The Vatican - Part 2 - The Museums and the Sistine Chapel

     I went with a guided tour of the Vatican Museums, which includes the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Basilica.  One can see St. Peter's on its own.

     Not knowing if I was even going to get in to see these museums, I did little research before I left home, which was a huge mistake.  Knowing what I was going to see, even with five million other tourists, would have helped immensely in understanding what I did view.

Some History

      The museums are a collection of various pieces of art that popes collected throughout the centuries.  This started with Pope Julius II who had a group of sculptures that he had collected.

      Through out the centuries various popes have added to the collections: Clement XIV, Pius VI, Pius VII, Gregory XIII, Gregory XVI (Etruscan collection, and items from Egypt), and Pius IX among others.  Some items were painted under their directive.  Some pieces were looted from the Roman Forum - okay, so there wasn't a law saying they couldn't take sculptures.

       There are 54 galleries with the Sistine Chapel being the final gallery.  I will go see these museums again someday, and I will do my homework before I go.  Also, I think I will go during a month when there isn't so many tourists, and in the middle of the week!  I am thinking a Tuesday morning in February.

         I took pictures of what I liked.

Part of the Vatican Gardens are open to the public.

This looks like a cameo sculpture, but is actually flat using a technique called  tromp l'oeil.

There are frescoes everywhere.  Fresco is painting in wet plaster.

This mosaic is on a floor

This room is not usually open, and our guide was surprised that it was. This was the best
shot I could get without getting people in it.

Another Tromp l'oeil

Tromp l'oeil

Part of the tapestry collection

Even priests are tourists 

The eyes in this tapestry seem to follow a person. 

Part of the Map Gallery

I am not sure whose head she is holding, but this was a
very moving painting.

In the Immaculate Gallery are various books holding the edict of Pius IX given out on  8 December 1854
that stated Mary had an Immaculate Conception.  The actual decree is deep in
the Vatican Vaults.

Museum ticket

 

 The Sistine Chapel

      The last gallery on the museum tour is the Sistine Chapel.  There is no photography or talking allowed in the chapel - which doesn't stop tourists from whispering, and guards from telling them to be quiet.  The chapel is still a working chapel, and thus considered a holy space.

       The chapel was started in 1477 when Pope Sixtus, for whom it is named, started restoring a chapel that was already there.  A few popes would commission artists to work on this chapel.

       The walls are covered with frescoes by Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio ( who was Michelangelo's teacher) and Cosimo Rosselli.  Luca Signorelli and Bernardino di Betto (known as Pinturicchio) assisted in painting.

        As no photography is allowed, the following images are courtesy of Google Images.

Cosimo Rosselli's The Last Supper

Domenico Ghirlandaio The Calling of the Apostles

Detail from The Temptation of Christ by Sandro Botticelli

Perugino's Christ Handing the Keys to Peter

 



 

An empty Sistine Chapel looking on the wall with Michelangelo's The Last Judgement

     Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

 

 

       Pope Julius II, known as the Warrior Pope, with a few other not very nice names, commissioned Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  Michelangelo refused, stating he was a sculptor, not a painter.  This started months of arguing between the two men.  One does not say no to a Pope!  But, Michelangelo made sure his wrath was made clear throughout the four years. He worked on the ceiling from 1508-12.. He painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis.

 

        The movie, The Agony and the Ecstasy, starring Charlton Heston, has Michelangelo laying down on scaffolding to paint the ceiling. This is not accurate.  Michelangelo built a kind of floating scaffolding, and he stood for 18 hours a day, six days a week for four years, doing fresco work.  The movie does do a very accurate portrayal of how fresco work is completed, and Heston had to train under an Italian fresco painter to make this scene believable.

 

         The ceiling is quite high, but that did not stop Julius from noticing nudity, which he opposed, and which Michelangelo refused to cover.  Julius died in 1513.

 

         Over 20 years, and a few popes later, Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Last Judgement on one of the end walls.  Then Clement died. Michelangelo worked on the Last Judgement from 1535-41.  Again, there was nudity which he refused to cover up. This time his argument was not with Pope Paul III, but with Cardinal Carafa, and Monsignor Sernini - both of whom declared the work, and Michelangelo as "Immoral and Obscene". They even started "Fig-leaf Campaign" to get the genitalia in the work covered up.  To make matters worse, Biagio da Cesena, an assistant to the Pope, complained about the work.  Michelangelo painted his portrait in a scene depicting Hell.  When  da Cesena complained to the Pope, the Pope's response was that he had no jurisdiction over Hell, and so the portrait remained!  Michelangelo died in 1564.

         During one of the first Councels of Trent, the Fig-Leaf Campaign was brought up again.  This time the current Pope agreed to let Daniele da Volterra, a student of Michelangelo, paint fig leaves over the nudes in the Last Judgement. He also had to chisel out the paintings of Saint Catherine and Saint Blaise, as they were considered too obscene to stay in the chapel.  He did not get to finish his fig leaves, as the pope died, and the scaffolding removed so a conclave could take place. Another artist completed the fig leaves

          As no one was alive from the painting of the ceiling, and no one could  figure out how the floating scaffolding was built, no nudes on the ceiling were covered. Although, I have my suspicions that da Volterra conveniently forgot how the scaffolding was built.

        During the Sistine Restoration from 1980-94, Pope John-Paul II had the fig leaves removed and the paintings restored to their original status.

God creating Adam - Ceiling

Delphic Sybil - Sistine ceiling

In this piece of The Last Judgement, St. Bartholomew is holding his flayed skin,
The face in the flayed skin is commonly thought to be a
self-portrait of Michelangelo.

The Last Judgement

     Even in a very crowded situation, the visit to the Vatican Museums was worth it.  I haven't posted half the pictures I took.  I will  do my homework before I go again, as this is one place worth more than one visit.