Rome, viewed as a silhouette from Janiculum Hill, represents an array of broken marble columns and temple ruins, giant clusters of exceptional architecture, with St Peter's dome and the Roman Forum, capping a shimmering city of urban noises. Cars, taxis, and motor scooters stuff the streets and blow horns, with sidewalks densely packed with pedestrians, and crowdy cafes offering the empblematic cappuccino of the day. The tourists batlle crowds and traffic, carving their way to Renaissance spots and Baroque edifices only to plunge deeper, into famous ruins of antiquity. Rome is also a reputed site for giant political scandals, corruption, flaws, and is known as Tangentopoli, the bribe city, annually sending numbers of government bureaucrats to jail. Nevertheless, this is the site containing the Colosseum and the Pantheon, St. Peter's Basilica and the Trevi Fountain, sites merely described as 'compelling.'
The Vatican Museums, a gigantic repository of treasures encompassing antiquity to the Renaissance, is housed in a labyrinthine series of elaborate palaces, apartments, and galleries leading to the Sistine Chapel. The site occupies part of the papal palaces constructed from the 13th century onward. After climbing a spiral ramp, one is led into the Borgia Apartments, lavishly frescoed with biblical scenes by Pinturicchio of Umbria. The rooms were designed for Pope Alexander VI. The end of the Raphael Rooms culminates in the Chapel of Nicholas V, a chamber frescoed by Dominican monk Fra Angelico. Then comes the Chiaramonti Museum, an establishment founded by Pope Pius VII. The museum includes the Corridoio, or Corridor, the Galleria Lapidaria, plus the Braccio Nuovo, with the Corridor hosting an exposition of more than 800 Greek-Roman artifacts, including statues, reliefs, and sarcophagi. Galleria Lapidaria contains about 5,000 Christian and pagan inscriptions, plus an array of Roman sculpture and copies of Greek originals. The Braccio Nuovo, erected as an extension of the Chiaramonti, features The Nile, a reproduction of a long-lost Hellenistic original, a paradigmatic example of antique sculpture. The Collection of Modern Religious Art, a museum opened in 1973, represents American artists' invasion of the Vatican. The site comprises 55 rooms, with 12 of them being devoted to American artists, such as De Chirico and Manzù. The site also holds Georges Rouault, Picasso, Gauguin, Chagall, Henry Moore and Kandinsky art. The Egyptian-Gregorian Museum represents a careful showcase of sarcophagi, mummies, vases, statues of goddesses, jewelry, sculptured pink-granite statues, and heaps of hieroglyphics.
The Etruscan-Gregorian Museum, founded by Gregory XIV in 1837, and continuously supplemented to ever since, provides a complete collection of Etruscan art. The site includes sarcophagi, bronzes, urns, jewelry, a chariot and terra-cotta vases. The Regolini-Galassi tomb, an acclaimed exhibit unearthed in the 19th century at Cerveteri, is displayed along the Mars of Todi, a bronze sculpture dating from the 5th century B.C. The Ethnological Museum provides an ensemble of artworks and objects from all over the world, the principal route being a 5km stroll through 25 geographical sections, showing objects that cover 3,000 years of world history. The Historical Museum outlines the story of the Vatican, exhibits arms, uniforms, armory, typically from the early Renaissance period and displays the carriages used by popes and cardinals in religious processions.
Rome's Pinacoteca or Picture Gallery houses paintings and tapestries from the 11th to the 19th centuries. The site holds oldest picture at the Vatican, this being s keyhole-like wood panel depicting the Last Judgment, a 11th century work. Another landmark object is the Stefaneschi Triptych, the six panels crafted by Giotto and his assistants. Here is Bernardo Daddi's example of early Italian Renaissance art par excellence, the "Madonna del Magnificat". The site holds works by minituarist Fra Angelico, a15th-century Dominican monk, with his important "Virgin with Child". The Raphael salon includes three paintings by the Renaissance master, namely "Coronation of the Virgin", "The Virgin of Foligno", and the "Transfiguration", a work completed shortly before his death. The rooms keep eight tapestries crafted by Flemish weavers from Raphael sketches. The place holds Leonardo da Vinci's uncompleted "St. Jerome with the Lion" plus Giovanni Bellini's "Pietà" and Titian's major piece "The Virgin of Frari", along with Caravaggio's Baroque piece "Deposition from the Cross".
Pio Clementino Museum includes a collection of immediately recognisable Greek and Roman sculptures, including the Belvedere Torso, a semi-preserved Greek statue from 1st century B.C., and a paragon for Renaissance artists. The rotunda contains a large gilded bronze of Hercules from 2nd century B.C. The remaining sculptures are set under porticoes opening onto the Belvedere courtyard. "Laocoön and His Two Sons", the 1st century sculpture which immensely inspired Michelangelo, plus the Apollo Belvedere, the late Roman reproduction of a 4th century BC Greek work, are also displayed here. There sculptures have grown into symbols of classic male beauty, outrivaling Michelangelo's David.
The Raphael Rooms, comprising a series of rooms in the apartments of Pope Julius II, which the artist was commissioned to fresco, trace his work from 1508 to 1524. The rooms, representing the typical Renaissance blend of classic beauty and realism, include the the Stanza dell'Incendio, a showcase of Raphael's pupils' work, and one master piece, the fresco across from the window. Here one can distinguish the figure of partially draped Aeneas rescuing his father. The next and major salon, the Stanza della Segnatura, includes predominantly pieces by Raphael, including the School of Athens, one of his landmark works, depicting Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. The majority of the figures in actuality are portraits of major Renaissance artists, including Bramante (as Euclid in the right), Leonardo da Vinci (as Plato, pointing heavenward), and Raphael himself (looking out from a corner). Raphael, after having viewed the progress of Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel, added a sulking Michelangelo to the School of Athens. The Sala di Constantino, completed by his students after Raphael's death, includes a loggia designed after Raphael's sketches, and frescoed with more than 50 Biblical scenes crafter by his students.
The Sistine Chapel, frescoed by Michelangelo in his 30s, was a project commanded by Julius II. The Florentine master, regarding himself a sculptor, not a painter, was immensely contemptuous of this particular artform, ceiling frescoes, and was further irritated that he had to stop work on the pope's tomb. After having labored for four years (1508-12), and permanently damaged his eyesight, Michelangelo completed nine panels, dealing with the Genesis subject matter, and surrounded them with prophets and sibyls. Here are the panels detailing Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, as well as those depicting the creation of man. In his sixties, Michelangelo began the "Last Judgment" on the altar wall. Working against his wishes, Michelangelo depicted a more jaundiced view of people, with God sitting in judgment and sinners being plunged into hell'd mouth. The side walls include frescoes by other Renaissance masters, such as Perugino, Signorelli, Botticelli, Pinturicchio, Roselli, and Ghirlandaio. The clusters of male nudes decorating the corners of the ceiling were grandly controversial when initially displayed.
