Where would art history be without The Church? Week in, week out we look at images about Christianity without imagining history without them. And yet, in the 20th Century, the church barely appears in the canon of art history. So, with Christopher Lamb, one of the principle correspondents of the Vatican in the English speaking world, we will explore this fascinating topic. So often I hear from frustrated visitors to the Vatican that they took ‘the wrong route’ to the Sistine Chapel and ended up going through room after room of modern art. Matisse, Chagall, Picasso, Otto Dix, Bacon and Van Gogh are all passed without a backward glance or curiosity as to how they got there, who commissioned them and if the Roman Church has a policy towards art. Two key figures emerge. Paul VI, who in 1964 initiated a new policy and the present Pope Francis, who has made connections with the Venice Biennale and uses art as a diplomatic tool for communication and improved relations with China. As we have so often noticed, the careful examination of tender aesthetics is usually as revealing as the examination of hard politics. As we search for engaging and unlikely aspects of the visual world, we hope you will join us once again.