Post 7-The Vatican

Post 7 for June 17,

Today was the day that we went to the Vatican. That place was huge I will have to say, I have been there before, but It is always fun to come back and they also added some newer exhibits to their museums. The Vatican has a museum of museums, almost like museum inception. There was a total of 8 museums here at the Musei Vaticani and we only went to just one as a class, which had mostly Greek and Roman sculptures in it, which was cool. I went to all of museums that were open, there were some that had been closed for renovations, which made some members of our class really bummed out about that. Although, I did walk buy there and you could still see some statues in there that were really important, for example the Augustus statue and that one is a favorite amongst one of the students on this trip. Not only was that statue really cool, but there was another one in the Museo Pio Clementino, which is the one with 2 boys and his father getting attacked by snakes(visual-arts-cork.com)

The famous Prima Porta Augustus.

Tat statue, the one with the snakes is called the Laocoon and sons in pain. It was an impressive sculpture made by Michelangelo in the 16 century era. The pope around that time, pope Julius II, wanted Michelangelo to do restorations on the original statue, since it was in bad shape at the time when it was found. So Michelangelo and a few other sculptures recreated the statue for the Vatican. The sculpture is describing the story of Laocoon, who was a Trojan priest  during the fall of Troy, anyways him and his sons were looking at the Greek horse that the Trojans were going to accept as a gift of victory of the Greeks. They went up to it and tried throwing a spear into the horse to see if there was anything in it, then all of a sudden some snakes or "sea serpents" come out of no where and attack the 2 boys and Laocoon. The snakes were sent by Poseidon and supposedly Athena as well so the Greeks could have there victory over the Trojans (mlahanas.de). It seems interesting to me that people like seeing that and yet make a sculpture of it too, the emotions of people getting attacked. Yet, its the way people express there emotions through the sculpture that make people be attracted to them. One of my sources said that that sculpture was one of the "best in the world"(mlahanas.de). I was interested in it when Aaron told us about it and when I saw the snakes, I had to take a picture.
Then there was another museum there that I went to that I thought was interesting, the also in the Museo Pio Clementio.

Laocoon and his 2 sons being attacked.

I was shocked to find out that there were Egyptian artifacts at this museum. We breezed by them earlier as a class, but when we got to roam free I went back there and looked through that museum. I like Egyptian items very much ever since I saw The Mummy movies. There were these little artifact there that caught my eye called Shabti. They were little minnie mummy statues that would be buried with the person themselves and would be used as tools for the afterlife. The poster said they would help with agriculture in the after life, but part of the message was cut off from my picture. But, they were used in the afterlife of the deceased. They started showing up around the Middle kingdom era in the mid B.C. range of time, they would be wrapped up in bandages just like the mummy's were back in ancient Egypt. I thought they were cool. Also there was a mummy there, which was pretty cool. Then there was the rest of the Vatican too.

The Shabti statues.

When I walked through, I wanted to look for the famous rugs or tapestries. I did find them and found the one that I wanted to see, but I also saw some other stuff along the way. I saw the gallery of maps, which most were cool but I did not know where they were mostly, except for a few that showed the size of Italy. Then I came across the tapestries'. there was one that I liked the most where it was of Jesus being resurrected from his tomb, and he is in the door way of his tomb having his knee on top of the stone door, it was a cool scene. I remember that a couple of years ago when I went here they told us that as you moved along the side of the tapestry, that Jesus' knee would follow you as you walked by, It sure did, it was awesome to see it again.

Jesus tapestry.

Then after that I saw the Sistine Chapel, it was a little crowded, but I get the just of it, it still amazes me even though I have seen it before. It was still good to see it again. After that I walked around to the square for a while, St. Peters and counted the statues of the saints, I think I got 170 roughly. But were going again on Friday and I can confirm that number with Aaron.

Second to last post

A cool painting of the Greek academy.

Source
http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Arts/Laocoon.htm

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/sculpture/laocoon.htm

http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/vaticanmuseum.htm