Vatican Museums in Rome | Art and History

Vatican Museums

The great artistic value of the rich and wonderful Renaissance Papal Buildings announces the importance of the Vatican Museums of which they are seat. Here, since the sixteenth century the richest collections in Europe have been exhibited.

In 50.000 sqm divided in 11.000 rooms lighted up by 18.000 windows, corridors and terraces, there is the extraordinary collection of ancient Egyptian, Assyrian and Etrurian, pre-Roman, Roman and Greek, Early Christian, Medieval and Renaissance antiques and the exhibition of Modern Sacred Art.

The story of mankind is narrated by the objects, in an 8 km exhibition route, but also by the manuscripts and volumes of the Apostolic Library. Since the finding of “Laocoön” of the first century, which was set at the beginning in the part of the Domus Aurea on the Esquiline Hill, on these Museums the greatest artists have left their mark with some of their most important works.

Michelangelo’s “Sistine Chapel”, Pinturicchio’s “Madonna col Bambino”, Domenichino’s “Comunione di San Girolamo”, Caravaggio’s “Deposizione” (painting stolen by the French in 1797 and then given back to the Pope in 1815), Raffaello’s “Trasfigurazione” are some examples of the multitude of treasures kept in the Vatican Museums, a space relatively small in proportion to the magnificence of the artistic legacy accumulated by the Popes during their pontificates.

Appartamento Borgia
Atrio dei Quattro Cancelli
Biblioteca Apostolica
Braccio Nuovo
Cappella di Niccolò V
Cappella di Pio V
Cappella Sistina
Cortile del Belvedere
Cortile del Pappagallo
Cortile della Biblioteca
Cortile della Pigna
Cortile della Sentinella
Cortile delle Corazze
Cortile di S. Damaso
Galleria Clementina
Galleria degli Arazzi
Galleria dei Candelabri
Galleria delle Carte Geografiche
Galleria di Urbano VIII
Galleria Lapidaria

Loggia di Raffaello
Museo Chiaramonti
Museo Egizio
Museo Gregoriano Etrusco
Museo Gregoriano Profano
Museo Missionario – Etnologico
Museo Pio – Clementino
Museo Pio Cristiano
Museo Sacro
Nozze Aldobrandine
Originali Greci
Pinacoteca Vaticana
Sala Alessandrina
Sala dell’Immacolata Concezione
Sala della Biga
Sala Ducale
Sala Regia
Sala Sobieski
Scala del Bramante
Stanze di Raffaello

The Sistine Chapel

Realized in 1470 by the Architect Giovanni Dolci on behalf of Pope Sixtus IV, the Sistine Chapel born as a stronghold to defend the papal palaces of the West side.
The new Chapel used for peaceful purposes, which took its name from its founder, was embellished by: Perugino, Botticelli, Signorelli, Ghirlandaio, Rosselli and others which had the task to paint a fresco on the vault with figures praising the power of the Popes and a starry blue sky.

Pope Julius II, during his papal year, order to Michelangelo the completion of the area not yet frescoed: from 1508 to 1512, he painted about 39 mt. for 14 mt. with more of three hundred of the biblical figures representing the Genesis; Twenty-five years later he frescoed the Last Judgment on the wall of the altar: a surface of 200 mq.
The works, defined today as yesterday, the highest expression of art and sculpture designed by human genius, it has undergone several restorations: the last one began in 1980 for more than 10 years.