Appartamento Borgia
The Borgia Pope Alexander VI (1492-1503) had a private residence built for himself and his family within the Vatican Palace, and commissioned Pinturicchio to decorate it with wall and ceiling
paintings. Between 1492 and 1495 the painter and his assistants and pupils painted a series of scenes, combining Renaissance, humanist and ancient themes with Christian subjects.
First room: prophets and Sibyls. Second room: the Creed, with prophets and Apostles. Third room: allegories of the seven liberal arts. Fourth room: legends of saints. Fifth room: scenes from the life of Christ and the Virgin. The Papal portraits formerly in the sixth room have not survived.
Egyptian Museum
The Egyptian Museum in the Cortile della Pigna, re-founded by Pope Gregory XVI (the first collection having been assembled by Pius VIII), contains a small but valuable collection of Egyptian art
from the third millennium to the sixth century B.C., including basalt and wooden sarcophagi, heads of gods and pharaohs, mummified heads, stelae, statues of gods and animals, and papyri.
Etruscan Museum
The Etruscan Museum, founded by Pope Gregory XVI (1831-46), contains in its eighteen rooms works of art and everyday objects which throw light on the life of the Etruscans and their idea of the
afterlife. The collection also includes Greek and Roman works. Particularly notable items are the rich grave goods from the Regolini-Galassi tomb at Cerveteri, the Mars of Todi, the Stele del Palestrita (from Attica; fifth century B.C.), a head of Athena and numerous fine vases.
Gallery of Cadelabras and Tapestries
Beyond the Map Gallery (when coming from the Vatican palace) is the gallery of Cadelabras and Tapestries, with valuable tapestries of the 15th-17th centuries and Roman marble candelabras.
Map Gallery
The Map Gallery, 120m/395ft long, has maps of all the different parts of Italy, often with views of cities and prospects of scenery (1580-83). The maps, originating from the studio of Antonio Dantes
, contain valuable cartographical detail and were designed to be used as decoration for a palace.
Collezione d'Arte Religiosa Moderna
Pope Paul VI (1963-78) was interested in modern religious art and made available 55 rooms in the Vatican for the display of works of art presented to the Popes or acquired by them. The collection
contains more than 800 works by artists of many different countries, including Rodin, Barlach, Matisse, Modigliani, Kokoschka, Dali, Munch, Vlaminck, Feininger, Ernst Beckmann, Nolde, Le Corbusier, Kadinsky, de Chirico, Greco, Marini, Rouault, Hartung, Hansing and Sutherland.
Museo Chiaramonti
The Museo Chiaramonti, founded by Pope Pius VII (1800-23), a member of the Chiaramonti family, is housed in a long gallery leading to the Papal palace and contains numerous works of Greek and Roman
art, of varying quality. There are also works of Greek and Roman sculpture in the Galleria Lapidaria (not open to the public) and the Braccio Nuovo, which links the two long wings extending from the entrance to the museums to the Palazzi Vaticani. Notable items in the Braccio Nuovo are the Augustus of Prima Porta, a statue of the Emperor found in 1863 in the country villa of his wife Livia; a statue of the god of the Nile; and the Doryphorus ("Spear Carrier"), a copy of the work by Polycletus. In the Sala della Biga, near the entrance, are two Discus-Throwers, copies of works by Myron and Polycletus (fifth century B.C.) and a carriage and pair ("Biga" 1788) by Antonio Franzoni.
Museo Missionario Etnologico
Objects brought back from the various mission fields of the Church were originally (from 1927 onwards) displayed in the Palazzo Laterno. Pope Pius XI directed that they should be brought together
in a systematic arrangement, and in 1970 all material of interest (to scholars as well as to the general public) was transferred to the Museo Missionario Etnologico.
Museo Pio Cristino
The Museo Pio Cristino, founded by Pope Pius IX in 1854, contains material which until 1963 was housed in the Lateran Palace. There are two sections, one devoted to architecture, sculpture and mosaics, the other to inscriptions.
Museo Profano
The Museo Profano has a collection of secular art which includes a variety of Etruscan, Roman and medieval material.
Museo delle Carroze
The coach museum, opened in 1973, is housed in a building under the Giardino Quadrato (Square Garden), near the Pinacoteca. The museum contains the Papal carriages (including the coach of Pope Leo
XII), vintage cars and a model of the jet in which Pope Paul VI flew to the UN.
Museo Pio Clementino
The Vatican Museums have the largest collection of ancient sculpture in the world, mainly found in Rome and the surrounding areas. The collection was arranged on a systematic basis by Popes Clement
XIV (1769-74) and Pius VI (1775-99). Among outstanding items are the following: Sala a Croce Greca: the porphyry sarcophagi of Constantia (Constantine's daughter) and St Helen (his mother), richly decorated with figures and symbols.
First to Fourth Century
Among the significant works in the Museo Pio Clementino are: Sala Rotonda: Zeus of Otricoli, a copy of a work by Bryaxis (fourth century B.C.). Sala delle Muse: Belvedere Torso, a work by
Apollonius of Athens (first century B.C.) which was admired by Michelangelo; statues of Apollo and the Muses.
Gabinetto delle Maschere (Cabinet of Masks): mosaic paving of theatrical masks from the Villa Adriana (see Tivoli); Cnidian Venus, a Roman copy of the Aphrodite of Praxiteles (fourth century B.C.).
Cortile del Belvedere: the most famous statues in the Vatican - the Apollo Belvedere (Roman copy of an original by Leochares c. 330 B.C.).
Statues
Among the significant statues in the Museo Pio Clementino are: Sala degli Animali: numerous realistic marble and alabaster statues of animals; statue of Meleager with a dog and a wild boar's head
(Roman copy), and Minotaur bust. Galleria delle Statue: Apollo Sauroctonus (Apollo the Lizard Killer; Roman copy of a bronze original by Praxiteles); the reclining figure of Ariadne; the Candelabri Barberini (the finest ancient candelabras known), from the Villa Adriana at Tivoli. Galleria dei Busti: lunette frescoes by Pinturicchio; statue of Jupiter Verospi. Canova's Perseus, a Hermes of the Hadrianic period (copy of an original by Praxiteles) and above all the celebrated Laocoön group, a masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture (at the finding of which in 1506 Michelangelo was present), depicting the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons in a mortal struggle with two huge snakes. Gabinetto del Apoxyomenos: the Athlete Apoxyomenos, a copy of a bronze statue by Lysippus, found in Trastevere in 1849.
Museum of Sacred Art
At the end of the long range housing the Vatican Library is the Museum of Sacred Art, containing material found during the excavation of catacombs and early Christian churches in Rome and the
surrounding area. Pope Pius XI (1922-39) showed a particular interest in the smaller works of Christian art. In a side room is the "Aldobrandini Wedding" (Nozze Aldobrandine), a sensitively painted and well-preserved ancient fresco which was found about 1600 and until 1818 was kept in the Aldobrandini Gardens.
Museum of Secular Art
The Museum of Secular Art was founded by Gregory XVI. Until 1963 it was housed, together with the Museo Pio Cristano and the Museo Epigrafico Cristano in the Lateran Palace. It now occupies a
modern museum building adjoining the Pinacoteca which was built during the reigns of Popes John XXIII (1958-63) and Paul VI (1963-78). The works of ancient sculpture in this excellently arranged museum were mostly found in the territories of the Papal States. The collection includes Roman copies of Greek sculpture and originals of Roman Imperial sculpture - statues, reliefs, funerary monuments and sarcophagi, together with works of political and religious content.
First section: Roman copies and re-workings of Greek originals (including Sophocles, fourth century B.C.); Niobe Chiaramonti; head of Athena; Marsia torso.
Second section: Roman sculpture (first and early second century A.D., including a portrait of Livia, wife of Augustus).
Third section: sarcophagi (including the sarcophagus from the Porta Viminalis).
Fourth section: Roman sculpture (second and third centuries A.D., including a Mithras sculpture).
Nicholas V's Chapel
Nicholas V's Chapel, near the Stanze di Raffaello, has frescoes by Fra Beato Angelico on the life and martyrdom of SS Stephen and Lawrence (1447-49).
Picture Gallery
The Pinacoteca, founded by Pius VI and later robbed of many of its treasures by Napoleon, contains in its sixteen rooms a collection of pictures ranging in date from the Middle Ages to the present
day, giving an excellent survey of the development of Western painting. The pictures are arranged in chronological order.
Picture Gallery - Medieval Art
Vatican Museums Picture Gallery Room I: medieval art (Byzantine, Sienese, Umbrian and Tuscan), including a liturgical vestment (pluviale) which belonged to Pope Boniface VIII (13th century).
Picture Gallery - Protraits
Vatican Museums Picture Gallery Room IX: "St Jerome", an unfinished work by Leonardo da Vinci. Room X: "Madonna" by Titian. Room XII: "Entombment" by Caravaggio. Room XIV: Dutch and Flemish masters (school of Rubens). Room XV: portraits of Popes.
Picture Gallery - Tapestries
Vatican Museums Picture Gallery Room VIII: tapestries from cartoons by Raphael, and Raphael's famous "Transfiguration" (1517; his last picture) and "Madonna of Foligno" (1512-13).
Picture Gallery - Triptych
Vatican Museums Picture Gallery Room II: triptych of Cardinal Stefaneschi (Giotto). Room III: "Madonna" and "St Nicholas of Bari" by Fra Angelico; triptych by Filippo Lippo. Room V: "Pietà" by
Lucas Cranach the Elder. Room VII: "Coronation of the Virgin" by Pinturicchio; "Madonna" by Perugino.
Raphael Rooms
These rooms above the Appartamento Borgia, built by Pope Nicholas V, contain a magnificent series of frescoes by Raphael, who was commissioned by the art-loving Pope Julius II in 1508 to repaint
the rooms. Raphael, in re-discovering the traditions of historical painting, established a trend in art which was to be followed in subsequent centuries. As a classicist he adhered to strict compositional symmetry in the frescoes. The characters are positioned, according to their roles in the story, around a perspectival and pictorial focal point, usually in the center of the picture.
The Stanza della Segnatura and the Stanza di Eliodoro are both by Raphael's own hand: the Stanza dell'Incendio di Borgo was executed by his pupils under his supervision; the Stanza di Constantino was painted after Raphael's death by Guilio Romano and Gian Francesco Penni.
Room 1 (Sala dell'Incendio di Borgo, Room of the Burning of the Borgo): Ceiling painting by Perugino and four paintings of historical scenes by pupils of Raphael (1517 onwards); Leo IV and the burning of the Borgo (the district around St Peter's) in 847; coronation of Charlemagne by Leo III in 800; Leo IV's naval victory over the Saracens off Ostia in 849; and Leo III's oath (denying false accusations) in 800. These paintings commemorating his predecessors of the same name were commissioned by Pope Leo X (1513-21).
Room 2: (Sala della Segnatura, the meeting place of an ecclesiastical tribunal): The frescoes in this room, painted by Raphael in 1508-11, represent the supreme achievement of Renaissance painting. They depict the culture of the period in all its richness and splendor. The Disputa del Sacramento, a theological disputation on the doctrine of transubstantiation, depicts the world of religious faith. In the lower zone, around the altar, are Popes, bishops, teachers and theologians, including Pope Innocent III, St Bonaventure and Dante. Above them, under God the Father are Christ with the Virgin and John the Baptist, attended by saints. The Scuola d'Atene (School of Athens), set in the newly built St Peter's, represents the field of the natural sciences - attainable without divine revelation - and depicts representatives of philosophy (the two central figures, Plato and Aristotle, together with Socrates), architecture (Bramante), history (Xenophon) and mathematics (Archimedes, Pythagoras, Euclid), together with Raphael himself (in the corner, second from right). Above one window is an associated scene depicting Parnassus, with Apollo playing a violin, the blind Homer, the Muses and other ancient poets (Virgil, Sappho, Ovid, Catullus and Horace). Above the other are a scene depicting the glorification of canon and civil law and allegorical representations of the virtues of Prudence and Temperance. On the ceiling, corresponding to the scenes on the walls below, are allegories of theology, philosophy, poetry and justice.
Room 3 (Sala d'Eliodoro, Room of Heliodorus): The paintings by Raphael in this room (1512-14) show still greater expressive power and a livelier sense of movement than those in the Sala della Segnatura. They depict four scenes: Leo the Great repulsing Attila, the Mass of Bolsena (in which an unbelieving priest was convinced of the truth of the doctrine of transubstantiation), the expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple and the liberation of St Peter from prison, Raphael's first depiction of a night scene, with effective use of light. As in the "Mass of Bolsena" the dungeon scene consists of three events which flow into each other without disrupting the unity of the picture.
Room 4 (Sala di Constantino, Room of Constantine) The painting dates almost entirely from the reign of Clement VII, after Raphael's death. On the long wall is a fine picture by pupils of Raphael of Constantine's victory over Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, with the scene depicting Constantine's vision of the Cross. Other scenes include Constantine's baptism and the "Presentation by Constantine".
Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel, built by Pope Sixtus IV in 1473-84, is a plain rectangular hall 40.4m/133ft long, 20.7m/68ft wide and 13.2m/43ft high with large wall and ceiling surfaces. The division of the
chapel into presbytery and nave is achieved by the varying geometric design of the colored marble floor and by a marble balustrade (by Mino da Fiesole and Andrea Bregno).
The chapel is the Pope's domestic chapel, and is also used for services and special occasions. After the death of a Pope the conclave to elect his successor is held here. There are frescoes of the side walls, the ceiling and the altar wall. From 1980 to 1994 the Sistine Chapel, the pinnacle of Renaissance painting, was extensively restored. Layers of candle-soot, dust, varnish, oil and grease, as well as overpainting and damage were removed from the Michelangelo frescoes and once again the remarkable luminous colors can be admired.
Altar Wall
Michelangelo began work on the large fresco on the altar wall in 1534, in the reign of Pope Paul III, when he was 59. As a counterpart to his depiction of the Creation on the ceiling he painted on
this wall the final scene in the story of the world, the Last Judgment, depicting Christ returning as the Judge to summon the righteous to paradise and consign the damned to hell. The theme in all its details is based on the scriptural account. With its dramatic presentation of his subject, which Michelangelo sees as a judgment on the life of the individual human being, this ranks as one of the greatest achievements of European painting.
Last Judgment
In the Last Judgment Christ is depicted as a powerful youthful god standing on a cloud, surrounded by the Virgin, the Apostles and other saints. The righteous (to the left) rising up into heaven,
and the damned (on the right) tumbling into hell form a powerful upward and downward movement which determines the eternal fate of mankind, while below the dead are seen rising from their graves. In the middle are angels blowing their trumpets to summon all men to judgment, and up above other angels carry in triumph the instruments of the Passion. The 381 figures are represented with athletic forms, and many of them have readily recognizable attributes (Peter with his key, Sebastian with his arrows, Lawrence with his gridiron, Bartholomew with his flayed skin, which bears a portrait of Michelangelo himself, Catherine with her wheel).
Ceiling
The frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were painted by Michelangelo in the reign of the great Pope and Renaissance prince Julius II, most of them being his own unaided work. They were
painted between the autumn of 1508 and August 1510 and, after a pause, completed in 1511-12. Michelangelo's idea was an ambitious one, never attempted on such a scale before; no less than to depict the Creation as it is described in Genesis.
Ceiling Central Part
The central part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (beginning at the near end) depicts God separating light from darkness, creating the sun and the moon, separating land and sea, creating Adam
and then Eve; the Fall; Noah's thank-offering; the Flood; Noah's drunkenness. In the lower ranges of the vaulting are colossal figures of the prophets and sibyls who conveyed God's message to the Jews and the Gentiles.
Ceiling Restoration
The restoration of the chapel has revealed an unexpected luminosity of color in Michelangelo's frescoes, which caused controversy about the restoration process, even though the intensive use of
color is consistent with the traditions of the Florentine school. The restorers only removed dirt and later repainting to reach the protective top layer of paint applied in Michelangelo's fresco technique. The colors which they revealed are bright and intensive tones of blue, green, ochre, red and white. The figures are all depicted in vigorous and passionate movement.
Paintings on Side Walls
The side walls of the Sistine Chapel are covered with large frescoes painted for Sixtus IV (1481-83) by the most celebrated painters of the day - Perugino, Botticelli, Rosselli, Pinturicchio,
Signorelli and Ghirlandaio - depicting Biblical scenes against the background of the Umbrian and Tuscan scenery familiar to the artists.
These late 15th century paintings already reflect the discovery of man as an individual and his importance in the historical process, and with consummate artistic skill depict him acting within an architectural and landscape setting, thus preparing the way for the further development of this trend by Michelangelo.
Right-hand Wall Painting
The right-hand wall of the Sistine Chapel depicts events in the life of Christ, the liberator of mankind from sin - his baptism in the Jordan; the cleansing of lepers (a magnificent work by
Botticelli); the calling of Peter and Andrew; the Sermon on the Mount; Christ giving the keys to Peter; and the Last Supper.
Left-hand Wall Paintings
The left-hand wall of the Sistine Chapel has scenes from the life of Moses, liberator of the Jewish people from their captivity in Egypt; the circumcision of Moses; Moses with the shepherds and the
burning bush; the crossing of the Red Sea; Moses receiving the tablets of the law on Mount Sinai; the destruction of the company of Korah; and the death of Moses.
Vatican Library
Judged by the value of its contents, the Vatican Library is the richest in the world. Since its foundation by Nicholas V in 1450 the library has been systematically built up, and now contains, in
addition to books printed since the end of the 15th century, some 7,000 incunabula, 25,000 medieval hand-written books and 80,000 manuscripts. In the library hall, 70m/230ft long, built by Domenico Fontana, are cases displaying some of its greatest treasures - Biblical codices, illuminated Gospel books, finely printed books, valuable parchments and ancient papyri and scrolls.
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