Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel

Before the tour we took in the view.

Today we headed back into the Vatican to see the Museums and the Sistine Chapel.  We had our wonderful guide from yesterday who, again, gave us a fantastic tour.  She has been doing tours for many years at the Vatican Museums and it is clear that she is well liked and respected.  The curator and the assistant curator greeted us.  That was a special treat.

We began in the section of the ancient Roman art.  Mostly sarcophagi.  These "coffins" contain some of the most important ancient Christian art.  She noted that most museums display the Christian and pagan art side by side believing that they are essentially the same.  She made an argument that pagans would never had decorated their sarcophagi with the same scenes as the Christians.  It was very persuasive.  We also saw the beautiful first century Good Shepherd statue, one of my favorites.  We installed one at the Cathedral when we created the new reconciliation room.

Elizabeth explaining some points about the Good Shepherd statue.

We then saw a few other parts of the museum and finally made our way to the Sistine Chapel.  Elizabeth had talked about many connections between early Christian art and the paintings in the chapel.  Helped give a good sense of why Michelangelo chose the scenes he did.  Nothing was by accident.  The picture on the left is the Map Gallery.  It has a very impressive ceiling, as you can see.

This afternoon I spent some time packing for Egypt.  I leave tomorrow at lunch time.  I am not sure how often I will be able to post but I will do my best.