Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
As you look up from the east wall the first panel is the Drunkenness of Noah , followed by the Flood
and Noah's Sacrifice . Next, the Temptation and Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of
Eden famously depicts Adam and Eve being sent packing after accepting the forbidden fruit from Satan, repres-
ented by a snake with the body of a woman coiled around a tree. The Creation of Eve is then followed by
the Creation of Adam . This, one of the most famous images in Western art, shows a bearded God pointing
his finger at Adam, thus bringing him to life. Completing the sequence are the
Separation of Land from
Water ; the
Creation of the Sun, Moon and Planets ; and
God Separating Light from Darkness ,
featuring a fearsome God reaching out to touch the sun.
Straight ahead of you on the west wall is Michelangelo's mesmeric Giudizio Universale (Last Judgment),
showing Christ (in the centre near the top) passing sentence over the souls of the dead as they are torn from their
graves. The saved get to stay up in heaven (in the upper right), the damned are sent down to face the demons in
hell (in the bottom right).
The chapel's side walls also feature stunning Renaissance frescoes, representing events in the lives of Moses
(to your left) and Christ (to the right). Look out for Botticelli's
Temptations of Christ and Perugino's
Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter .
Museo Pio-Clementino
This spectacular museum contains some of the Vatican Museums' finest classical statuary,
including the peerless Apollo Belvedere and the 1st-century-BC Laocoön , both in the
Cortile Ottagono (Octagonal Courtyard).
Before you go into the courtyard, take a moment to admire the 1st-century
Apoxyomenos , one of the earliest known sculptures to depict a figure with a raised arm.
To the left as you enter the courtyard, the Apollo Belvedere is a Roman 2nd-century
copy of a 4th- century-BC Greek bronze. A beautifully proportioned representation of the
sun god Apollo, it's considered one of the great masterpieces of classical sculpture.
Nearby, the Laocoön depicts a muscular Trojan priest and his two sons in mortal struggle
with two sea serpents.
Back inside the museum, the Sala degli Animali is filled with sculptures of all sorts of
creatures and some magnificent 4th-century mosaics. Continuing through the sala (room),
you come to the Galleria delle Statue , which has several important classical pieces; the Sala
delle Buste , which contains hundreds of Roman busts; and the Gabinetto delle Maschere , named
after the floor mosaics of theatrical masks. To the east, the Sala delle Muse (Room of the
Muses) is centred on the Torso Belvedere , another of the museum's must-sees. A frag-
ment of a muscular Greek sculpture from the 1st century BC, it was found in Campo de'
Fiori and used by Michelangelo as a model for his ignudi (male nudes) in the Sistine
Chapel.
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