A G: Italy Day 3, Rome Day 3 Part 1 by Gordon, Vatican Museum 梵蒂冈博物馆

Vatican Museum

~ Gordon

At the entrance of Vatican Museum

The long waiting line at museum entrance

The long line

Established in 1506, the Vatican Museum is very large with a lot of art. Vatican Museum is open to public for free on the last Sunday of each month. Luckily, this fit our schedule. So, we took advantage of this. The long waiting line went in fairly quickly. The museum opened at 9 AM, and we got in at 9:40 AM.

Bramante’s Spiral Staircase

The staircase

Bottom view of the staircase

Going down

Going up

At the bottom of the staircase

At the bottom

The staircase

Through centuries, popes collected many treasures for the Vatican, including statues, jewels, clothes, paintings, tapestries, and a lot more. This can be very attractive with gold and silver. The Vatican Museum has many galleries; the Egyptian Gallery, Roman Art Gallery, Gallery of the Maps, and others. The spiral staircase, made by Giuseppe Momo in 1932, are located near the exit. It is called Bramante’s Spiral Staircase for the sculptor who made the St. Peter’s Dome. Raphael’s Room has an excellent painting, the School of Athens painted by Raphael (obviously). The Sistine Chapel hold a magnificent ceiling mural painted by Michelangelo, and a famous wall painting, the Last Judgement, again, painted by Michelangelo.

Raphael Rooms

The School of Athens

7-Alexander the Great
13-Michelangelo, 14-Leonardo da Vinci,15-Aristotle,
16-Diogenes of Sinope 18-Euclid,20R-Raphael

The School of Athens

In 1509, Raphael was commissioned to decorate the walls of a library room, and Raphael painted what is now known as the School of Athens. This painting represents Greek philosophers, with many famous philosophers in it; from Michelangelo to Euclid to Archimedes to Pythagoras to Plato and Aristotle. Along with these, there is also the painter himself. You can find Raphael with the letter R.

The Sistine Chapel

Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and the Last Judgement
painted by Michelangelo

Ceiling mural

The Sistine Chapel

The Creation of Adam

The Last Judgement

The Sistine Chapel ceiling is very breathtaking with many vivid colors. Michelangelo finished this 4 year long project at the age of 37. He made 9 scenes from Genesis. The most famous one is the Creation of Adam. 20 years later, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint on Sistine Chapel’s rear wall, the Last Judgement. In the Last Judgement, there are many highlights. One was that all of the people were initially completely naked, and Michelangelo refused to change them. But the private parts got covered now. Another was that too many people went to hell, which obviously no one liked. Even Michelangelo was at hell. Only a few people were going to heaven. The saints and the angels, who pick up people to go to heaven, don’t have wings.

The Vatican Museum is very fantastic with a lot of wonderful art. The art is very good, representing the Bible and philosophes. The galleries like the Egyptian Gallery, Roman Art Gallery, Gallery of Maps, and others were all cool. The Sistine Chapel indicates the end of our Vatican Museum tour. My visit to the Vatican Museum was wonderful!