Vatican Museums - Monday February 9th

Today we had a beautiful sunny day for our trip to the Vatican Museums, literally not a cloud in the sky!

View of St. Peter's from Vatican Museum courtyard

We had a great set-up for our tour in which we all had headsets that were linked to Lisa’s microphone so that we could wander through the museum at our leisure while Lisa gave us all the details about the highlights of the galleries. Our first stop was the painting gallery – the entrance of which is protected by a cast of Michelangelo’s Pieta that allows visitors to get much closer to the statue than you can to the original that resides in St. Peter’s. The painting gallery begins with medieval works and then progresses to Renaissance artists – bridged by Giotto and by the famous fresco of Sixtus IV appointing Bartolomeo Platina Prefect of the Vatican Library by Melozzo of Forli.

Left: Giotto's triptych - the former altar piece of St. Peter's Basilica, Right: Melozzo da Forli's della Rovere Fresco

Our next room of focus was dedicated to Raphael - the walls covered in intricate tapestries designed by the master himself, and the main display of the room being a set of three paintings that demonstrate the progression of Raphael’s style. This progression culminates in Raphael’s Transfiguration, completed in 1520. The painting shows Raphael’s ability to combine multiple scenes into one painting with an effortless flair, and simultaneously demonstrates the ethereal style and magnificent use of color Raphael is known for along with his desire to incorporate the muscular, sculptural figures he so admired in Michelangelo’s work.

Raphael's Transfiguration

From Raphael’s room we journey into that of Leonardo da Vinci, which focuses on an unfinished painting of Saint Jerome in which the viewer can see Leonardo’s obsession with anatomy and the human form. We then ventured into the realm of the Baroque – studying the intensely graphic paintings of Caravaggio and Guido Reni, where we received an introduction to the technique of chiaroscuro- the play between light and dark so widely explored in Baroque painting. With a quick view of the still lives in the adjacent room, we quit the painting gallery to go out into the beautiful sunlight of the courtyard where Constantine’s giant bronze pinecone commands the scene. From here we entered the ancient sculpture courtyard where we had the privilege of seeing two of the most influential and magnificent sculptures that still survive from antiquity – the Apollo Belvedere and the Laocoön.

Laocoön (c. 1st century BCE)

It was the incredible intricacy of the body of the Laocoön that inspired Michelangelo to perform countless studies and drawings of the sculpture – its importance to the sculptors of the Renaissance cannot be overemphasized. With a nod to a giant, second-century BCE bronze statue of Hercules that was excavated from our very own Palazzo Pio that now houses the UW Rome Center and the incredible ancient mosaics under our very feet we worked our way through the crowds to Raphael’s famed Stanze.

Palazzo Pio Bronze Hercules

There are four rooms included in the Stanze commissioned by Julius II so that he would not have to endure the unpleasantness of living in the former Borgia apartments. The most renowned of these rooms is the Stanza della Signatura as it is home to the celebrated School of Athens - with many of Raphael's honorable contemporaries depicted as ancient thinkers - such as Leonardo da Vinci as Plato (the left central figure).

partial view of School of Athens with Michelangelo as Heraclitus front left

After viewing these masterpieces of Raphael, we swept through the Hall of Maps and the Modern Art wing to arrive at the culmination of our visit – the Sistine Chapel. How can I hope to describe the Sistine Chapel? It is indeed an overload on the senses – incredible frescoes by Botticelli and Perugino cover the side walls and Michelangelo’s Last Judgment with its deeply blue background and countless almost-nude figures adorns the altar – and then of course there is the ceiling which speaks for itself.

Sistine Chapel with Last Judgement center

(photo taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-541593/Painting-ceiling-weekend-Spare-thought-man-created-Sistine-Chapel.html - as being good little art historians we didn't take any photos inside the chapel)

One of the most interesting things we learned about the chapel was that a heavy cleaning and restoration was just completed less than five years ago that completely changed the hues of the frescoes that had become extremely dark and dirty over the years. For many art historians the cleaning of the frescoes required the interpretation of Michelangelo’s Sistine frescoes to be entirely altered – that in fact they were not dark and tumultuous but bright and vibrant. This day at the Vatican museums was incredible and many of us felt that we could spend days here and still not see everything that the galleries have to offer.