Pupletts in Sweden: Rome Pt 2 - The Vatican (3 Aug

Today we had a trip booked to see the Vatican Museum, St Peter's Cathedral and the Sistine Chapel. We booked an Early Bird tour with a group called Rome4Kids. The tour started before the museums were open to the general public so we could beat most of the crowds (and heat) and the tour group was based around keeping it interesting for children. Tomas spent most of the morning complaining that he didn't want to see "boring churches" but in the end he listed the tour (and guide) as his favorite part of the Rome trip.

Just a quick note: I normally like to put a few jokes around sculptures and paintings, but I haven't for these ones out of respect for the Vatican and the religious nature of the works. While I'm not religious myself, I believe it's important to respect the places we visit and anyway, the works were so amazing and awe-inspiring that it would feel wrong to mock them.

We were due to meet our guide outside the Vatican Museums at 7:30am, but we had it all sorted. There was an underground Metro train that ran from about 15min from our apartment to almost directly where we needed to be. We got up at 5:30 and were out of the house by 6:15, this would make sure we got there by 7:00am to make sure we were on time - since it was a before the crowds tour, we wouldn't be able to enter if we were late.

We walked down to the train station, enjoying the fact that it was only 32 degrees, only to find that the station and a large chunk of the line were closed as they were building a new rail line. The walk to the Vatican would have been over an hour, so we needed an alternative. Fortunately there were replacement buses in place to cover the closed part of the line, but we ended up arriving at the Vatican exactly at 7:30 (lucky we left early!) We met our guide, Mia, out front and then needed to wait until the doors opened:

Outside the exit to the Vatican Museum

The Vatican Museums consist of over 4 miles of displays and 26 distinct collections, so there was no way that we would be able to see them all. This is where Mia came in - she made sure that we saw some of the most interesting pieces and also kept the kids entertained and interested with interesting stories and scavenger hunts.

Summary of the Vatican Museums

Map of the Vatican

After buying our tickets we passed through into the Vatican Museums, overlooking the Giardino Quadrato (Square Gardens). These gardens were created under order of Pope Paul III Farnese (the Pope who ordered Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgement in 1534). The Popes brought back plants and trees from many countries to create the gardens. There was also a great view to the dome of St Peter's Basilica and the tower of the Vatican Radio Station - set up in 1931, transmitting in 47 languages in short wave, medium wave, FM, satellite and Internet.

In the map below, we entered at the blue star and the photos are taken from the diamond:

Locations

Fountain

View of the dome of St Peter's Basilica

Square Gardens and the tower of the Vatican Radio Station

Us in front of the Basilica

We then passed through some stairways into the Pigna Courtyard. This courtyard houses lots of interesting art work.

Artwork on the stairways:

Statue in the stairwell

The Fontana della Pigna (The Fountain of the Pine cone), which is a large bronze pine cone (about 4m high) that was one part of of a fountain located near the Pantheon near the Temple of Isis. It was moved to the Vatican in the middle ages. The peacocks are replicas of those on the tomb of Emperor Hadrian. The pine cone is a symbol of rebirth for the Christian Faith.

Fontana Della Pigna (turned off due to water restrictions)

The Sfera con sfera (Sphere within a sphere), a modern artwork by Arnaldo Pomodoro (2016):

Sfera con Sfera

There was also a collection of Egyptian works as part of an exhibition - statues of the goddess Sekhmet found in the funerary temple of Amenhotep III (1387-1348 BC) on the west bank of the city of Thebes. They were purchased by the Vatican in 1819 and 1882:

Statues of Sekhmet

Leoni di Nectanebo (Lions of Nectanebo) - Two lions from the reign of Nectanebo II (360BC - 343BC) from Northern Egypt.

Information about the Leoni di Nectanebo

After the courtyard, we headed into the museums. There are many museums in the Vatican but we only explored the Pio Clementino Museum (for a full list and some photos and virtual tours, check out the official website).

Before we entered the Pio Clementino Museum, we did stop briefly in the Chiaramonti Museum (named after Pope Pius VII whose family name was Chiaramonti before his election).

The Chiaramonti Museum housed a long hall of busts and statues. A virtual tour can be seen on the official page)

Mia takes the kids into the Chiaramonti Museum

It seemed to stretch on forever and the detail on some of the works was amazing.

Busts in the Chiaramonti Museum

More busts (details below)

Details of the busts directly above

Hercules with Infant Telephos

We didn't have a lot of time in the Chiaramonti Museum if we wanted to see everything (if we spent 10second at each work, it would take 12 years with no break to see everything in the museums), so we moved on to the Pio Clementino Museum.

The Pio Clementino takes its name from two of the Popes - Clement XIV and Pius VI who completed the museum. Pope Celement XIV founded the museum in 1771 and it was expanded and finished by Pope Pius VI.

It consists of the following sections:
Square Vestibule and Cabinet of Apoxyomenos
Hall of Animals
Cabinet of Masks
Round Hall
Hall of the Chariot
Octagonal Court
Gallery of Statues and Hall of Busts
Hall of Muses
Greek Cross Hall
Gallery of the Candelabra

You can take a virtual tour and see some of the exhibitions on the official website.

We started at the Octagonal Court, home of some very important pieces of art, including the famous Laocoön.

Octagonal Court

Belvedere Apollo

One of the Rome4Kids activities was to look at the statue and see what they noticed. They were supposed to notice (as Alana did) that he was originally holding a bow and has a quiver on his back. Tomas noted that his penis had fallen off.

While we all had a good laugh at Apollo's expense, it does lead to an interesting aside. Many years ago the nude statues were deemed obscene and an order was given to either cover the genitals or to hack them off. Many unique, ancient and priceless statues were defaced (or actually depenised) in this way. That does mean that the Pope has the worlds largest collection of nicely catalogued stone genitals.

River God (Arno)

Perseus Triumphant

The very impressive roof of one of the side areas

Ancient bathtub and fresco

Yum, dinner time!

Another man sans penis - makes you wonder about the sack he's holding in his hand...

Laocoön

The Laocoön is a famous statue with an interesting story (thanks Mia!) During the Trojan war, Laocoön, a priest of Apollo, realized that a giant wooden horse was a pretty suspicious gift and tried to warn his fellow countrymen that it might not be a good idea to bring a present that just happens to be large enough to hold an army inside the walls and instead to set fire to it. The gods Athena and Poseidon needed to stop Laocoön from warning the Trojans, so they sent two giant sea serpents to silence him. His two sons tried to help and were killed too (gods don't care about collateral damage). A Trojan called Aeneas heeded Laocoön's warning and fled, eventually leading to the founding of Rome. The statue is believed to be from 40-30 BC.

The Laocoön was detailed in writings by Pliny the Elder (AD23-79), but no-one had seen the statue for hundreds of years. It was unearthed during excavations around the Vineyard of Felice De Fredis
in 1506. The Pope and Michelangelo raced to view it and the excavator was rewarded handsomely.

Since then the Laocoön has been the basis of many famous works and study by the great artists. Michelangelo used the statue as the basis for his Rebellious Slave and Dying Slave statues and some of his paintings in the Sistine Chapel.

Our next area was the Hall of Animals. This area was set up by Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) to show antique art works on the animal theme to create a stone zoo. The works chose were those that had strong links to chaos and nature, such as hunting scenes:

Hall of Animals

The floor was an ancient mosaic recovered from a Roman Villa

The Hunt

Hall of Animals

After the Hall of Animals we came to the Hall of Muses, this area was intended to display the sculptures that were found in the Villa of Cassius near Tivoli.

The centerpiece of the hall was the Belvedere Torso - a fragment of a statue found at the end of the 15th century. It dates from 1st century BC and is signed by Athenian sculpture Apollonios.

Belvedere Torso

The crests around the room, including the Vatican crossed keys and the roof paintings were a big highlight:

Vatican Crest

The Roof

Crest

The next room was the Round Hall containing Nero's bath and two famous statues - the Braschi Antinous, showing Antinous, the favourite of Emperor Hadrian who drowned in the Nile in 130AD and was made a God by the Emperor.

The second is a gilded bronze statue of Hercules, found in 1864. It was found buried and lying horizontally on a slab of travertine, with FCS (Fulgur Conditum Summanium) carved onto it. This meant that the statue had been struck by lightning and as such was buried in a ritual burial with a slain lamb. It is believed to be dated between the 1st and 3rd century AD.

The Roof

Hercules

Nero's Bath - Carved of one of the hardest and most expensive marbles available

Bust of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus (150-205AD)

The above bust of Gaius Fulvius Plautianus has an interesting story - He wasa Praetorian Prefect and Guard who was killed after trying to overthrow Severus' (Emperor Septimus Severus - not Severus Snape) family. He was maternal cousins and friends with Emperor Severus and appointed Praetorian Prefect in 197 as well as honors like a consular insignia, seat in the senate and Consulship. He married his daughter (Publia Fulvia Plautilla - what a name!) to Caracella (Severus' first son). This gave him a lot of power, and Caracella hated both Plautianus and his own wife Publia Fulvia. Caracella threatened to have them killed when he became emperor on Severus' death. Plautianus responded by plotting to overthrow Severus. He was discovered and executed on 22nd January 205. His property was confiscated and his son, daughter (Publia) and granddaughter were exiled to Sicily and later strangled to death on Caracella's orders.

Floor under Nero's bath

Under the bath

Bust of Pompeia Plotina, wife of Emperor Trajor

Next stop was the Greek Cross Hall, designed and built by Michelangeo Simonetti during the pontificate of Pope Pius VI Braschi (1775-1799)

The main feature of the Hall is the two sarcophagi, one for St Helena (Mother of Constantine the Great) and one for Constantia (Daughter of Emperor Constantine the Great).

The sarcophagi are made of Porphyr, which is a red granite-like igneous rock.

Sarcophagus of Helena, depicting Roman Cavalry riding above captured barbarians

Sarcophagus of Helena

Sarcophagus of Constantina, depicting cupids in Dionysic harvesting of grapes to make wine - it took forty oxen to drag it into place

One of the lions on which Constantina's Sarcophagus rests - his face shows you how heavy it is... arrgh

Sarcophagus of Constantina

The kids in front of one of the Sphinges (plural of sphinx)

Mosaic with bust of Athena

The kids loved the fact that these urns could be rotated

Urns

In a side area we came across the Hall of the Chariot, built by Guiseppe Camporese in 1795 It houses statues depicting athletics around a massive centerpiece of a marble chariot:

Statues including a discuss thrower

More statues from the Hall of the Chariot

The Chariot

The final part of the Pio Clementino Musuem was the Gallery of the Candelabra:

Gallery of the Candelabra

Believe it or not those designs are 2D, drawn to appear as though they are sculpted

This foot was almost as big as Kristine's feet!

As if "Man attacked by Babies" in Oslo wasn't bad enough, I present to you: "Goose attacked by babies!" (Boy Strangling Goose - the boy on the right is a separate statue, but he looks like he is coming in for the kill..):

Boy Strangling Goose (and friends)

I love the grumpy face watching from below behind the leg of the rightmost boy

Urrrrrrrk! (and now I'm wondering if the face is looking at the boy's bottom...

One of the roof paintings

Baby Bacchus

I've killed the goose, what now?

After leaving the Museo Pio Clementino we entered the Gallery of Tapestries. These Tapestries were created in Brussels by Peter van Aelst's School from drawings from Raphael's pupils in 1523-1534. They are amazingly detailed - you can see moles on faces and veins on hands. Gold thread is pretty common throughout as the tapestries would have been amazingly bright when first made, they still look pretty decent 500 years later.

Gallery of Tapestries

The roof was pretty amazing too

"Massacre of the Innocents" - from the bible story where Herod ordered the killing of all male infants to prevent the prophecy of a new king

"Hai Guys I'm back!" - Jesus rising from the tomb - There is an optical illusion here where the angle of the fallen door follows the viewer

The door of the tomb lies to the left if viewed from the left and right if viewed from the right

The assasination of Caesar

Our final stop before the Sistine Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica was the Gallery of Maps. It was commisioned in 1580 by Pope Gregory XIII and drawn by friar and geographer Ignazio Danti. The maps were based on 1580 observations - obviously before flight, and so were taken by travel and views from mountains etc. It is believed that they are 80% accurate, which is pretty impressive. An interesting feature is that they are all drawn from the perspective of Rome, due to the view point.

Another Impressive roof

Roof and end of the Hall

Map of the Avenio Region

Map

Map of Corsica

I don't know who this guy is, but he is scary!

Our next stop was the Sistine Chapel. Photographs were banned - as continually stated by the guards that yelled about every 20 seconds. "Silenzio, No photo!". I felt like doing my best parent voice and saying "You're making more noise telling everyone to shush."

The Sistine chapel originally had a blue roof with yellow stars and is named after Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere. A group of painters, including Botticelli, Perugino, Pinturichhio, Ghirlandaio and Roselli created the Life of Moses and Life of Christ frescos.

Michelangelo was contracted to repaint the roof in 1508 under Pope Julius II. Michelangelo wanted to refuse for several reasons - mostly because he was a sculptor not a painter and secondly because of the sheer size and scale of the project that would take many years. The power of the Popes was such that this wasn't an option, so Michelangelo worked on the roof from 1508-1512. In homage to his sculpting background, many of the paintings use a sense of depth to appear like they are protruding from the roof.

In 1533 Pope Clement VII de'Medici asked Michelangelo to create the last judgement painting on the altar wall. The intent was to create a fresco that would strike fear into the hearts of sinners and those straying from the churches ways by showing the decent into hell and the judgement of Christ.

Sistine Chapel Roof

Above is a stock photo of the roof - the far right lies above the altar.

There's plenty of websites that break down the frescoes, so I wont detail them all here, but a few things of interest:

The legs of Jonah on the far right appear to actually be hanging out of the roof over the altar - it was pretty amazing. The most famous part of the roof is in the middle - "The Creation of Man" where God is reaching out his finger to Adam.

Final Judgement

The Final Judgement painting covers the wall above the altar and shows Jesus's return and judgement. Tomas was asked what Jesus was doing and said "He's dancing," followed my making the tune of the Macarana song. Not quite...

A few interesting things to note in this - just by Jesus's right leg (on the left) is Saint Lawrence holding the grill he was martyred on, and on the right is Saint Bartholomew who was flayed. He is holding his own skin, which Michelangelo has actually made as a self portrait to show his exhaustion at the work he was doing.

In the bottom right is a man in hell strangled by snakes and with donkey ears. This is a painting of Cardinal Carafa who accused Michelangelo of immorality and obscenity due to the nude figures. In retaliation, Michelangelo painted Carafa into the fresco. Carafa complained to the Pope, who refused to help, saying that the image was in the Hell part of the fresco and his powers only extended to the upper parts of Earth and Heaven. It seems the Popes appreciate a good laugh too.

After Michelangelo died in 1564 (13 years after finishing the painting) it was decided that the nudity should be covered with fig leaves. The commision was given to the aptly named Daniele de Volterra who was nicknamed Braghettone (Big Underwear). Those ancient Romans must have had some interesting times...

Following the Sistine Chapel we entered a small courtyard between the Chapel and Saint Peter's Basilica where we filled out water bottles at the fountain and admired more scuptures: