This past week, I had to opportunity to explore the Vatican Museums. Before coming to Rome, this was one place that I was certain that I wanted to visit, and although it took longer than expected, I finally made it there. We traveled to the Vatican by way of the Vatican Corridor. After a surprisingly short wait to get in, we started at the Cortile della Pigna. This was an extremely well kept courtyard, which did well do offset the business of inside the museums. We then ventured to another courtyard, the Cortile Ottagonale. This courtyard held many famous sculptures including the Laocoön. In my opinion, sculptures are presented much better outside, such as this courtyard, rather than in a dark hallway sitting in a line of 30 some more sculptures. I feel like these sculptures can be appreciated much more in the outdoors.
Once inside we started to make our way toward the Sistine Chapel, checking out several other exhibits along the way. One such exhibit was the ancient Egypt room. This room contained a bevy of Egyptian artifacts and works of art. However, I found the mummified body which was over 2000 years old to be the most impressive. We also took a walk through the modern art exhibit, which was a nice contrast to much of the artwork which we have seen in Rome thus far. My favorite paintings in this room were to two works done by Dali. The way he used color in his paintings was impressive, especially when he painted a sunset in the background of one of his paintings.
We had finally made it to the Sistine Chapel after we had taken about 100 different turns along the way. The ceiling fresco done by Michelangelo certainly lived up to expectations. However, I was maybe even more impressed with his Last Judgment on the front wall. There is so much going on in his rendition of the Apocalypse. There was so much to be awed by in the chapel, it was only a shame that no pictures could be taken. The good news is that a place like this will likely leave an impression with you which will last a lifetime.
Once inside we started to make our way toward the Sistine Chapel, checking out several other exhibits along the way. One such exhibit was the ancient Egypt room. This room contained a bevy of Egyptian artifacts and works of art. However, I found the mummified body which was over 2000 years old to be the most impressive. We also took a walk through the modern art exhibit, which was a nice contrast to much of the artwork which we have seen in Rome thus far. My favorite paintings in this room were to two works done by Dali. The way he used color in his paintings was impressive, especially when he painted a sunset in the background of one of his paintings.
We had finally made it to the Sistine Chapel after we had taken about 100 different turns along the way. The ceiling fresco done by Michelangelo certainly lived up to expectations. However, I was maybe even more impressed with his Last Judgment on the front wall. There is so much going on in his rendition of the Apocalypse. There was so much to be awed by in the chapel, it was only a shame that no pictures could be taken. The good news is that a place like this will likely leave an impression with you which will last a lifetime.
Image courtesy of http://www.vaticanotours.com/g/sistine_chapel.jpg
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