Roma Antica - Vatican Museums

The dozen or so collections, which make up the Vatican Museums, comprise a bewildering array of objects, drawn from the world of ancient Egypt and the Etruscans to the modern day.

The Vatican's collection of ancient Roman sculpture is one of the greatest in the world and the jewel in its crown is the magnificent sculpture of 'Laocoon'. The statue was unearthed on January 16th, 1506, in the area near the Colosseum. It was immediately thought to be the work which Pliny the Elder had written about, but a second opinion was called for. It was given by no less an authority on sculpture than Michelangelo, who happened to be in Rome that winter. He visited the site of the excavation along with a friend and fellow Florentine, Giuliano da Sangallo. They both agreed that it was the celebrated statue of Laocoon and urged the Pope to buy it. Julius II took very little persuasion and the statue was transported to the Vatican accompanied by chanting from the choir of the Sistine Chapel.

Laocoon was a Trojan priest, who incurred the wrath of the Gods when he challenged the authenticity of a wooden horse, which the Greeks had left as a present to the Trojans, outside the gates of their city. The sculpture represents the death of Laocoon and his two sons, all of whom can be seen struggling in vain against the assault of mighty sea serpents.
More has been written about this sculpture than probably any other sculpture in the world and yet no one can agree when or who actually carved it. It made a huge impression on Michelangelo who quotes from it in several images on the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo signed the contract to paint the ceiling on May 10th, 1508. Four and a half years later, on October 31st, 1512, it was finished.

The Sistine Chapel had been built at the end of the 1470s, under the pontificate of Pope Sixtus IV, hence its name. The Pope had called in the best artists of his day to fresco the walls, figures such as Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. Today, their considerable achievement is, more often than not, overlooked, as people crane their necks to see the ceiling.
Twenty five years later, the Pope's nephew, Julius II, decided to have the ceiling of the chapel repainted. (At the time, the ceiling was painted blue with gold stars to represent the heavens). He called in Michelangelo, who was already in his employment at work on an enormous tomb for the Pope. Why Julius chose Michelangelo, a self-professed sculptor, we shall never know! The latter was quick to protest, claiming that he had no knowledge of fresco painting. But the Pope was not a man to take no for an answer. He was insistent and as a result of his insistence, he gave the world one of its greatest works of art.

Michelangelo's painting was a breathtaking achievement, both in terms of sheer physical as well as creative energy. The chapel is 130 feet long, forty five feet wide and the ceiling is over sixty five feet from the ground. The bulk of the ceiling is frescoed with seven scenes from the book of Genesis, flanked by images of Old Testament prophets and ancient Sibyls. It made a powerful impact when it was finally unveiled in 1512 and has continued to do so ever since. In 2011, more than five million people visited the Vatican Museums and the vast majority were drawn there to see Michelangelo's ceiling.

While Michelangelo was beavering away in the Sistine Chapel, fewer than 200 yards away a somewhat younger artist was busy painting the private apartments of the Pope. His name was Raphael. He had been commissioned as part of a team of artists to paint the Pope's library, what is now known as the Stanza della Segnatura. It didn't take the Pope long to recognise Raphael's genius, to dismiss the rest of the team and leave Raphael to paint the library on his own.
On one of the walls he painted an image, which sums up the High Renaissance in terms of its clarity of design and sense of classical harmony. It came to be known as 'The School of Athens' and depicts a selection of the most famous Greek philosophers, including, in the centre, Plato and Aristotle.
By the time he came to paint the room known as the Stanza dell' Incendio, the demands on Raphael's time were so great that he did no more than provide the designs, leaving the actual painting of the frescoes to his assistants.