibit as a way of thanking people who have helped conserve the works of art as patrons of the Vatican Museums. Many of them live in Los Angeles and Miami, two stops on the tour.

St. Louis was chosen in part because of its large Catholic community, Mann said. The Vatican also hopes to add to its list of patrons through the tour, she added.

Beyond the current popularity of angels in America, Mann says, is the artistry.

"There are many exquisite works of art. The silver and gold objects at the altar are sumptuous."

Each object has been accorded its own setting through the use of velvet walls and drapes.

"It's a rich presentation," Mann said.