Vatican Museums |
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Museums and GalleriesEgyptian Museum(Museo Egizio). In 1839 Pope Gregory XVI Cappellari founded this museum which houses many sculptures of queens, pharaohs, gods and goddesses from Tivoli where Hadrian had filled his Villa grounds with statues reminding him of his lost love Antinous. In the third room, there is a stunning sculpture of Osiris which represents handsome young Antinous who drowned during a midnight dip in the Nile and was elevated to deity. Also famous are the mummies, the black granite throne of Rhamses II (13C BC) and the gigantic statue of his mother Queen Tuaa. Pio Clementino Museum(Museo Pio Clementino). Museum of Greco-Roman Sculpture. Cabinet of the Apoxyomenos(Gabinetto dellApoxyomenos). Named after the fabulous central sculpture of an athlete scraping his body with a strigil, to take off excess oil from the body after exercise or a combat (4C AD Roman copy of 1C BC original). Octagonal Belvedere Courtyard(Cortile Ottagonale del Belvedere) (Room VIII) Two world masterpieces: Laocoön and Apollo Belvedere. Laocoön(Laocoonte) (Greek, school of Rhodes 1C AD). This father and two sons show the most realistic agony possible in their heroic battle against giant snakes. It marks the transition between Greek "idealized" sculpture and Roman "realistic" sculpture. 1506. Michelangelo, learning that these figures had been discovered in a field near the Colosseum, rushed there and immediately knew he was looking at what Pliny in the 1C AD had rated "above all painted and sculpted works." The field was above the Golden House of Nero (see Domus Aurea), who had the sculpture in his collection. Michelangelo used the father as a model for such works as his wrathful Moses. Pope Julius II della Rovere, a godfather of the Renaissance, paid a fortune for the figures and had them reassembled here, in his private courtyard. Nine years later the victorious King of France, François I (who later lured Leonardo to his court) demanded this sculpture as a spoil of war. But Julius' successor, Leo X Medici, unwilling to part with it, secretly had it copied. In fact it did not leave until Napoleon brought it to Paris, from which it returned after his defeat. 1905. Archeologist Ludwig Pollack found an arm he recognized as being a missing part of Laocoön in a Rome antique shop. This totally changed the sculpture that had for four centuries been incorrectly assembled. Apollo BelvedereRoman copy of a Greek statue of 4C BC. An ideal of masculine beauty as well as realism in rendering the drapery. The Renaissance artists considered this the perfection for which they should strive. PinacotecaThis superb art collection is largely neglected because of the fame of the Sistine Chapel and the Raphael Rooms. Map Gallery(Galleria delle Carte Geografiche). Galleries of the Candelabra, Tapestries and Maps. Gregorian Profane Museum(Museo Gregoriano Profano). Mosaics: vermicelli mosaics, made with tiny circles cut from thin glass rods, were used in 2C AD for still lives showing food and drink at Roman banquets: squid, asparagus, dates. "After the meal", trompe l'oeil of food scraps littering the floor after a meal. Don't miss the mouse!
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