Arte Vaticana tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica, Vatican City

Arte Vaticana tour of the Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel and St Peters Basilica, Vatican City

Jun 30, 2011

    

Having been a bit ho-hum about the Sistine Chapel last time we came since it was too crowded to truly appreciate the artwork, we thought we owed it a 2nd chance to wow us, so booked a small tour with a maximum of 6 people lead by an art historian, which entered the museums at 8am, as soon as it opened.

We started by viewing a copy of The Pieta, then went on to altar artwork, a Caravaggio, sculpture gardens, tapestries, map room and the Vatican apartments painted by Raphael.

We had specific things we wanted to see - The River God Tigris with a lion head in his jar, Leocon and his sons being bitten to death by snakes, and the tapestry of Jesus with eyes that follow you and a stone that moves as you walk by. Saw them all and checked them off the list!

So to the Sistine Chapel. Thankfully it was a little less crowded this time. The Michaelangelo ceiling was impressive and you could see how his style developed and changed over the four years he worked on it as he became more skilled in getting the perspective of the figures right for the viewer at ground level whilst either painting on the curved part of the ceiling or within one of the trompel'oeuil segments of the "vaulted" flat ceiling. Really old Michaelangelo was quite clever.

The artwork over the High Altar was my favourite though. Themed around Judgement Day, there were many people (apparently with recognisable faces from the world of the church at the time), getting their come-uppance and being poked downwards instead of soaring serenely upwards!

My absolute favourite part, though, is St Peter holding a skinned version of himself and hoping that it will serve as a reminder of his martyrdom and be his ticket upwards.

St Peter's Basilica is, well, St Peter's Basilica. 10 stories high apparently and with a nave longer than St Paul's in London, and the proper Pieta, now behind glass after someone took a hammer to it! We were told that last week the remains of John Paul II were in with the Pieta, but he appeared to have disappeared today!