The Vatican Museums (Italian: Musei Vaticani; Latin: Musea Vaticana) are the public museums of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by the Catholic Church and the papacy throughout the centuries, including several of the most renowned Roman 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,[1] and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, and restoration departments.[4]

Vatican Museums

Musei Vaticani
The Vatican Museums as seen from the dome of St. Peter's Basilica
Established	1506; 516 years ago (1506)
Location	Vatican City
Coordinates	41°54′23″N 12°27′16″E
Type	Art museum
Collection size	70,000[1]
Visitors	1,300,000 (2020)[2]
Director	Barbara Jatta[3]
Website	Official website

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Vatican Museums
The New Wing, built by Raffaele Stern.
Artists Raphael Michelangelo
Architects Donato Bramante Giuseppe Momo Gian Lorenzo Bernini
Architecture St. Peter's Basilica Castel Sant'Angelo St. Peter's Baldachin Cortile del Belvedere
Paintings School of Athens The Gallery of Maps
Sculptures Pietà Sphere Within Sphere
Frescoes Sistine Chapel Raphael Rooms
Artifacts Sarcophagi of Helena and Constantina Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus
Collections Guglielmi Collection
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Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century.[5] The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling and altar wall decorated by Michelangelo, and the Stanze di Raffaello (decorated by Raphael) are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums.[6]

In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vatican Museums were visited by only 1,300,000 persons, a drop of 81 percent from the number of visitors in 2019, but still enough to rank the museums fourth among the most-visited art museums in the world.[7]

There are 24 galleries, or rooms, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the last room visited within the Museum.[8]

History

The Vatican Museums trace their origin to one marble sculpture, purchased in the 16th century: Laocoön and His Sons was discovered on 14 January 1506, in a vineyard near the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Pope Julius II sent Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo, who were working at the Vatican, to examine the discovery.[9] On their recommendation, the Pope immediately purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner. The Pope put the sculpture, which represents the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons, Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by giant serpents, on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery.[10][11]

Benedict XIV founded the Museum Christianum, and some of the Vatican collections formed the Lateran Museum, which Pius IX founded by decree in 1854.[12]

The museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006 by permanently opening the excavations of a Vatican Hill necropolis to the public.[13]

On 1 January 2017, Barbara Jatta became the Director of the Vatican Museums, replacing Antonio Paolucci who had been director since 2007.[14][15]

Pinacoteca Vaticana

The art gallery was housed in the Borgia Apartment until Pius XI ordered construction of a dedicated building. The new building, designed by Luca Beltrami, was inaugurated on 27 October 1932.[16] The museum's paintings include:

• Giotto: Stefaneschi Triptych
• Olivuccio di Ciccarello: Opere di Misericordia
• Filippo Lippi: Marsuppini Coronation
• Giovanni Bellini: Pietà
• Melozzo da Forlì: Sixtus IV Appointing Platina as Prefect of the Vatican Library
• Pietro Perugino: Decemviri Altarpiece and San Francesco al Prato Resurrection
• Leonardo da Vinci: Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
• Raphael: Madonna of Foligno, Oddi Altarpiece and Transfiguration
• Titian: Frari Madonna
• Antonio da Correggio: Christ in Glory
• Paolo Veronese: The Vision of Saint Helena
• Caravaggio: The Entombment of Christ
• Domenichino, The Last Communion of Saint Jerome
• Nicolas Poussin, The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus
• Jan Matejko: Sobieski at Vienna

Collection of Modern Religious Art

The Collection of Modern Religious Art was added in 1973 and houses paintings and sculptures from such artists as Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso.[17]

Sculpture museums

The group of museums includes several sculpture museums surrounding the Cortile del Belvedere. These are the Museo Gregoriano Profano, with classical sculpture, and others as below:

Museo Pio-Clementino

The museum takes its name from two popes: Clement XIV, who established the museum, and Pius VI, who brought it to completion. Clement XIV came up with the idea of creating a new museum in Innocent VIII's Belvedere Palace and started the refurbishment work.[20]

Clement XIV founded the Museo Pio-Clementino in 1771; it originally contained artworks of antiquity and the Renaissance. 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 as follows:

• Octagonal Court (aka Belvedere Courtyard and Cortile delle Statue): this was where some of the first ancient classical statues in the papal collections were first displayed. Some of the most famous pieces, the Apollo of the Belvedere and Laocoön and His Sons have been here since the early 1500s.
• 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 and the Braschi Antinous.
• Greek Cross Gallery (Sala a Croce Greca): with the porphyry sarcophagi of Constance and Saint Helena, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great.
• 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.[21]
• 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. Statues are displayed along the walls, including the Three Graces.
• 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 statues by important ancient Greek or Roman sculptors. The centerpiece is the Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men.[22]
• Sala degli Animali: so named because of the many ancient statues of animals.[21]

Museo Chiaramonti

This museum was founded in the early 19th century by Pius VII, whose surname before his election as Pope was Chiaramonti. The museum consists of a large arched gallery in which are exhibited several statues, sarcophagi and friezes. The New Wing, or Braccio Nuovo, built by Raffaele Stern, houses statues including the Augustus of Prima Porta, the Doryphoros, and The River Nile. It is in the Neoclassical style and has a wide arched roof with skylights. The colour scheme is blue-grey and white with a polychrome marble floor. The walls of each side of the gallery have a row of large niches in which stand marble statues. Between the niches are plinths supporting smaller portrait sculptures. The Galleria Lapidaria forms part of the Museo Chiaramonti, and contains over 3,000 stone tablets and inscriptions. It is accessible only with special permission, usually for the purpose of academic study.

Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

Founded by Gregory XVI in 1837, this museum has nine galleries and houses important Etruscan pieces, coming from archaeological excavations in the territory of the Papal State as well as other works already held in the Vatican.[23] The collection include vases, sarcophagus, bronzes, terracotta, ceramics as well as works from the Falcioni and Guglielmi Collections.

The Mars of Todi is in Room III. It depicts a nearly life sized warrior dressed in breastplate as he is about to offer libation of wine to the gods.

Museo Gregoriano Egiziano

This museum houses a large collection of artifacts from Ancient Egypt and also many Egyptian works of Roman production in nine rooms. The Carlo Grassi Collection of bronzes is part of the collection.[24] Such material includes papyruses, sarcophagi, mummies, sculptures and reproductions of the Book of the Dead. [25]

The Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was inaugurated on 2 February 1839 to commemorate the anniversary of Gregory XVI's accession to the papacy. The creation of the museum was particularly close to the pope's heart as he believed that the understanding of ancient Egyptian civilization was vital in terms of its scientific importance as well as its value in understanding the Old Testament. This feeling was expressed in a paper by the museum's first curator, the physiologist and Barnabite, Father Luigi Maria Ungarelli.[20]

Vatican Historical Museum

The Vatican Historical Museum (Italian: Museo storico vaticano) was founded in 1973 at the behest of Paul VI,[26] and was initially hosted in environments under the Square Garden. In 1987, it moved to the main floor of the Lateran Palace, where it 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 16th–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.[27]

Highlights

• 
  After Leochares
  Apollo Belvedere
  Museo Pio-Clementino
• 
  Agesander, Athenodorus and Polydorus
  Laocoön and His Sons
  Museo Pio-Clementino
• 
  Apollonius
  Belvedere Torso
  Museo Pio-Clementino
• 
  Roman, 1st century AD
  Augustus of Prima Porta
  Museo Chiaramonti
• 
  Leonardo da Vinci
  Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
  Pinacoteca Vaticana
• 
  Michelangelo
  The Creation of Adam
  Sistine Chapel (ceiling)
• 
  Raphael
  The School of Athens
  Raphael Rooms
• 
  Raphael
  The Transfiguration
  Pinacoteca Vaticana
• 
  Michelangelo
  The Last Judgment
  Sistine Chapel
• 
  Caravaggio
  The Entombment of Christ
  Pinacoteca Vaticana
• 
  Walcott Inlet area, Western Australia
  Depiction of Wandjina
  Anima Mundi
• 
  Sleeping Ariadne
  Galleria delle Statue

• The red marble papal throne, formerly in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran.
• 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 (1509–1511).
• The Niccoline Chapel.
• The Sistine Chapel, including the Sistine Chapel ceiling (gallery).
• The Gallery of Maps: topographical maps of the whole of Italy, painted on the walls by friar Ignazio Danti of Perugia, commissioned by Gregory XIII (1572–1585). It remains the world's largest pictorial geographical study.
• The frescoes and other works in the Borgia Apartment built for the Borgia pope Alexander VI.
• The Bramante Staircase is a 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 encircles the outer wall of a stairwell about fifteen metres (49 feet) wide and with a clear space at the centre. The balustrade around the ramp is of ornately worked metal.

Visitors

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 tickets are available online or in person. This image is a panoramic view of one small stretch of the entire queue on Sunday 29 April 2007, which continues for some distance in both directions beyond view.

See also

• Accademia, Venice
• Index of Vatican City–related articles
• List of most visited art museums
• Uffizi, Florence

References

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)
• Daley, John (1982). The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0810917118.
• Peter Rohrbacher: Völkerkunde und Afrikanistik für den Papst. Missionsexperten und der Vatikan 1922–1939 in: Römische Historische Mitteilungen 54 (2012), 583–610.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vatican Museums.

• Official website
• Vatican Museums official on-line ticket office
• Official English information
• On-line arts Catalogue
• Vatican Museum's 360 degree panorama virtual tour
• Vatican Museum's On-line bookshop

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