Archive | April, 2024

After touring the Vatican Museum we finally got to go into the church part of the Vatican: St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s the largest church in the world, and the most opulent. Gold and marble cover most of the surfaces and it’s absolutely HUGE. The architecture and art are absolutely amazing!

There is tons of symbolism everywhere. The sculptures of people all have significance. The central figure on the roof is Jesus, with Saint Peter on the right.

The interior of the basilica was GORGEOUS! It was spacious, with high ceilings, marble statues, and gilded surfaces in all directions. The pagoda shaped structure near the far end is actually a huge scaffold in front of an altar(?)

This panoramic shot gives you a glimpse of the crossing corridors. (Did I mention it’s huge?)

This sculpture of Mary, Jesus’ mother, holding his body is very moving.

The domed ceiling was amazing! And SO high!

It was hard to take it all in, but I highly recommend trying.

Ellen Lindner

Wow, the Vatican DID NOT disappoint!

The ceilings had me completely mesmerized! Some were beautiful in their structure and carvings. 

Others were adorned with an ABUNDANCE of individual art pieces. Such was the case in the hall displaying tapestries, below.

As you can see, there’s lots of art painted on the ceilings, and the Sistine Chapel is no exception. However, you’re not supposed to talk there, so the tour guides all stop at explanatory panels on the way. Here’s the one showing ALL the ceiling artwork. Just as this image shows, there’s way more artwork than you can possibly take in. And it’s all about 20′ over your head. It’s impossible to appreciate and that’s a real shame.

If you’re like me, you’re looking for “The Creation of Adam” on the poster above, just as I did. You’ll find it near the center of the ceiling. There’s a larger version in the top right corner of this panel. Unfortunately, it looked more like the left image in real life. I think I could have covered that part of the ceiling with only 2 fingers and my outstretched arm. I kept thinking, “Why did they include so many small images? Why not just a few big ones, so we could see them better?”

The poster above also shows a little bit about the restoration of the ceiling. Look at the 3rd image from the top, in the right half. Can you see how the two sides of it look different? The left side is what it looked like before restoration and the right half is after. A very big difference.

While in the courtyard studying the above panel our tour guide also showed us the big contemporary sphere and rotated it for us. It smoothly glides while staying in one place.

There was lots of sculpture in the museum. But way more than I could take in!

I was completely floored by the artwork we saw in the museum. Then  we went into St. Peter’s Basilica. Oh my! I’ll show you that soon.

Ellen Lindner
P.S. There’s a ton of information online about the Vatican Museum. This link takes you to multiple virtual tours, including one of the Sistine Chapel. Here you can see multiple Sistine Chapel paintings before and after restoration. (Large enough to appreciate.)