| Vatican Museum |
Vatican Museums house their fabulous masterpieces in palaces originally built for Renaissance popes such as Julius II, Innocent VIII and Sixtus IV. Most of the later addition were made in the 18th century, when priceless works of art accumulated by earlier popes were first put on display Vatican Museum is home to the Sistine Chapel and Raphael Rooms as well as to one of the world's most important art collections. |
| Sistine Chapel |
The massive walls of the Sistine Chapel, the main chapel in the Vatican Palace, were covered with frescoes of some finest artists of the 15th and 16th centuries. The 12 paintings on the side walls, by artists including Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Signorelli, show analogous episodes from the life of the Christ and Moses. The decoration of the Sistine chapel was completed between 1534 and 1541 by Michelangelo, who added the great altar fresco, the Last Judgement. |
| Raphael's Room |
Raphael's Rooms - decorated Pope Julius II's apartments were built at the beginning of the 16th century. Julius was so impressed with Raphael's work that he chose him to redecorate the four rooms(stanze). Raphael and his pupils began the task in 1508, replacing existing works by several better-known artists, including Perugino. The frescoes express rigid and philosophical models of the Renaissance. |
