Perugino’s Resurrection and its 2023 exhibition

Perugino painted the Resurrection of Christ in 1499 for a family chapel in San Francesco al Prato in Perugia. Its later movements show how an altarpiece could pass between church, museum and papal use. French troops removed it in 1797, and it returned to the Pope in 1815. Much later, Pope Paul VI selected it for his private library, taking it out of the Pinacoteca. From 28 June to 15 September 2023, an exceptional exhibition displayed it in Pinacoteca Room XVII before a planned return to the papal study. That exhibition was a temporary chance to see a work usually associated with a different setting. Its history adds another chapter to the story of the Vatican painting collection. Returning to papal ownership after the Napoleonic removals did not fix a painting's location forever. Later popes could choose works for their own surroundings, while temporary exhibitions could make them public again.