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We could use all of the time we have to discuss the Vatican Museums just listing the vast number of galleries and museums that make up this big collection of art showcases. And if we tried to list the number of artists and great works of art you can find in the Vatican Museums, it would fill a book! In fact, there are such books in the Vatican library that catalog every work this important collection owns and when and where they are on display. It was 1506 when Pope Julius II started the museum with a humble acquisition of the sculpture of Laocoon and his sons, as they fight off the grips of an aggressive sea serpent. From that simple start, the Vatican Museums now consists of literally dozens of galleries that can boast holdings of outstanding artwork in the thousands. A great example of the diversity of these collections is the Etruscan Museum which opened in 1837. This collection is charged with caring for some rare and precious excavated samples of some very ancient art that came from archaeological digs in southern Etruria and surrounding vicinities. These art works reflect the style of the Roman Empire not far away in the mosaics and very old sarcophagi that were held in the Egyptian Museum. From that collection, it is a short walk to the Gallery of Tapestries which, as the name implies, is a collection of beautiful wall coverings that date back to the 15th century through the 17th. These amazing tapestries were first put on display in 1814 and they are so well regarded that any major collection in the world would gladly accept them. Just as unique in the family of art collections in the Vatican Museums is the Gallery of Maps which earned that name for the works painted directly on the walls of the building. There you can find 40 diverse panels that depict different regions of the planet and which all go together to make a complete map of the world for its time period. Before navigators had access to GPS devices or satellite technology, these kinds of maps were life or death to an explorer finding his way and the Church depended on them to guide the explorers that were sent out to discover the world. The Raphael Rooms stand out of the many Vatican Museums in popularity. These four connected rooms are the home to dozens of works in this museum that was built between 1447 and 1455. However the museum is not named The Raphael Rooms because of the artwork on display, but rather for the work of the artist himself in decorating the museum in the first decade of its existence. It doesn't take much guessing to know what is in the Vatican Picture Gallery. But it is definitely worth a visit to see great art by some of the great masters of history including Van Dyck, Perugino, Poussin and Giotto. A gallery that has an imaginative name but is often misleading, is the Gregorian Museum of Profane Art. It is not about profanity in the modern sense of the word. Rather that designation only means that the works of art contained in this gallery are of a secular nature. A new citizen of the Vatican Museums, it contains such things as Roman sculptures from the Imperial period, as well as the Republican time frame, sarcophagi and other things from these eras as well. Another aptly named collection is the Carriage Pavilion which opened in 1973 in a building that was built under the Square Garden. This unique collection holds the many carriages that served to take Popes and other high church officials to their appointments. In addition to the carriages, you will also find a photographic history of papal transport, harnesses for the horses and other paraphernalia and historic documentation related to this topic. But there is no question that the crowning moment of any visit to the Vatican Museums will be the time you spend in the world renowned Sistine Chapel, to take in the huge masterpiece that Michelangelo painted on the Chapel ceiling. As you gaze up you will know this is a moment you will remember for life. But don't miss out on Michelangelo's Last Judgment, which he came back and added to the chapel 20 years later. That famous ceiling painting will fascinate you as it has thousands before. The nine panels of the painting show various biblical characters including various nude men, Sibyls and Noah himself. But it is that depiction of Jehovah reaching out to give life to man with a touch of his finger to Adam's that is the best known image of this masterpiece. The famous author Goethe said of the Sistine Chapel artwork: "Without having seen the Sistine Chapel, one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving." That poetic sentiment is a good way of summarizing the amazing art work that you will find in every building when you take the time to explore the Vatican Museums.
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