The Vatican (Vatican Museums)

 24 May 2024 - The Vatican (Vatican Museums)

As huge as the Basilica is, it can’t come close to being big enough to show off all the Vatican’s treasures.  So, a series of museums and galleries have been built over the centuries to showcase about 70 percent of the artwork and fascinating pieces of world history. I don’t remember how many museums exactly, but there are buildings for paintings, sculptures, Egyptian treasures, Etruscan treasures and galleries for maps/globes and gifts from other countries.  In addition to touring these, we got to see the Borgia apartment (once sealed off rooms for a disgraced 15th century Pope) and the four Raphael rooms.  Eventually, we exited into the Sistine Chapel, where pictures are not allowed, but we spent time viewing the ceiling paintings by Michelangelo.  So hard to believe, he painted them, mostly by himself, in just four years in a rather frenzied state of mind. The chapel is huge - it is where the cardinals meet to select a pope. We were told he painted them standing up, not laying down as I was originally taught in school.  It is hard to imagine how he could paint something up close and get what the painting should look like from 60 feet below. It’s not like he could keep running up and down the scaffolding to see if he got the perspective right. And physically, it was extremely hard.  Our guide told us that he could not remove his boots for days at a time because his legs would become swollen from all the standing (20 hours a day or more). The man was unbelievable! 

In all we visited the museums over four days and, each time, I got to go into the Sistine Chapel and view it.  It was wonderful!

The original double helix staircase was built in the Museums in the 1500s, this replacement came in the 1930s. 

A view of St. Peter’s Basilica dome from a patio that is part of the Museums.  The dome was designed by Michelangelo, but he died before it was finished.  It is a double dome with a space between the two.  You can climb up to the top if you are of a mind.

The Vatican is only about 190 acres in size.  It has beautiful gardens that are limited to the public.  You can take tours though.

A modern sculpture by Pomodoro will rotate slowly with the wind.  It goes much faster when spun by various kids in the area.  There are other copies of this art in the world, including one in NYC.

A VERY large head of Caesar Augustus.

So many sculptures.  One side was ancient Greek, the other ancient Roman.

Then there was another room with more sculptures.

The Gallery of the Maps room is the Thomas Brothers book for the early explorers.  One shows America right around the time Columbus visited. The ceiling depicts events in Italy’s history.

Extremely detailed and beautifully painted.

The room even had insets for cities (just like current maps.)

The mosaic floor came from the old Roman port.  The basin is Nero’s bathtub. It is made of an Egyptian stone, called Red porphyry, which is very rare.  Carved from one piece of stone.

Michelangelo designed the roof of this room after the Pantheon, although it is much smaller.

Amazing mosaic floors were everywhere in the Museums, but this is especially beautiful. It dates back to the 3rd century AD and was discovered in Rome in the 1700s.

A view of the Basilica and surrounding Medieval buildings from a window in the Museums.

Even the window shutters were elaborately carved.

An example of a heavily embroidered religious garment.  Gold and silver threads were used.

Just a few of the Egyptian treasures that the Vatican has accumulated over the centuries.

One of the beautiful plazas in the Museums area is the Pinecone plaza.  The giant bronze pinecone dates from the 2nd century AD and sits above an ancient Roman water fountain with lions.

The view of the Pinecone from inside the Museums.  The peacocks came from one of Hadrian’s villas.

Not very happy, is he?

The rooms just go on and on, and the tour groups completely fill them. It got difficult to move in the afternoons.

Pieces of a now destroyed dome. The semi-round model in the front shows where the frescoes would have appeared on the dome. 

A whole room of tapestries, many of them designed by Raphael, then sent to Brussels to be turned into tapestries. He had to draw them in reverse because of the weaving process.

Pre-Renaissance altar pieces.

Russ taking a much needed break.

Some of the Muses.

Plaster models that Michelangelo made when he first started sculpting.

Eventually, he stopped using plaster models.  He had the ability to look at a piece of marble and envision the figure that would emerge.  That is a different kind of brain!

Raphael’s School of Athens.  Depicts the leading scholars, artists, poets of the ancient times.

Raphael’s Transfiguration, his last work.  This originally hung in the Basilica but was moved to the Museums to preserve it.  It was replaced by a mosaic in the Basilica (as were all the other paintings.)

A new addition, the Carriage Museum contains cars, carriages and other notable means of transporting the Pope over the centuries. These are sedan chairs.

Some of us might recognize this as the vehicle Pope John Paul II was in when he was shot in St. Peter’s Square.

This is the most grandiose carriage on display.  It dates from the early 1800s.