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The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani) are the public art and sculpture museums in the Vatican City, which display works from the extensive collection of the Roman Catholic Church. The museums were founded in the 16th century by Pope Julius II.
Vatican Museums
Museo Pio-Clementino
The first of the Vatican Museums was founded by Pope Clement XIV in 1771, and originally contained the Renaissance and antique works. The museum and collection were enlarged by Clement's successor Pius VI.
Today, the Museum houses works of Greek and Roman art; Apollo del Belvedere (attributed to Leocares), Laocoon and his Sons by Agesander and Michelangelo's Belvedere Torso are the best known.
Museo Chiaramonti
This museum is named after Pope Pius VII Chiaramonti, who founded it in the early 1800s. The collection consists mostly of Roman statues, some of them are copies of Greek works, or inspired by them.
Galeria Lapidaria is another part of Chiaramonti museum, with more than 3000 stone tablets and inscriptions, which is the world's greatest collection of its kind. However, it is opened only by special permission, usually for reasons of study.
Museo Gregoriano Etrusco
Works in the Vatican Museums
- several paintings by Caravaggio
- Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Saint Jerome
- works by painters Fra Angelico, Giotto, Nicolas Poussin, and Titian
- the red marble papal throne, formerly in the basilica of St. John Lateran
- Roman sculpture, tombstones, and inscriptions, including the epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus
- the Gallery of Maps : topographical maps of the whole of Italy, painted on the walls by friar Ignazio Danti of Perugia, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585). This gallery is situated at the west side of the Belvedere Courtyard. It is 120 m long. It took Danti 3 years (1580-1583) to complete the 40 panels. The decorations on the vaulted ceiling is the work of a group of Mannerist artists (such as Cesare Nebbia, Girolamo Muziano).
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