look at the Crepuscular rays from St. Peter's Basilica
Musei Vaticani is Italian for Vatican Museums, that is
located within Vatican City. It is established in the year of 1506, north of
St. Peter's Basilica.
This is my second visit, my first visit can be viewed in my post here
This is my second visit, my first visit can be viewed in my post here
The Vatican Museums are Christian and art museums that display
works from the immense collection amassed by Popes throughout the centuries
including some of the most renowned classical sculptures and most important
masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums contain roughly
70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display, and currently employ 640 people
who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, and restoration
departments.
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 2017, they
were visited by 6 million people, which combined makes it the 4th most visited
art museum in the world.
There are 54 galleries /or sala (I call it chamber of
display) in total, with the Sistine Chapel being the very last sala within the
Museum. There is no doubt that Vatican Museum is one of the largest museums in
the world.
Benedict XIV founded the Museum Christianum, and some of
the Vatican collections formed the Lateran Museum, which Pius IX founded by
decree in 1854.
On 1 January 2017, Barbara Jatta became the Director of
the Vatican Museums, replacing Antonio Paolucci who had been director since
2007.
Modern art on the ground of the museum...
yes, you can turn it, our guide Xaverio did!
Antoninus Pius, he was Roman emperor from 138 to 161. He
was one of the Five Good Emperors in the Nerva–Antonine dynasty and the
Aurelii. Born into a senatorial family, Antoninus held various offices during
the reign of emperor Hadrian, acquiring favor which saw him adopted as
Hadrian's son and successor shortly before Hadrian's death. His reign is
notable for the peaceful state of the Empire, with no major revolts or military
incursions during this time, and for his governing without ever leaving Italy.
A successful military campaign in southern Scotland early in his reign resulted
in the construction of the Antonine Wall. Antoninus was an effective
administrator, leaving his successors a large surplus in the treasury,
expanding free access to drinking water throughout the Empire, encouraging
legal conformity, and facilitating the enfranchisement of freed slaves. (source: wikipedia)
Museo Chiaramonti
The Apollo Belvedere or Apollo of the Belvedere—also
called the Pythian Apollo—is a celebrated marble sculpture from Classical
Antiquity. The Apollo is now thought to be a Roman copy of Hadrianic date (ca.
120-140) of a lost bronze original made between 350 and 325 BC by the Greek
sculptor Leochares. It was rediscovered in central Italy in the late 15th
century, during the Italian Renaissance, and in 1511 placed on semi-public
display in the Vatican Palace, where it remains. From the mid-18th century it
was considered the greatest ancient sculpture by ardent neoclassicists, and for
centuries epitomized ideals of aesthetic perfection for Europeans and
westernized parts of the world. It is now in the Cortile del Belvedere of the
Pio-Clementine Museum of the Vatican Museums complex. (source: wikipedia)
River Tiber sculpture of a river god reclining with a jug on rocks near a stream, inside the jug is a lion's head.
The Belvedere Torso; it is a
fragmentary marble statue of a nude male, known to be in Rome from the 1430s,
and signed prominently on the front of the base by "Apollonios, son of
Nestor, Athenian", who is unmentioned in ancient literature. It is now in
the Museo Pio-Clementino of the Vatican Museums. The figure is portrayed seated,
and was once believed to be a 1st-century BC original, but is now believed to
be a copy from the 1st century BC or AD of an older statue, which probably
dated to the early 2nd century BC. Michelangelo's admiration of the Torso was
widely known and he used it as the inspiration for several of the figures in
the Sistine Chapel, including the Sibyls and Prophets bordering the ceiling and
the risen Christ in The Last Judgement.
Sala Rotonda, contains a number
of colossal statues, including a gilded-bronze Ercole (Hercules), and an
exquisite floor mosaic. The enormous basin in the centre of the room was found
at Nero’s Domus Aurea and is made out of a single piece of red porphyry stone.
Sala Della Biga (Chariot room)
is a late 18th century room contains a large marble Roman chariot drawn by two
horses, dating from the 1st century A.D., but heavily restored in 1788. The
copy of the famous Discobolus found in Villa Adriana at Tivoli, from a bronze
Greek original by Myron (c. 460 B.C.) is also displayed here.
Galleria delle Carte
Geografiche (Map Gallery)
The last of three galleries on
the upper floor – the other two are the Galleria dei Candelabri (Gallery of the
Candelabra) and Galleria degli Arazzi (Tapestry Gallery) – this 120m-long
corridor is hung with 40 16th-century topographical maps of Italy.
Sistine Chapel, we have to sneak-took this picture!
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St. Peter's Basilica is a Renaissance church in Vatican
City, the papal enclave within the city of Rome.
Designed principally by Donato Bramante, Michelangelo,
Carlo Maderno and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, St. Peter's is the most renowned work
of Renaissance architecture and the largest church in the world. While it is
neither the mother church of the Catholic Church nor the cathedral of the
Diocese of Rome, St. Peter's is regarded as one of the holiest Catholic
shrines. It has been described as "holding a unique position in the
Christian world"and as "the greatest of all churches of
Christendom".
Catholic tradition holds that the Basilica is the burial
site of Saint Peter, chief among Jesus's Apostles and also the first Bishop of
Rome. Saint Peter's tomb is supposedly directly below the high altar of the
Basilica. For this reason, many Popes have been interred at St. Peter's since
the Early Christian period, and there has been a church on this site since the
time of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. Construction of the present
basilica, which would replace Old St. Peter's Basilica from the 4th century AD,
began on 18 April 1506 and was completed on 18 November 1626.
Bernini's first work at St. Peter's was to design the
baldacchino, a pavilion-like structure 28.74 meters tall and claimed to be the
largest piece of bronze in the world, which stands beneath the dome and above
the altar. Its design is based on the ciborium, of which there are many in the
churches of Rome, serving to create a sort of holy space above and around the
table on which the Sacrament is laid for the Eucharist and emphasizing the
significance of this ritual. These ciboria are generally of white marble, with
inlaid colored stone. Bernini's concept was for something very different. He
took his inspiration in part from the baldachin or canopy carried above the
head of the pope in processions, and in part from eight ancient columns that
had formed part of a screen in the old basilica. Their twisted barley-sugar
shape had a special significance as they were modeled on those of the Temple of
Jerusalem and donated by the Emperor Constantine. Based on these columns,
Bernini created four huge columns of bronze, twisted and decorated with laurel
leaves and bees, which were the emblem of Pope Urban.
The baldacchino is curved Baroque brackets supporting a draped canopy, like the brocade canopies carried in processions above precious iconic images.
Pontifical Swiss Guard is a small force maintained by the
Holy See that is responsible for the safety of the Pope, including the security
of the Apostolic Palace. The Swiss Guard serves as the de facto military of
Vatican City. Established in 1506 under Pope Julius II, the Pontifical Swiss
Guard is among the oldest military units in continuous operation. The dress
uniform is of blue, red, orange and yellow with a distinctly Renaissance
appearance. The modern guard has the role of bodyguard of the Pope. The Swiss
Guard is equipped with traditional weapons, such as the halberd, as well as
with modern firearms. Recruits to the guards must be unmarried Swiss Catholic
males between 19 and 30 years of age who have completed basic training with the
Swiss Armed Forces.
thank you all for stopping by and viewing the post...
xxx
