The Vatican Museums are considered one of the most important museums in the world and their visit is essential and indispensable for anyone who comes to Rome. Here the Popes have, over time, collected and preserved for future generations of the highest masterpieces of all time and the most valuable evidence of the past. They first put at the disposal of culture and public art collections of their palaces.
In the early sixteenth century, Pope Julius II first exhibited in the Octagonal Courtyard, a collection of ancient sculptures in value. The late eighteenth century by Clement XIV and Pius VI opened the first art collections are sorted and accessible to the public. From that moment other new collections became part going to cover a vast span of history and geography of the world from ancient Egypt until today.
During your visit you can admire the Stanze di Raffaello, already proven apartments of Pope Julius II, decorated with some important frescoes of the great Renaissance painter. At the end of the visit at the museums you can visit the Sistine Chapel, linked to the name of the great Michelangelo and the representation of the Creation and the Last Judgment.
Itinerary:
1. Collections
• The Museo Pio-Clementino, one of the largest collections of sculptures greek-roman of the world including, Apoxyomenos, the Apollo Belvedere, the Laocoon, the Hermes, Venus Felix and The Perseus triumphantly.
• The Gregorian Etruscan Museum, a collection of vases, sarcophagi, bronze and gold of great value in part from the famous Regolini-Galassi tomb at Cerveteri.
• The Gregorian Egyptian Museum, where you can admire the mummies, sarcophagi and objects of worship and burial rituals, statues and epigraphic documents
• Museum Gregorian Profane
• The Museo Pio Cristiano
• The Missionary-Ethnological Museum
• Historic Museum Papale
• The Collection of Modern Religious Art and Contemporary Art
2. The Pinacoteca Vaticana
The Pinacoteca Vaticana includes several masterpieces of the greatest artists in the history of Italian painting, like Giotto, Beato Angelico, Melozzo from Forlì, Perugino, Raffaello, Leonardo, Tiziano, Veronese, Caravaggio, Crespi and others...
3. The art sites of the Vatican Apostolic Palace
Beyond the immense wealth of works in the collection, visiting the Vatican Museums you can admire the most artistically significant and relevant to the Vatican Apostolic Palace. These include
• The Gallery of Tapestries, Geographical Maps and Candelabras
• Niccolina Chapel with paintings by Fra Angelico
• the Borgia Apartment decorated by Pinturicchio
• the rooms painted by Raphael
4. Le Stanze di Raffaello - Raffaello's rooms
Le Stanze di Raffaello were private apartments of Pope Julius II. They are decorated with some important frescoes created by the great Renaissance painter. The rooms follow each other masterpieces such as the Triumph of Religion, the School of Athens, the Liberation of Saint Peter, the Mass of Bolsena., The fire at the Village and the cycle dedicated to the Emperor Constantine.
5. Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel is named after Pope Sisto IV della Rovere who first restored the old chapel Magna in 1477, entrusting a 'team of painters such as Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio who painted a series of frescoes on the side walls with Stories of Christ and Moses. The vault was painted with a blue sky studded with golden stars.
6. Genesis
Ccrtainly for a lot of people, the Sistine Chapel is linked to the name of the great Michelangelo for two major projects such as the time with stories of Genesis and the great wall of Judgment. It all began with Julius II della Rovere who wanted a large fresco inspired by the book of Genesis instead of that painted sky. And for this work in 1508 called Michelangelo Buonarroti. After four years, Julius II inaugurated the new Sistine Chapel with a solemn mass. Michelangelo illustrated in the nine central panels of the vault, the most important moments of Genesis as Creation and the Fall of Man, the Flood and Noah. Then he surrounded the vault with powerful figures of Sibille of Prophets and Ancestors of Christ and the narration of some moments in the history of the people of Israel. Nothing of that power had never been seen so far through the work of one artist.
7. The Judgment
The link with Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel does not end here. Twenty years, and towards the end of 1533, Clement VII Medici, calls for another work even more challenging: to paint the altar wall, the Judgment. The artist begins the great work in 1536 during the pontificate of Paul III and brings to completion in the fall of 1541. In this fresco Michelangelo has represented as much as anyone the glorious return of Christ at the Last Day. Michelangelo, using its extraordinary artistic skills, sought to translate into visible form the invisible beauty and majesty of God's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel are now back to its original splendor after a long and complex restoration finished in 1999. This chapel, for many centuries, saw the entire past history of the Church. Here there is still taking the conclave to elect the Supreme Pontiff.
Dedicated entry - WITHOUT QUEQUE
MULTILINGUAL Audio-guided visit
Days: everyday excluding Sundays and closing days of the Museum
Time: 9.30 a.m. - 11.00 am - 2.00 pm
Free for children 0 - 6 years old
Inside the Vatican: Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
Tour in Siena: Excursion from Siena: Brunello Grand Tour - booked from West Valley City (US)