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The Vatican Palaces, enormous construction
with over 1400 rooms, host the precious Vatican Museums. A
collection of antiquities, the most outstanding in the world,
is gathered in the Pio Clementino Museum and the Chiaramonti
Museum. However, the great Italian and European collection
of paintings is kept in the eigtheen rooms of the Vatican
Picture Gallery, built by Luca Beltrami for Pope Pius XI.
In the ancient Roman Museum, enriched by Pope Julius II in
the 16th century, there are many works of art, among which
the Lacoon. It represents the Trojan priest with his two sons
being crushed to death by snakes as a penalty for warning
the Trojans against the wooden horse. Of uncertain date, it
was found in 1506 in the Domus Aurea. The Belvedere Torso,
perhaps representig Hercules, was sculptured at the end of
the 1st century B.C. After it was found, in the 15th century,
it was extensively studied by Michelangelo. Do not miss the
Wounded Amazon (a copy of Fidia 500 B.C.) and the Apoxyomenos
(athlet scraping himself with a strigil), an original bronze
by Lysippus, and the Doryphorus (spear carrier) a copy by
Polycletus. In the Vatican Picture Gallery the development
of art can be followed through the centuries. Beginning with
the Stefaneschi Polittico by Giotto (1300 AD), to the splendid
Musician Angel by Melozzo da Forlì. By Raphael are the
admirable:
Madonna of Foligno, commisioned as a thanks offering to the
Virgin, one of Raphael's first works completed in Rome in
1512, and the Transfiguration where Christ, bathed in supernatural
light, arises supported by Moses and prophet Elija, while
apostles lie terrorised on the ground. The Museum also host
the unfinished but beautiful Saint Gerome by Leonardo, the
Pietà by Giovanni Bellini and works of art of Van Dyck, Pietro
da Cortona, Poussin, Tiziano and the splendid Deposition (1604)
by Caravaggio. Musei Vaticani e Cappella Sistina Viale Vaticano.
Tel. 0039-06.69884947 - Fax 0039-06.69885061 From April 1
to October 31: 8.45-16.45 From November 1 to March 31: 8.45-13.45.
Closed all Sundays and holidays, except for the last Sunday
of the month when the Museums are open with free admission.
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