Barbara Jatta (born 6 October 1962) is an Italian

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

who has been the director of the

Vatican Museums The Vatican Museums (; ) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the best-known Roman sculptures and ...

since June 2016.

Early life and education

Jatta has joked that she was born among the smell of solvents. Her mother was a painter and conservator, and her sister a conservator. She often visited her grandparents on Via Giulia in Rome, or at

Fregene Fregenae () was a maritime town of ancient Etruria, situated between Alsium and the mouth of the Tiber. The modern Fregene is an Italian hamlet (''frazione'') of Fiumicino, in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital, Lazio. As of 2012 its population ...

on the outskirts of the city, where her grandmother, Assia Busiri Vici, a portrait painter, would paint her. Her grandfather Andrea was an architect. She has studied conservation at Istituto centrale per la patologia del libro, today Istituto centrale per il restauro e la conservazione del patrimonio archivistico e librario. Despite her family background, she only determined on a career in art history when she was living in an artists commune in Rome and went with one of the artists to an art history lesson. She studied literature at the University of Rome (''Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza"''), completing her thesis, ''The History of Drawing, Engraving and Graphics'', in 1986. She later went on to earn degrees in Archive Administration and Art History. After her studies in Italy, she studied in England, Portugal, and the United States. Since 1994 she has taught at the Suor Orsola Benincasa University in Naples.

Vatican career

In 1996 she joined and led the prints section of the

Vatican Library The Vatican Apostolic Library (, ), more commonly known as the Vatican Library or informally as the Vat, is the library of the Holy See, located in Vatican City, and is the city-state's national library. It was formally established in 1475, alth ...

. She became the vice-director of the Vatican Museums under Antonio Paolucci in June 2016. On 20 December 2016,

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

appointed her the director of the

, effective 1 January 2017. Jatta became the first female director of the

. She is responsible for artworks that includes the iconic ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican museums earns more than $300m with profits of $40m from visitors to their museums. Jatta has recognised the work done by her predecessors. She says that she will eliminate the unsightly queue of visitors who stand to await entry. She will encourage visitors to enjoy the lesser known sections of the museum which should reduce crowding of the Sistine Chapel. She planned to utilize the "new media" to both publicize and educate. All this must be done, she said, while "paying special attention to the ‘Vatican tradition’." In March 2017, Jatta presided over the opening of a show at the Vatican Museums for the first time: Dilectissimo fratri Caesario Symmachus». From Arles to Rome, the relics of St. Caesarius, treasure of Paleo-Christian Gaul. In March 2018, Jatta attended meetings in Rome that marked the UN's International Day of Women and she represented the Vatican at a conference sponsored by the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), the first time the Vatican had participated in a meeting sponsored by the CSW.

Personal life

Since 1988 Jatta has been married to Fabio Midulla, a medical educator; they have three children.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jatta, Barbara 1962 births Curators from Rome Museum directors Italian women museum directors Living people Italian art curators Italian classical scholars Italian women classical scholars Vatican Museums Italian women curators