Walking history like it’s the latest gossip and over the centuries there has been plenty to be shocked about because the Popes were like Kings. The extraordinary money & power of the Catholic Church…it was a day of hearing the stories, history, and some of it quite shocking.
We crossed the threshold, left Italy and entered Vatican City. It is considered a independent country because it possesses all the attributes of an independent nation-state. It is the world’s smallest fully independent nation-state. The Lateran Treaty of 1929 recognized Vatican City’s independent sovereignty. The government of Vatican City is the Holy See, led by the Pope.
To be considered a country, a sovereign unit needs to have a permanent population, defined territorial boundaries, a government, and the ability to enter into agreements with other states. Vatican City meets these criteria, maintaining diplomatic relations with other independent states. It has its own telephone system, post office, gardens, astronomical observatory, radio station, banking system, and pharmacy.
We met our outstanding tour guide Lea outside the entrance and she took us through an amazing educational experience through the Vatican Museum
She immediately gathered our group, did introductions & knew our names and she referred to us as “her beautiful family.” She was our teacher for the day and it was an incredible.
The entrance had Rafello the painter & Michelangelo the sculptor. Who never liked each other but always respected the talents of the other man.
If you come to Rome book a tour. It’s the only was to hear the history and see it for you own eyes.
The Sistine Chapel overview with details of the amazing masterpiece of Michaengelo who single handily painted the ceiling in 4 years, 1508-1512.
On to the museum with a few highlights of the artwork, ceilings, statues, mosaics, tapestries and treasures possessed by the Vatican. Only half are on display.
Many pieces were stolen by Nero. Who was a guest who was allowed to visit and view the artwork but he was viewing and planning his theft.
That is why the future Popes would not allow Hitler in the Vatican. EVER! Look what happened when the VP met the Pope….just saying.
It’s hard to capture it in photos and our three hour history lesson over thousands of years was mind blowing. Here’s a few highlights…
We finished with the maps of the world and some favorites. Especially because we just left Sardinia and Corsica.
Time for the Sistine Chapel. They ask for absolutely no photos and silence. It was a powerful and stunning masterpiece. Michelangelo Buonarroti was a sculptor but was asked by the pope to paint the chapel. INCREDIBLE
The Encyclopedia Britannia details it better that I could ever…
The Sistine Chapel had great symbolic meaning for the papacy as the chief consecrated space in the Vatican, used for great ceremonies such as electing and inaugurating new popes. It already contained distinguished wall paintings, and Michelangelo was asked to add works for the relatively unimportant ceiling. The Twelve Apostles was planned as the theme—ceilings normally showed only individual figures, not dramatic scenes. Traces of this project are seen in the 12 large figures that Michelangelo produced: seven prophets and five sibyls, or female prophets found in classical myths. The inclusion of female figures was very unusual though not totally unprecedented.
Michelangelo placed these figures around the edges of the ceiling and filled the central spine of the long curved surface with nine scenes from Genesis: three depicting the Creation of the World, three stories of Adam and Eve, and three stories of Noah. These are naturally followed, below the prophets and sibyls, by small figures of the 40 generations of Christ’s ancestors, starting with Abraham. The vast project was completed in less than four years; there was an interruption perhaps of a year in 1510–11 when no payment was made.
Michelangelo began by painting the Noah scenes over the entrance door and moved toward the altar in the reverse direction of the narrative. The first figures and scenes naturally show the artist reusing devices from his earlier works, such as the Pietà, since he was starting on such an ambitious work in an unfamiliar medium. These first figures are relatively stable, and the scenes are on a relatively small scale. As he proceeded, he quickly grew in confidence. Indeed, investigations of the technical processes used show that he worked more and more rapidly, reducing and finally eliminating preparatory drawings and incisions on the plaster surface.
The same growing boldness appears in the free, complex movements of the figures and in their complex expressiveness. While remaining always imposing and monumental, they are more and more imbued with suggestions of stress and grief. This may be perceived in a figure such as the prophet Ezekiel halfway along. This figure combines colossal strength and weight with movement and facial expression that suggest determination to reach a goal that is uncertain of success. Such an image of the inadequacy of even great power is a presentation of heroic and tragic humanity and is central to what Michelangelo means to posterity. Nearby the scene of the creation of Eve shows her with God and Adam, compressed within too small a space for their grandeur. This tension has been interpreted as a token of a movement away from the Renaissance concern with harmony, pointing the way for a younger generation of artists, such as Jacopo da Pontormo, often labeled Mannerists.
Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling was interrupted, perhaps just after these figures were completed. When he painted the second half, he seemed to repeat the same evolution from quiet stability to intricacy and stress. Thus, he worked his way from the quietly monumental and harmonious scene of the creation of Adam to the acute, twisted pressures of the prophet Jonah. Yet, in this second phase he shows greater inward expressiveness, giving a more meditative restraint to the earlier pure physical mass. The complex and unusual iconography of the Sistine ceiling has been explained by some scholars as a Neoplatonic interpretation of the Bible, representing the essential phases of the spiritual development of humankind seen through a very dramatic relationship between humans and God.
Incredible experience for all. 🤯
Then we walked through the Vatican garage. To see the coaches and cars of the Popes
The Pope mobile after an assignation attempt on John Paul II
VW of Mexico gifted a slug bug
We walked the walled city and to the main square of St Peter’s Basilica. We have a tour scheduled for Friday morning. The crowds are a bit overwhelming…
An amazing day in Rome. Time for a late lunch and Five crowns with Rick & Kathleen. And a walk back to our home away from home…not far just more stairs.
And no Gatto 😻 next time
Tomorrow we booked a golf cart tour of Rome.
Woke up to a night of angels bowling with lots of lightning. Time for rain gear….
