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| Apollo |
This is part 2 of a look at the historic statues and treasures accumulated in the Vatican. They were gathered (or taken) from around the world. Favorite galleries of ours included the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman galleries. - You'll learn about the statue of Laocoon, when the museum came to be, where the stolen marble came from to build the Vatican and more.
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| Aphrodite |
There were literally thousands of statues, too many to focus on any, really.
WHAT IS THE STATUE OF "LAOCOON"?
The statue of Laocoön and His Sons also called the "Laocoön group." is a 1st-century BC statue. The figures are near life-size and the group is a little over 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in height, showing the Trojan priest
Laocoön and his sons Antiphantes and Thymbraeus being attacked by sea serpents.It was excavated in Rome in 1506 and placed on public display in the Vatican. FAST FACT: Michelangelo fashioned his sculptures after this statute.
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| The Laocoön group in the Vatican Museums. |
WHEN DID THIS BECOME A MUSEUM?- In the 1700s the Vatican palaces were converted to museums to house the Greek and Roman sculptures. -
WHERE WERE THE STATUES FOUND? Underground and from private collections. There were others that were stolen from "pagan" churches.
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| We loved the statues of the dogs |
STOLEN MARBLE - The Vatican and its palaces literally stole and stripped marble from "pagan" churches, too. They used that marble to build christian churches over 500 years. All of that pillaging took it's toll on the churches that worshiped the Roman Gods and Goddesses and they fell into disrepair and collapse. Repeated flooding also covered those ancient churches with mud. So in the 1500s and 1600s the popes were rebuilding Rome and saw nothing wrong with pillaging the ancient churches.
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| inlaid tile |
ANIMAL GALLERY / DOG STATUE - We did love the statue of a dog that we saw in another gallery.
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| The Hercules Rotunda in the Pio Clementino wing of the Vatican Museums. |
NEXT: Sistine Chapel and Jubilee Madness
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| Apollo | |
