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The Vatican Museum is actually a series of lots of museums that are continually going through renovations and gaining new collections. We went through several of the ancient artifacts and sculpture exhibits. The first exhibit had works of early Christian tombs, like the one above, and other sculptures that depicted scriptural scenes.
... a sampling of the vast number of written tablets they were displaying. ... too bad I can't read Latin.
They also had a lot of mosaics, like these particularly sparkly ones done with gold and precious gem inlays.
...one really long hall just filled with ancient heads and busts of Romans.
... one of the outdoor scultpure areas. The museum itself had a lot of varying and different architectural types that range throughout the last two millenia, because they kept enlarging the museum.
... an example of one hall that was covered in artwork, even all along the ceiling. This one was on the way to the sistine chapel (no pictures allowed in there, sorry).
I really liked the colorful mosaics on the floor. They must have taken forever to complete. The tiles were sometimes as small as a pencil eraser.
... another very intricate mosaic (yes, a tile mosaic - not a painting - using tiny tiles and covering at least ten feet across)
... one of the paintings on the ceiling.
... one of the unique things in several of the halls, the vaults were completely flat paintings, but painted to look like architectural decoration. The molding and relief sculpture above are all painted on.
...one room of sculptures of famous Romans
... Augustus - apparently, it originally had bright reds and blues, but has since lost it's color.
Outside in the Pinecone Plaza... lots of big sculptures out here.
... big revolving metal sculpture representing the universe with Italy being in the center... or something like that.
the head of a sculpture too large to take the whole thing - I wouldn't have been able to even touch the chin. The nose alone is bigger than my head!
... a very involved sculpture that has only recently been restored - the arm had been missing for centuries when it was found in an antique thrift store in the early 1900's. ...talk about a good garage sale find.
... Matt having fun imitating the sculptures.
... the end of the museum tour, they had these pretty spiraling staircases. There are actually two stair cases, one for going up and one for down. The twine together, but they aren't the same staircase and never touch. It was really interesting to watch people go up and down it and yet never meet.
The Vatican Museum is actually a series of lots of museums that are continually going through renovations and gaining new collections. We went through several of the ancient artifacts and sculpture exhibits. The first exhibit had works of early Christian tombs, like the one above, and other sculptures that depicted scriptural scenes.
... a sampling of the vast number of written tablets they were displaying. ... too bad I can't read Latin.
They also had a lot of mosaics, like these particularly sparkly ones done with gold and precious gem inlays.
...one really long hall just filled with ancient heads and busts of Romans.
... one of the outdoor scultpure areas. The museum itself had a lot of varying and different architectural types that range throughout the last two millenia, because they kept enlarging the museum.
... an example of one hall that was covered in artwork, even all along the ceiling. This one was on the way to the sistine chapel (no pictures allowed in there, sorry).
I really liked the colorful mosaics on the floor. They must have taken forever to complete. The tiles were sometimes as small as a pencil eraser.
... another very intricate mosaic (yes, a tile mosaic - not a painting - using tiny tiles and covering at least ten feet across)
... one of the paintings on the ceiling.
... one of the unique things in several of the halls, the vaults were completely flat paintings, but painted to look like architectural decoration. The molding and relief sculpture above are all painted on.
...one room of sculptures of famous Romans
... Augustus - apparently, it originally had bright reds and blues, but has since lost it's color.
Outside in the Pinecone Plaza... lots of big sculptures out here.
... big revolving metal sculpture representing the universe with Italy being in the center... or something like that.
the head of a sculpture too large to take the whole thing - I wouldn't have been able to even touch the chin. The nose alone is bigger than my head!
... a very involved sculpture that has only recently been restored - the arm had been missing for centuries when it was found in an antique thrift store in the early 1900's. ...talk about a good garage sale find.
... Matt having fun imitating the sculptures.
... the end of the museum tour, they had these pretty spiraling staircases. There are actually two stair cases, one for going up and one for down. The twine together, but they aren't the same staircase and never touch. It was really interesting to watch people go up and down it and yet never meet.
2 comments:
What a magnificent place. Great pictures! Did you take all of these?
Mom
thanks. unfortunately, half the credit goes to my friends for the photos. there's just too many things to see and take photos of, so I supplement my lack of photos (as well as lack of good shots) with theirs. Though half are mine! :)
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