On September the 8th morning, well rested and with enthusiasm we headed off to tour the Vatican and several other historic sites. We had decided that buying rail passes to be able to get around Rome by subway made sense after yesterday's forced march.
The subways in Rome are relatively clean modern and fairly easy to figure out.
Upon exiting what we were pretty sure was the right stop we were rewarded with a sign that seemed to imply that we were on the correct route.
We got to the meeting place where we were join our guide, luckily we would not starve to death while we waited, there was aways ice cream.
Vatican City is its own State or Country, not governed by by Rome or Italy. It has walls and gates to keep you out if it needs to and it has its own security force.
On this day we would be going on a "private tour" just the five of us. We would tour the Vatican Museum first, the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Cathedral, and several connecting hall ways. We would end the tour at St. Peter's square, which is actually round and then spend the rest of the day seeing other sites in the area. Apparently the Blog Police found out that I was putting a few photos together to illustrate our day's adventure and shut me off part way through the write up about our tour, so I will have to break this day into several separate blogs.
Our tour guide explained that this replica of a stature of a Roman dude that seems all colorful is to demonstrate that this is actually how ancient sculptures might have looked. In the Blog on Rome Sept 7 there were photos of several sculpture that were in white marble. Apparently the practice of decorating stone sculptures was a really old practice. When Michelangelo started doing sculpture all he had to go by were sculptures that had long since lost their paint. Archaeologists apparently recently discover that there was pigment on the original statues and now we know that they would have looked quite different that what we typically see. I have more on this subject later.
St. Peter's Cathedral is in the background.
We had to check our backpacks and would also find that in several areas we would not be allow to take photos. We started out in the courtyard of the museum. In the photo below there were several places where groups could gather and look at information on the painting that are on the ceiling and walls of the Sistine Chapel. Our guide explained that we would not be able to take photos, nor would we be able to talk while in the Chapel, therefore she would tell us what she thought we would need to know so when we got into the the space we could just look at the art and understand what we were seeing.
The courtyard in the middle of the museum was quite large and totally surrounded by two story structures that house much of the Vatican's vast collection of art. In the photo above the large round ball is in the middle of the courtyard. The dome of St. Pater's cathedral is beyond the museum.
The panels in the courtyard did not have the best color rendition, they came out heavy on the purples (probably sun fade). In the photo above is a shot looking down the length of the Sistine Chapel. When we were in there it was shoulder to shoulder people. There were guards that would every so many minute give a loud "Shhhh! QUIET!" The rumble of the non compliant crowd would drop to a murmur and then build to a rumble and then another "Shhhh! QUIET!". After a while our necks got stiff, we thought we had absorbed all we could and made our way out of the room. The two photos below were down loaded off of the web and are a closer representation of the colors. There has been a long term cleaning project that has been undertaken after years of candle soot and atmospheric dust gradually darkened the ceiling to almost black. The restorers left a couple of place uncleaned (lower right hand corner of the second photo below) to illustrate the difference.
The ceiling is about 130' X 43' and is curved. The painting is actually Fresco, paint on fresh plaster complete in 4 years 1508-1512. Michelangelo conceive of the design and did most of the painting with assistance from other in mixing paint and plaster and getting up to the scaffolding for him to use. There are over 300 figures in the display
These are panels showing the last judgment. There were critics of the art work including some from the Vatican. One such critic, who complained about all the nudity, was memorialized in the lower right had corner of the photo above and the second photo below with donkey ears and being bitten by a snake in an uncomfortable place.
In the Museum we would see multiple examples of expensive art a vast collection. My guess that what we saw was only a small portion of what the Catholic Church has in storage or out of the public's eye. But this hallway have what ultimately would be consider utility grade art. We only spent a few minutes here. I could have spent hours, moving along.
We headed up a pretty fancy stairway to the second floor.
The arched door way is a bit unique in that the door jam on the right is about 5 feet thick and the jam on the right is only about a foot thick at you pass through the opening you are turned to the left.
Ceiling and window well areas were well decorated every where you looked. Boy, those guys could spend money, and apparently they had lots of it.
This is a view looking out over Rome.
Pretty Fancy ceilings and walls.
The photo below is of a plaster wall detail next to a window. What looks like a drape is actually molded plaster, painted to look like a drape.
We entered into an area that I will call the bath room. There were multiple example of roman bath tubs and several marble statues.
Many of the statue had sustained damage either because of earth quakes, vandals or just weakness in the original materials. Some of the statues had interesting ways to support an outstretched arms or legs.
Every room we went in had some unique ceiling design.
The photo above show a place on the right thigh where at one point there was a spear or rod that supported the out-stretched arms
Here are several Roman bath tubs. Some were pretty fancy some were plain, but will designed.
Apparently tubs were also used as burial vaults. The ones above and below were probably built as vaults others were tubs first and vaults later.
This tub had a really elaborate faucet. The water came out of the urn in the hand of the reclining man. One interesting feather of the urn is that inside the urn is the face of a lion or tiger.
The detail that could be put into the stone was really impressive.
The tub below has an interesting feature. Just to the left of the leaning mans elbow is a dark line, actually a grove that had been cut into both end of the tub. The purpose want to subdivide the tub into a two person burial vault. The slot was for a divider panel.
There were statues all over the place. I only show a small sample of what was actually there.
One large room was dedicated to marble sculptures of animals, birds.
Cats, goats, cows. Note the head of a cow below on the torso of a man.
Some of the sculptures depicted strange creatures like the one below, head arm and trunk of a man with front legs of a horse, and a tail of a dragon, carrying of a young maiden and being attended by cherubs.
Hunter, horse, duck, pig, wolf etc.
There were several floors done in mosaic tile.
Several lions, which seem to be a popular subject.
The next room with vaulted decorated ceiling featured some of the better sculptures each displayed in its own alcove.
Although the sculpture above is badly damaged it was displayed prominently because it was signed by the artist which made it a highly prized piece.
More mosaic floors and a really big tub. This one was put in to the space and the room built around it.
This sculpture was quite unique. Apparently Roman empire sculptors copied what they saw in Greece when the Romans defeated the Grecian Empire. This statue is made of bronze. in the heyday of the Grecian empire bronze sculpture were the norm. As the needed bronzed to wage war the bronzes were melted down and replica sculptures made of marble were used as replacements. This one apparently was preserved because it was buried in an earth quake or avalanche. It was excavated after the need to melt down art to make bronze weapons passed.
The stone, plaster, mosaic work on the walls and floors was really beautiful.
Several of the sculptures may have had only the busts preserved. The one above is of Hadrian created in about 138 AD
This bust is of Herm a marine divinity the hair and eyebrows are of vines and seaweed there are small dolphins swimming in the flowing beard.
This statue is of Emperor Galba modified several times since it was originally created in the 1st century BC
Through another grand hall way with more sculptures and burial vaults.
This one was carved from one piece of stone probably imported since it was not a common sotne in Italy.
The Egyptian statues one on each side of the door mark the entrance of a room with other Egyptian artifacts.
More mosaic tile floor panels. Some of these were really detailed.
This Sphinx is another example of what was in this collection.
Up another set of stairs. John in the blue shirt and Clarice are on the left.
This stair was not one that we were allow to use.
Up at this level we could see out on the courtyard that we had walked through earlier.
This sculpture of a couple of horses and Chariot was a one of the prized sculptures of the museum. We could get any where near it.
Another ceiling with intricate details.
The variety of ceiling details seemed to be endless.
Some of the sculpture were pretty weird like this one on the left.
Our Guide pointed to this painting on the ceiling as having an interesting feature.
A box shape with a small cylinder on the front. At the time when this painting was completed no one knew what it was. Today we know that it was a reference to a camera. Recent discoveries that hinted that some of the classic artists of the middle ages us a device that would project and image that could be traced and therefore aided in sketching out the proportions of the great master's paintings.
Moving on we pass though another area that has urns and more mosaic tile.
These two photos illustrate an interesting yet rare feature on ancient sculptures. In addition to being painted like was discussed earlier the eyes were actually glass to make them look more real. There are only a few examples that remain.
More mosaic tile floor, this one apparently this one of one of the popes.
Some of the details in the sculptures carved in stone took a lot of time with some really talented artists.
The urn above is of alabaster which is a translucent stone. There is a window in St. Peters cathedral that demonstrated the translucence. The urn below below is of marble.
Another fancy door way and more mosaic.
Detailed sculptures and a coffin.
Next we went into a room with many large tapestries. Most of these were hundreds of years old and showed some signs of that time. The lighting in the room was somewhat dim so getting photos was a bit difficult. The subject matter was for the most part Biblical scenes. Some were Catholic Chruch scenes.
Once again fancy detailed ceilings.
These tapestries would have taken years to complete and were often worked on by families that may have had generations of family members working on them.
The perspective and features of these tapestries was really impressive. As you would walk by this one it appeared that the eyes of the Jesus followed you.
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