Vatican Museums

Vatican Museums

Musei Vaticani
Sculptures above the entrance of museums
Location of the Vatican Museums within Vatican City
Established	1506
Location	Vatican City
Coordinates	41°54′23″N 12°27′16″E
Type	Art museum
Visitors	6 million (2013)
Director	Antonio Paolucci
Website	www.museivaticani.va

The Vatican Museums, north of St. Peter's Basilica

The Vatican Museums (Italian: Musei Vaticani) are the museums of the Vatican City and are located within the city's boundaries. They display works from the immense collection built up by the Popes throughout the centuries including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world.

Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The Sistine Chapel with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze di Raffaello decorated by Raphael are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. In 2013, they were visited by 6 million people, which combined makes it the 6th most visited art museum in the world.

There are 54 galleries, or sale, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the very last sala within the Museum. It is one of the largest museums in the world.

History

Spiral stairs of the Vatican Museums, designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932.

The Vatican Museums trace their origin to one marble sculpture, purchased 500 years ago: the sculpture of Laocoön and his Sons was discovered 14 January 1506, in a vineyard near the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Pope Julius II sent Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were working at the Vatican, to examine the discovery. On their recommendation, the pope immediately purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner. The pope put the sculpture of Laocoön and his sons on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery.

The Museum Christianum was founded by Benedict XIV, and some of the Vatican collections formed the Lateran Museum, which Pius IX founded by decree in 1854.

The Museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006 by permanently opening the excavations of a Vatican Hill necropolis to the public.

Pinacoteca Vaticana

The art gallery was housed in the Borgia Apartment, until Pope Pius XI ordered construction of a proper building. The new building was inaugurated on October 27, 1932. The designer was Luca Beltrami. The museum has paintings including:

• Giotto's Stefaneschi Triptych
• Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Opere di Misericordia
• Raphael's Madonna of Foligno, Oddi Altarpiece and Transfiguration
• Leonardo da Vinci's St. Jerome in the Wilderness
• Caravaggio's Entombment
• Perugino's Madonna and Child with Saints and San Francesco al Prato Resurrection
• Filippo Lippi's Marsuppini Coronation

Collection of Modern Religious Art

The Collection of Modern Religious Art houses paintings and sculptures from artists like Carlo Carrà and Giorgio de Chirico.

Sculpture museums

The group of museums includes several sculpture museums surrounding the Cortile del Belvedere.

Museo Pio-Clementino

The New Wing, Braccio Nuovo built by Raffaele Stern

The Prima Porta Augustus

The museum takes its name from two popes, Clement XIV and Pius VI, the pope who brought the museum into completion. Clement XV came up with the idea of creating a new museum in innocent VIII's Belvedere palace and started the refurbishment work.

Pope Clement XIV founded the Pio-Clementino museum in 1771, and originally it contained the Renaissance and antique works. The museum and collection were enlarged by Clement's successor Pius VI. Today, the museum houses works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Some notable galleries are:

• Greek Cross Gallery: (Sala a Croce Greca): with the porphyri sarcophagi of Constance and Saint Helen, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great.
• Sala Rotonda: shaped like a miniature Pantheon, the room has impressive ancient mosaics on the floors, and ancient statues lining the perimeter, including a gilded bronze statue of Hercules.
• Gallery of the Statues (Galleria delle Statue): as its name implies, holds various important statues, including Sleeping Ariadne and the bust of Menander. It also contains the Barberini Candelabra.
• Gallery of the Busts (Galleria dei Busti): Many ancient busts are displayed.
• Cabinet of the Masks (Gabinetto delle Maschere): The name comes from the mosaic on the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana, which shows ancient theater masks. Along the walls, several famous statues are shown including the Three Graces.One wove the thread of life,second nurtured it, third cut it. They were created by Zeus (ROMAN form: Jupiter)
• Sala delle Muse: Houses the statue group of Apollo and the nine muses, uncovered in a Roman villa near Tivoli in 1774, as well as and statues by important ancient Greek or Roman sculptors. the center piece is Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men.
• Sala degli Animali: So named because of the many ancient statues of animals.

Tourists observing one of the Vatican art gallery

Museo Chiaramonti

This museum is named after Pope Pius VII (whose last name was Chiaramonti before his election as pope), who founded it in the early 19th century. The museum consists of a large arched gallery in which sides are exhibited several statues, sarcophaguses and friezes. The New Wing, Braccio Nuovo built by Raffaele Stern, houses important statues like The Prima Porta Augustus, Doryphorus, and The River Nile. Galeria Lapidaria is another part of Chiaramonti museum, with more than 3,000 stone tablets and inscriptions, which is the world's greatest collection of its kind. However, it is opened only by special permission, usually for reasons of study.

Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

Founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836, this museum has eight galleries and houses important Etruscan pieces, coming from archaeological excavations. The pieces include: vases, sarcophagus, bronzes and the Guglielmi Collection.

Museo Gregoriano Egiziano

This museum houses a grand collection of Ancient Egyptian material. Such material includes papyruses, the Grassi Collection, animal mummies, and reproductions of the famous Book of the Dead.

History

The Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was inaugurated 2 February 1839 to commemorate the anniversary of Gregory XVI's accession to the papacy. The creation of the Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was particularly close to the pope's heart as he Believed the Understanding of the ancient Egyptian civilisation was vital in terms of its scientific importance as well as it's value in understanding the old testament. This Felling was declared in a paper by the museums first curator, the skilled physiologist barbanite father Luigi Maria Ungarelli.

Statue of the Nile recumbent 1st-2nd Century AD, from Rome Museo Gregoriano Egizziano

Vatican Historical Museum

The Vatican Historical Museum (Italian: Museo storico vaticano) was founded in 1973 at the behest of Pope Paul VI, and was initially hosted in environments under the Square Garden. In 1987 it was moved to the main floor of the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran and opened in March 1991.

The Vatican Historical Museum has a unique collection of portraits of the Popes from the 16th century to date, the memorable items of the Papal Military Corps of the 16–17th centuries and old religious paraphernalia related to rituals of the papacy. Also on display on the lower floor are the papamobili (Popemobiles); carriages and motorcars of Popes and Cardinals, including the first cars used by Popes.

Highlights from the Painting Collection

• 

  Leonardo da Vinci
  St. Jerome in Wilderness, 103 x 75 cm.

• 

  Giotto di Bondone
  Stefaneschi Triptych, 224 x 245 cm

• 

  Giovanni Bellini
  Pieta, 106 x 84 cm.

• 

  Raphael
  Oddi Altarpiece, 272 x 165 cm

• 

  Raphael
  Transfiguration, 405 x 278 cm.

• 

  Raphael
  Madonna of Foligno, 320 x 194 cm.

• 

  Titian
  Frari Madonna, 338 x 270 cm.

• 

  Caravaggio
  Entombment, 300 x 203 cm.

• 

  Veronese
  The Vision of St. Helen, 166 x 134 cm.

• 

  Correggio
  Christ in Glory, 105 x 98 cm.

• 

  Titian
  Portrait of Doge Marcello

• 

  Perugino
  Decemviri Altarpiece, 193 x 165 cm.

• 

  Raphael
  Adoration of the Magi
  27 x 50 cm.

• 

  Raphael
  Annunciation
  27 x 50 cm.

• 

  Raphael
  Presentation in the Temple
  27 x 50 cm.

Other Highlights in the Museum

Gallery of Maps

• The red marble papal throne, formerly in the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano;
• Roman sculpture, tombstones, and inscriptions, including the Early Christian Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus and Dogmatic sarcophagus, and the epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus;
• The Raphael Rooms with many works by Raphael and his workshop, including the masterpiece The School of Athens
• The Niccoline Chapel
• The Sistine Chapel, including the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
• The Gallery of Maps: topographical maps of the whole of Italy, painted on the walls by friar Ignazio Danti of Perugia, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585). It remains the world's largest pictorial geographical study.
• The frescoes and other works in the Borgia Apartment built for Pope Alexander VI (Borgia).
• The double spiral staircase, designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932. The staircase has two parts, a double helix, and is of shallow incline, being a stepped ramp rather than a true staircase. It is encircles the outer wall of a stairwell of approximately fifteen metres (49 feet) wide and with a clear space at the centre. The balustrade around the ramp is of ornately worked metal

Visitors

Nearly 6 million people visited the Vatican Museums in 2013. This is three times the figure of 30 years ago.

On the last Sunday of each month, the Vatican Museum is open to the public for free. It is popular and common for people to wait in line for many hours. The other days of the week you can use the online ticket office to purchase an individual ticket or group tour ticket, either of which will enable you to bypass the ticket line completely. This image is a panoramic view of one small stretch of the entire queue in April 2007, which continues for some distance in both directions beyond view.

See also

Former entrance (now an exit) to the Vatican Museums, Vatican City

• Accademia, Venice
• Uffizi, Florence
• Index of Vatican City-related articles
• List of most visited art museums in the world

Further reading

• G. Spinola, Il Museo Pio-Clementino (3 vols., 1996, 1999, 2004)
• G. B. Visconti and E. Q. Visconti, Il Museo Pio-Clementino Descritto (8 vols., 1782–1792)
• The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1982. ISBN 0870993488. 

External links

• Vatican Museums official website
• Vatican Museums official on-line ticket office
• Official English information