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| How do you think he painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? |
___ Michelangelo painted the ceiling laying down on his back
Email or facebook shari with the correct answer. If you are the first one to respond, you will get a prize!
(sharichc@yahoo.com) (shari olson couillard)
If you want to see more pictures and details of Michelangelo's magnificent work, go to this website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling
We got to the Vatican Museum about 30 minutes before they opened, but we still had an hour to wait in line. It was definitely worth the 3 days of waiting. Someday, I would love to go through, however, with no one in there but me. mmm....don't think that would ever happen. :)
We were amazed at how well preserved the frescoes are. The Vatican Museum is a "must see". The Museum originated as a group of sculptures collected by
Pope Julius II (1503-1513) and placed in what today is the “Cortile
Ottagono” within the museum complex. The popes were among the first
sovereigns who opened the art collections of their palaces to the public
thus promoting knowledge of art history and culture for others. Later, Pius VII (1800-1823) expanded the collections of
Classical Antiquities, to which he added the Chiaromonti Museum and the
“Braccio Nuovo” gallery. Gregory XVI (1831-1846) founded the Etruscan Museum (1837) with archaeological finds discovered during excavations carried
out from 1828 onwards in southern Etruria. Later, he established theEgyptian Museum
(1839), which houses ancient artifacts from explorations in Egypt,
together with other pieces already conserved in the Vatican and in the
Museo Capitolino, and the Lateran Profane Museum (1844), with statues, sculptures and mosaics of the Roman era, which could not be
adequately placed in the Vatican Palace. The Lateran Profane Museum was
expanded in 1854 under Pius IX (1846-1878) with the addition of the Pio
Christian Museum. This museum is comprised of ancient sculptures and inscriptions with ancient Christian content.
In 1910, under Saint Pius X (1903-1914), the Hebrew
Lapidary was established. This section of the museum contains 137
inscriptions from ancient Hebrew cemeteries in Rome. These
last collections (Gregorian Profane Museum, Pio Christian Museum and the
Hebrew Lapidary) were transferred, under the pontificate of Pope John
XXIII (1958-1963), from the Lateran Palace to their present building
within the Vatican and inaugurated in 1970.
The Museums also include the Gallery of Tapestries,
a collection of various 15th and 17th century tapestries; the Gallery
of Maps, decorated under the pontificate of Gregory XIII (1572-1585) and
restored by Urban VIII (1623-1644); the Sobieski Room and the Room of
the Immaculate Conception; the Raphael Stanze
and the Loggia, which were decorated by order of Julius II and Leo X
(1513-1521); the Chapel of Nicholas V (1447-1455), painted by Fra
Angelico; the Sistine Chapel, which takes the name of its founder, Pope Sixtus IV; the Borgia
Apartment, where Pope Alexander VI lived until his death (1492-1503).
There are several other areas in the Museum, too numerous to mentiom. suffice it to say, we were in the Museum for several hours and still could not take it all in. Enjoy the next photos that we took that were some of our favorites. The Vatican Museum will always be one of the highlights of our visit to Rome.
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| I wonder if I'll ever be famous enough to have my statue up here? |
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| I just love imitating these dramatical masks that they use to make |
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| Yes...I know I'm goofy! |
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| What happened to this guy? Or is it an animal? |
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| Good-bye from Rome....tomorrow we go to Firenze (Florence) |
