Trip to the Vatican

On Fridays, I have no class, since I am not in art history. However, last Friday (February 4), I elected to go with the art history class to visit the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We had to get to the Vatican on our own, so we grabbed our cestini (sack lunches) and got on the bus. This is the view of Saint Peter's Basillica as we approached from the bus stop:

Once inside the museum (around the wall of the Vatican to the right), we got to see a number of marvelous works of art. Paul, the art history professor, is able to talk for extended periods of time on individual pieces of art. Consider this sculpture, a copy of Michaelangelo's Pieta:

Paul - I don't know his last name. We are supposed to address our professors by their first names, and it takes some getting used to. When possible I tend to avoid using the vocative. This is also true of other students, whose names I have not yet fully mastered - gave a 45 minute lecture on this one statue. I now know a great deal of information about this pieta, and I can more fully appreciate the detail and rigor of the art history class.

Here is another piece of art. This painting is by Raffael, and is the last he ever painted. It portrays Christ's transfiguration. I was initially confused by the number of figures in the foreground. According to the gospels, only three disciples, Peter, James, and John, were present at the event. Eventually (this too was a very long lecture!), Paul explained that Raffael had fused two stories back-to-back in the gospels, the transfiguration and the healing of a demon-possessed boy, into one painting, emphasizing the connection between Christ's divine status (as portrayed in his transfiguration) and his miracles (such as his healing of the boy). We heard a number of other lectures before finally making our way over to the Sistine Chapel.

Above is the hallway we walked through to get to the Chapel. It was lined with ancient statues. Other hallways held tapestries and frescoes.

This fresco of Plato's Academy is my favorite work which we saw (besides maybe the Sistine Chapel itself).

Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take photographs in the chapel. Nevertheless, it was marvelous to see (mirabile visu!). I did not get to hear Paul's lecture on the chapel, but I can only assume based upon other students' reports and my own intuition, that it was gruelling and packed with information. The chapel's art is much more extensive than the typically featured image of God reaching out for Adam. Frescoes on the right and left depict corresponding scenes in the lives of Jesus and Moses (for instance, Moses giving the Pentateuch from Mount Sinai is paired with Jesus delivering the sermon on the mount.) Along the top are a number of prophets, and finally on the roof is the scene of creation. On the back wall is a scene of the last judgement. The entire chapel is a bit overwhelming (by the end, my neck was sore from looking up), but it was a wonderful experience.

This trip impressed upon me the desire to learn about the past and to appreciate art's role as a means of expression. However, it also confirmed in my mind that I do not want to be an art history major. As much as I find art thought-provoking and fun to look at, I cannot imagine myself spending hours analyzing a single painting or statue. I'm glad I went on the trip.