Friday, March 8, 2013

The Vatican Museums-Tapesties


You may have heard something about the Vatican lately on the news. A few outlets have picked up the story. The Pope resigned! By now this is old news, but while we were in Rome, the upcoming retirement of His Holiness was on everyone’s minds. We debated about visiting Rome in February or April, but ultimately decided on February because it was off season and would be cheaper and less crowded. I booked tickets and hotels, amazed at how quickly and easily our trip was coming together; the off season was amazing! Then the Pope announced his plans to retire 3 days after our trip ended. At that moment I rolled my eyes and wondered if we would ever have a nice, normal trip where everything went as planned. Then I quickly checked to see if our tours to the Vatican were still on, they were, and I relaxed a little more.

Saturday became Holy Saturday for us. I booked a guided tour of the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica for 9am and a tour of the Necropolis under St. Peter’s for 1:45pm. This left us an hour and half between tours to grab lunch. Helpful tip: this was barely enough time, if you can manage it, allow yourself more time.

Our arrival in Vatican City that morning was via the Roman metro. The metro only has 2 lines. It’s very difficult to build more lines because Rome is a city that built on top of ruins. It’s safe to assume that somewhere under your feet are relics from the past. After exiting the metro we still had a bit of walking to do before officially arriving at the Vatican.

We followed the signs for St. Peter’s when we exited the metro, but when we reached the walls of Vatican City we realized the signs were taking us to the square, and we needed to be at the museum entrance. It was easy to fix our mistake by backtracking along the wall. I knew we were in the right place when I saw the line—hundreds of people already queued up before the museum was even open.

Joe was worried, but I just walked up to the front of the line, pulled out my pre-booked tickets and we walked right in to the museums. I cannot stress this enough; if you book your tickets before your trip, you will not have to wait in line during your trip. Who wants to wait in line on vacation?

On the right and left are the sarcophagi of
Constantine's mother, St. Helen, and his daughter.
Greek Cross Hall, Vatican Museum
Our tour was guided by a man named Marco; he said we could call him Marco Polo if we needed his attention. Tour guides have these wonderful toys now—the first and most important is the microphone. Instead of broadcasting his voice via loudspeaker, the guide speaks into a transmitter and his tourists hear him via their wireless receivers with headphones. Marco could whisper and we would still be able to hear him. We even got to keep the headphones: a gift from the Pope.

Marco’s next toy was met with mixed reviews. It was a fancy, touch-screen computer, full of digital images of the Sistine Chapel. Joe thought it ruined the surprise and I thought it was nice knowing what to look for when we got inside the chapel. Marco mentioned oddities and described the various levels of the painting. During our tour he gave us detailed information on the other pieces we were seeing, but speaking in the Sistine Chapel is prohibited, unless you are the Pope. Accordingly, Marco educated us before we arrived under the ceiling, but more on that later . . .

Entering the Gallery of Tapestries, Vatican Museum


The Vatican museums are part of a huge complex with miles and miles of exhibits. Marco told us that if we were to stand just 2 minutes studying each piece in the collection, it would take several lifetimes to see everything. As our tour was only 3 hours, it was a highlights tour. We breezed by the Egyptian collection, just peeking in the door. We saw briefly the tombs of Constantine’s mother (St. Helen) and daughter in the Greek cross room before moving on with the tour. This experience was overwhelming; the first room I remember in detail was the Gallery of Tapestries. Almost every bit of wall space in this gallery was covered by large (12-15 feet) tapestries. The only empty area was where a tapestry had been removed temporarily for restoration by the nuns.

The Resurrection
Gallery of Tapestries, Vatican Museum


I’ve seen tapestries many times before, and they are usually very detailed, like a painting by a master, but the colors tend to be muted. I assumed in their prime, the tapestries were more colorful, and an internet search confirmed my theories. Imagine the images with vibrant colors, even strands gilded with silver or gold were woven into the pattern; they would be even more beautiful to behold.

The Massacre of the Innocents
Gallery of Tapestries, Vatican Museum





Some of the tapestries in this room had a higher calling. They were designed at the request of Pope Leo X by Raphael, and they used to hang in the Sistine Chapel. Don’t worry; they weren’t covering up any of Michelangelo’s masterpieces. The walls are painted to resemble curtains, and the tapestries were hung over the paintings. Periodically, the Raphael tapestries are removed from the gallery and placed as they were in the Sistine Chapel. The most recent exhibition lasted for 1 night in 2010, and the previous exhibition before that was in 1983. The tapestries pictured on this page are not part of the Raphael Old School collection, but are called the Flemish New School collection.





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