Carefully We Pietà
This one is unposted on the back but has a stamp and a postmark on the front from the Vatican. The postmark is from April 22, 1964, which appears to have just been a regular day in April.
Did someone go to the Vatican and get this from a gift shop? But what would be the point of getting it postmarked on the front? Wouldn't it make more sense to put a stamp on the back and actually mail it somewhere? I had assumed it was gift shop gimmick in Italy and to a degree I was right, but the truth lay halfway around the world (give or take a few thousand miles)
But the clue to the source of this postcard is in the stamp itself:
CIVITAS VATICANA UNIV. NEOBORACENSEM EXPOSITIONEM PARTICIPAT
I doubted our friendly neighborhood Google translate when it said "Neoboracensem" was "New York" because I had gone firmly down the wrong theological rabbit hole. This happens to me a lot, it's fine.
However, given some context clues, I believe the translation is correct. The clues are:
- The stamp is on the front and postmarked with a date from the Vatican
- There is no stamp or postage on the back. Nor is there a message or address to indicate it was ever sent.
- Even though the Second Vatican Council was on during that time period (from 1962-1965), it wasn't much of a tourist event.
So I returned to the translation. Why was "Univ." there? Why did it say "exposition participant...."
A quick online search revealed that a certain statue had been transported to New York for the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair. That statue, revealed on April 20th, 1964 was Michaelango's Pietà, pictured above.
The Pietà is one of the most stunning examples of Renaissance sculpture, sculpted by Michaelango Bounarroti for the jubilee year of 1500. Its evocative emotion speaks to the depth of the skill of the sculptor and had never been removed from St. Peter's Basillica until the New York World's Fair in 1964.
This was the first and last time the Pietà left its home in the basilica. But while it was in New York, it was a major part of the World's Fair's draw. This postcard is from that event, postmarked not from the Vatican, but as part of a commemoration of the Pieta's journey from Italy to New York.
So the statue traveled, even if the postcard didn't.
