See The Vatican Museums While In Rome
If we made an effort to just list the names of the many galleries and museums that make up the complex of buildings called the Vatican Museums, that would fill many pages. And if we took the next step – to list all of the artists and great art works held in those buildings – that would fill books. In fact, the Vatican itself has filled volumes with such information at the Vatican library.
The vast Vatican Museums grew from one purchase of a sculpture of Laocoon and his sons as they did battle with a sea serpent, brought by Pope Julius II in 1506. From that simple purchase the Vatican Museums has swelled to dozens of galleries and literally thousands of artworks available for your viewing.
A great example of the diversity of these collections is the Etruscan Museum which opened in 1837. This collection is charged with caring for some rare and precious excavated samples of some very ancient art that came from archaeological digs in southern Etruria and surrounding vicinities. These art works reflect the style of the Roman Empire not far away in the mosaics and very old sarcophagi that were held in the Egyptian Museum.
Another fascinating collection is the Gallery of Tapestries which – as the title implies – is a museum devoted entirely to woven wall hangings from the 15th through 17th centuries. These richly colored tapestries were first shown in 1814 and they are such great works of art that they would be sought after by any major museum or collector in the world.
Just as unique in the family of art collections in the Vatican Museums is the Gallery of Maps which earned that name for the works painted directly on the walls of the building. There you can find 40 diverse panels that depict different regions of the planet and which all go together to make a complete map of the world for its time period. Before navigators had access to GPS devices or satellite technology, these kinds of maps were life or death to an explorer finding his way and the Church depended on them to guide the explorers that were sent out to discover the world.
The Raphael Rooms are not to be missed if you are scheduling some time to see the Vatican Museums. There you will find four rooms all connected, that were constructed between 1447 and 1455. In those four rooms are some of the great works of the famous artist Raphael. It is interesting that the rooms were named that way because of the work Raphael himself did in decorating each room, not because they are devoted to showcasing his art.
An unimaginatively named museum is the Vatican Picture Gallery. But what is inside is far from bland as it is home to great works of art by great masters of the art world such as Van Dyck, Giotta, Poussin and Perugino.
A gallery that has an imaginative name but is often misleading, is the Gregorian Museum of Profane Art. It is not about profanity in the modern sense of the word. Rather that designation only means that the works of art contained in this gallery are of a secular nature. A new citizen of the Vatican Museums, it contains such things as Roman sculptures from the Imperial period, as well as the Republican time frame, sarcophagi and other things from these eras as well.
Another aptly named collection is the Carriage Pavilion which opened in 1973 in a building that was built under the Square Garden. This unique collection holds the many carriages that served to take Popes and other high church officials to their appointments. In addition to the carriages, you will also find a photographic history of papal transport, harnesses for the horses and other paraphernalia and historic documentation related to this topic.
But there is no question that the crowning moment of any visit to the Vatican Museums will be the time you spend in the world renowned Sistine Chapel, to take in the huge masterpiece that Michelangelo painted on the Chapel ceiling. As you gaze up you will know this is a moment you will remember for life. But don’t miss out on Michelangelo’s Last Judgment, which he came back and added to the chapel 20 years later.
Nothing will be able to take the place of the impression you will get gazing at that ceiling. There you will witness nine panels that are used to depict Biblical characters including Noah, a number of unknown male nudes, Sibyls and the crowning moment in the piece as God himself reaches out to touch Adam’s finger and give him life. The famous writer Goethe summed up the feeling you get when you see that painting when he said:
“Without having seen the Sistine Chapel, one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving.”
Goethe’s words could easily to applied to hundreds of other outstanding art works by hundreds of master artists whose work is on display in the many buildings of the Vatican Museums.
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