Continuing in the Vatican Museum, here is a look at a room painted by Raphael.
Each wall contains a huge mural.
For models in the following work, he used many of the luminaries of his time.
Looking closer, perhaps you’ll recognize Leonardo and Michaelangelo.
Incredible stuff, among the great works humanity has produced in all of history.
Continuing with the Vatican Museum tour, here’s some video and stills from the Hall of Maps. These maps were commissioned by the Pope to make an accurate renderings of various areas. Here’s the video where they turn on the lights first thing in the morning:
Here are some still photos that show some detail, including this view of Italy:
The person standing on the left gives a sense of scale. Here’s another map, this time of Venice. There will be some posts about Venice here on the blog later.
The maps contain insets of various town and cities as you see next:
And another example here:
More to come in the next post.
Any tour of the Vatican Museum is worth the time and money. I was fortunate enough to take the “Waking the Vatican” tour which begins at 6AM sharp, when the doors are unlocked, yet the public is not yet permitted to enter.
Yes, those are the keys actually used to unlock all the doors. Of course, the museum holds artifacts from many eras of history, including Egyptian pieces like this tablet:
There are plenty of Roman objects as well, literally huge rooms full of them:
Including this magnificent sculpture:
And this bathtub of an empress:
Must have been a ladder to get in and out of that thing. More posts to come, showing the Hall of Maps and other marvels. Check back often!
In a previous post, I put up the video from inside the Sistine Chapel. Now, I add a few still photos taken with my Nikon 1 AW and that beautiful wide angle lens. The first is Michaelangelo’s apocalypse which is behind the altar:
And here is a view of the ceiling:
And a slightly closer shot of the center of the ceiling:
The next view gives you a sort of perspective on the chapel:
I was fortunate to have the early morning “Waking the Vatican” tour when photos were permitted. It was worth arriving on-site at 5:45 AM. I’d do it again and pay the price to view this magnificent art work. Coming soon: A post from inside St. Peter’s.
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