SARCOPHAGUS WITH THE FOUR SEASONS, 270-280 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This sarcophagus was acquired by Pius VI for the VM from its discoverers, and now holds a prominent position in the Belvedere Courtyard. It's tub-shaped, a lenòs, and, as often happens with such sarcophagi, has two lions savaging antelopes at the curved ends. From left to right, two on either side of the central figure, stand youthful male figures representing the Seasons: Winter, fully dressed in tunic and cloak, holding up a duck he has hunted; Spring, nude but for his cloak, with one arm bearing a branch with new leaves; Summer, also nude but for a cloak, holding a herdsman's staff; and Fall, holding a container of fruit and a freshly-hunted rabbit. At centre is the young male deceased with a peripetasma or curtain behind him, held up by Spring and Summer. The face has been carved for a male, but the figure is female, in a dress and stola.

#SarcophagusSaturday at the #VaticanMuseums gives us this odd C18 display of a very toned seminude reclining woman with a #Flavian hairdo, the lid to a different #sarcophagus than the one it's on, which shows the deceased flanked by the Four Seasons (not the band). 270-280 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺

FUNERARY ALTAR OF CLAUDIA PISTE, 90-110 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This beautiful example of early imperial epigraphy begins as a conventional prayer to the departed shades, to Claudia Piste, wife of Primus, "best, holy, and dutiful, well-deserving". She and her husband were probably Greek citizens of the empire, and Primus must have been wealthy to afford this large marble altar. In fact there is a contemporary cinerary urn dedicated, in Greek, to one Claudia Piste, also in the VM, but we cannot know if it was the same woman. Primus might have hired a poet to write his lament for the death of his wife, or he might have written it himself. After the first five lines the script shrinks to fit each line, with difficulty, into the available space. The poem is a poignant lament addressed by Primus to the Fates, remonstrating with them on the brevity of Piste's life and expressing his despair over her loss. His grief for her death is artfully communicated using metre and language. It's written in dactylic hexameter, a metre used for epic poetry and an indicator of the solemn nature of the elegy, as well as a hint of high social status. She may have died in childbirth. "Nothing is as sad as losing all life without new life."

#EpigraphyTuesday returns us to the #VaticanMuseums to see a long #epitaph for one #Claudia Piste, written by her husband Primus sometime in the later C2 CE, a sad lament in fine professional #epigraphy. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC WITH A LION ATTACKING A BULL, C. 20 BCE (?). VATICAN MUSEUMS This beautiful little emblema was found in Hadrian's Villa in 1779, but the VM catalogue dates it to the early reign of Augustus, well before the existence of the Villa. This is not necessarily a mistake: emblemata were valuable artworks and could be collected. If this is early Augustan, it was almost certainly a Greek import, as Roman mosaicists were not yet capable of such refined work. We see here a desert landscape with rocky outcrops at left and centre. A few shrubs provide a bit of greenery. The space is divided horizontally by a river, on the far side of which a bull looks at the main action, safe from attack. At centre foreground, a lion has pounced on another bull, which is looking across at the bull on the other side. The lion is sinking its teeth into the bull's left haunch. The bull is staggering, its front legs folding. It's a goner. This is a lesson about the savagery of nature.

Let's make a sudden attack on #MosaicMonday with this #emblema from #VillaAdriana! This #mosaic now in the #VaticanMuseums shows how being in the wrong place at the wrong time can really bite you in the hindquarters. #AncientBluesky 🏺

In the foreground, two enormous doors, decorated with large relieve carvings, have swung open to reveal a large, circular gallery beyond. The ceiling of the "round hall" is made to resemble the dome of the Pantheon; around the hall are niches for displaying colossal statues.

These enormous doors are the #Openings to the "Round Hall" in the Vatican Museums. The scale is enormous but hard to judge; the doors are about 5 meters tall. Inside are "niches for displaying colossal statues".

23 October 2015

#BlueskyArtShow #VaticanMuseums #RoundHall

MALE FIGURE WITH CORNUCOPIA AND PLATE, FROM THE VILLA OF NUMISIA PROCULA, C. 150 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This idealised figure is painted in shades of red-brown against a white background. He's nude apart from two cloths wrapped around his forearms. The only other colour is green, which is used for sketched-in long leaves on the plate he holds in his right hand, more greenery emerging from the cornucopia he holds in his left hand, and a leafy crown around his head. His torso is beautifully modelled in light and shadow, his hands (always hard to paint) are convincing, and he stands with his weight on his right leg, or rather floats, as there is no ground. The artist has sketched him in outline first, and filled the figure in afterward. His form is based on a famous Greek statue, the Doryphoros or Spear-Bearer by Polykleitos. This fresco is a clear testimony of the taste for Greek art popularised by the emperor Hadrian.

This #FrescoFriday, the #VaticanMuseums is serving up naked young men in #fresco form. This one comes from the villa of Numisia #Procula at #TorMarancia along the via #Nomentana outside #Rome. She was the noble wife of an ex-consul, and the villa dates from about 150 CE. #AncientBluesky 🏺

RELIEF ON THE CUIRASS OF THE AUGUSTUS OF PRIMA PORTA, 14-29 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This famous statue was found in the villa of Livia at Prima Porta north of Rome on 1863. It probably dates from between Augustus' death and deification in 14 CE and Livia's death in 29. The reliefs on the emperor's lorica musculata or "muscled breastplate" show a Parthian king returning the standards lost by Crassus in 53 B.C. at the battle of Carrhae to a Roman officer, probably Tiberius. At both sides are figures representing two provinces of the empire. The whole scene is inserted into a cosmic landscape. At the top we can see the personification of the heavens in the centre, with the chariots of Helios and Aurora alongside. Just below the nipples we see Apollo on a griffin and Diana on the back of a hind and, at bottom centre, just below the navel of the cuirass, is the goddess Tellus, the Earth.

For #ReliefWednesday, the #cuirass of the #Augustus of #PrimaPorta, now in the #VaticanMuseums. On the emperor's chest is a scene in the heavens, while the central relief on his abdomen shows a #Parthian king returning #Roman standards lost by #Crassus at #Carrhae in 53 BCE. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS WITH THE MYTH OF ORESTES, C. 150 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This is an odd, ambiguous subject for a sarcophagus. Clytemnestra, queen of Mycenæ, and her lover, the king's cousin Ægisthus, murder the king Agamemnon - his wife wants revenge for his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, his cousin wants to carry on a blood feud. Anyway their kids Electra and Orestes get riled up about this and much suffering ensues. Here at centre we find Orestes, nude except for his cape and a sword, standing over the corpse of his mother whom he has just slain. At left is Ægisthus, also dead and in an awkward position, being dealt with by Orestes' chum Pylades. Back in time, at left, an old nurse is telling Electra of her father's murder as her attendants swoon around her. To the right of the central crime scene, two Erinyes or Furies emerge from behind a curtain. Below them, a slave with a scroll tries to avoid catching their attention. At far right Orestes is escaping them, seeking absolution.

An amazing #sarcophagus from c. 150 CE in the #VaticanMuseums for #SarcophagusSaturday with an excellent buffet of ancient sculptures atop it. The scene shows the #myth of #Orestes, and corpses litter the landscape, with vengeful Orestes wreaking havoc. The House of Atreus, eh! #AncientBluesky 🏺

FRESCO INSCRIPTION OF THE INSULA SERTORIANA, 100-150 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS In 1819 this written inscription in red paint was found on the wall of an ancient building 6 Roman palmi under the street, near the church of S. Eligio de' Ferrari in the Velabro. It says "I want this estate, the Insula Sertoriana, to belong to my daughter Aur[elia] Cyriaca" and goes on to describe it: "6 apartments upstairs and ten shops downstairs, and space under the stairs. [May she enjoy it] happily". The word "cinacula" ("cenacula") refers to apartments of the artisan class. The rent from this building would have given Aurelia Cyriaca a comfortable income but not a huge one. The term "Sertoriana" probably refers to the first builder of the insula. This text is written in clear and formal "rustic" text, with lovely flourishes like the descending L and the rising Y and T.

#EpigraphyTuesday this week offers us a painted #inscription now in the #VaticanMuseums, a property document bequeathing an apartment building, the #Insula Sertoriana, to the writer's daughter, Aurelia Cyriaca, c. 100-150 CE. The text is written in beautiful rustic capitals. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MOSAIC FROM PALESTRINA, C2 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This is just a detail of the much larger mosaic that lies at the centre of the Sala degli Animali in the Vatican Museums. It comes from a building near the Forum of Præneste, today's Palestrina, east of Rome, and was installed here in about 1780. The majority of the mosaic floor is made of delicate floral designs interspersed with tiny theatrical masks, but at centre is a highly-skilled scene, in black tesseræ on white, of a bird of prey, perhaps a hawk, which is standing atop a dead rabbit and tearing at its flesh. The rabbit is lying on its back with its legs in the air. It is an ex-rabbit. Around it, shrubs and plants are sketched in, and to the left is a tall bush on which a little bird is perched, watching the scene with probable relief.

A difficult #mosaic to photograph for #MosaicMonday, because every visitor to the #VaticanMuseums walks across it: a C2 CE black and white mosaic from #Palestrina with a central #emblema of a bird of prey with a very dead #rabbit, in the Sala degli Animali. #AncientBluesky 🏺

MARBLE SLAB: TOP PHOTO, COSMATESQUE CREST OF NICHOLAS V, C. 1450. BOTTOM PHOTO, ROMANESQUE PLUTEUS FROM A SACRED ENCLOSURE, C9 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS When this slab was carved for use in a schola cantorum or a presbytery enclosure in the C9, it was undoubtedly already a piece of spolia from some ancient monument. But it was carved with a typical Romanesque design of arches containing crosses, all richly decorated with guilloches, and six birds per arch carrying food in their beaks (a metaphor for the Eucharist), with couples of splendid grimacing wild felines. The reuse of classical motifs like the column, the arch, and the guilloche indicates a desire to associate the authority of the Church with that of the ancient empire. The same impulse can be seen in the 1450 inlay on the other side, which employs the imperial stones, porphyry and serpentine, to assert papal authority.

#SpoliaSunday takes us into the #VaticanMuseums, where visitors to the Stanza della #Segnatura, one of the #Raphael Rooms, walked across a #spolia marble slab inlaid with a #Cosmatesque version of the #crest of #NicholasV which was a reused C9 piece of a schola cantorum. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS FRONT WITH THE DOORS TO THE UNDERWORLD, 240-250 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This profusely-populated sarcophagus front comes from Villa Peretti. At centre, under a triangular pediment supported by columns with Ionic capitals, are the two richly-carved doors to Hades, the left leaf cracked open to draw the dead in. The deceased don't seem to be in a hurry to get their afterlife underway. At left, the wife is in an open-armed praying posture, piously veiled but stylishly dressed in a tunic and stola. Behind her, urging her on, is Persephone. Similarly, her stout husband on the right (both of them are stabding in elegant arched ædicules) is wearing the toga contabulata and is staring forward as bearded Hades himself is telling him he has to go. He too is praying in the orans position, though in one hand he holds a scroll. Two naked youths on low plinths are statues of seasons, both looking up at the deceased. To everything there is a season: death now, rebirth perhaps later.

#SarcophagusSaturday at the #VaticanMuseums offers us this #sarcophagus front in hugh #relief from 240-250 CE. The doors to the Underworld are creaking open at centre and the deceased couple stand on either side in arched ædicules, notably unwilling to begin their trip to #Hades. #AncientBluesky 🏺

DETACHED WALL FRESCO OF MARS, C2 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS We don't know much about the discovery of this fresco, found in Pius IX's excavations of Ostia Antica beginning in 1855. These excavations were more careful and scientific than previous ones which were little more than scavenger hunts, but the goal was still to strip Ostia of its beauties and place its mosaics in the Vatican and in various churches. The frescoes came to the Vatican Museums. Here we see the handsome but angry face of the god of war, in a gold cuirass and red cloak, looking at us with a calculating eye as he raises a spear in his right arm and holds his shield back on his left arm in order to throw more accurately. He looks like a formidable foe. The fresco has a white background and Mars is standing on a gold pedestal, so this is likely a fresco of a painted statue.

For #FrescoFriday we're in the #VaticanMuseums to admire a beautiful though sadly isolated figure of #Mars Propugnator, the god of attack, from a domus of the C2 CE, discovered at #Ostia in 1858. #AncientBluesky 🏺

IVORY PYX WITH DIONYSIAC SCENE, C4 CE (?). VATICAN MUSEUMS This worn and fragmented elephant ivory circular container was originally made as a cosmetics box, probably from the workshops of Alexandria which were the best in the empire. Here we see a beautiful relief scene of a Dionysiac procession of children in a woodland dance, a sort of innocent parody of an actual Bacchic nighttime party. A child in a beautifully-carved tunic at centre brandishes a tambourine as he dances in a group moving to the right. Behind him is a tree, a cantharos on the ground, and another ground of children heading around the pyx in the other direction. This container was considered splendid enough in the Middle Ages to contain one of the important relics in the heavily fortified chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum, the Holy of Holies, which was the private chapel of the medieval popes at the Lateran.

A real banger for #ReliefWednesday from the #VaticanMuseums: a C4 CE #ivory #pyx from #Egypt, with a #Dionysiac #relief on it, reused as a #reliquary in the Middle Ages in the huge locked altar of the #SanctaSanctorum at the #Lateran, the private chapel of the medieval popes. #AncientBluesky 🏺

The entrance staircase of the Vatican Museums is spectacular. Wikipedia says: "The modern double helix staircase, also in the Pio-Clementine Museum, and commonly referred to as the "Bramante Staircase", was designed by Giuseppe Momo, sculpted by Antonio Maraini and realized by the Ferdinando Marinelli Artistic Foundry in 1932 and was inspired by the original Bramante Staircase."

Vatican Museums, Rome, Italy.

#WindowsOnWednesday #EastCoastKin #photography #Italy #VaticanMuseums #museum #history

SARCOPHAGUS OF HELENA, C. 320 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS The empress Helena, mother of Constantine, died in 329. Her colossal mausoleum still partially stands as Tor Pignattara, and was moved to the Lateran in 1154 so pope Anastasius II could be buried in it. It's an amazingly beautiful huge block of Egyptian porphyry carved in high relief, showing military scenes of Roman soldiers with captured barbarians, and is a masterpiece of realism, difficult to achieve in such a hard stone. Two busts on the front might be of Helena and her husband Constantius Chlorus. The lid, still intact, shows garlands held by cherubs. The military theme, inappropriate for a famously pious (and sanctified) lady, suggests that this might have been made for her husband or son. But chroniclers of the eastern empire are unanimous that she was buried along with her son in his own porphyry sarcophagus in the church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. This sarcophagus might not have been made for her, and perhaps she was never laid in it. The presence of Helena recedes like a ghost, the closer you come to it.

#SarcophagusSaturday at the #VaticanMuseums gives us this masterpiece of #relief sculpture, the #sarcophagus of #Helena, mother of #Constantine, from about 320 CE. The female portrait on the front corner nearest us is probably Helena's. But was she ever buried in it? #AncientBluesky 🏺

COLOSSAL HEAD OF CALIGULA, C. 40 CE, RECARVED AS CLAUDIUS, C. 42 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This portrait was probably part of a large seated statue in a civic building of Otricoli, ancient Ocriculum in southern Umbria. It shows the head of Claudius, the fourth Julio-Claudian emperor, who succeded his nephew Gaius Caligula in 41 CE. Rather than destroying the whole statue in the purge of Caligula's images that followed, the authorities of Ocriculum had the head recarved. Thus this is an example of ancient spolia reuse. The whole face was recarved, pushing it back onto the neck, which is the original size, and if you look at the hairline just below the oak-leaf crown, you can see some of the original fringe of hair. Claudius was also made young and benefited from Caligula's chin.

For #SpoliaSunday we have a monumental head of #Caligula in the #VaticanMuseums, from the so-called Basilica of #Otricoli. After Caligula's damnatio memoriæ, this head was recarved as a portrait of his uncle and successor #Claudius. #AncientBluesky 🏺

SARCOPHAGUS "OF THE TWO BROTHERS", C. 350 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS Though the Christian iconography of this high-status sarcophagus is interesting, beginning at top left with the resurrection of Lazarus in which he is for once not wrapped tightly in bandages but seems to be apologising for arriving late to the party, the main curiosity of this relief is the double portrait at centre, within a carved scallop shell. This was certainly carved as a "pre-need" box for a generic Christian husband and wife joined in the dextrarum iunctio: the figure at left still has a breast swelling its dress. But both faces are of bearded men. The "female" figure has had her hand recarved in a gesture of blessing, and the "male" figure has had his left arm removed and recarved. Despite being known as the "two brothers", these two men don't resemble each other. We don't have to presume a same-sex union but these men were very close.

#SarcophagusSaturday this week gives us the monumental #sarcophagus "of the Two Brothers", from about 350 CE, in the #VaticanMuseums. Two registers of Biblical scenes have a scalloped portrait #clipeus inserted at centre, originally a married couple but recarved to show two men. #AncientBluesky 🏺

CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS A LENÒS, 270-290 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This splendid late-C3 sarcophagus comes from the catacombs of Cyriaca on the via Tiburtina, right where the basilica of S. Lorenzo now stands. It was a gift of the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Marcantonio Colonna, to Pius VI Braschi in 1783. The lid has a reclining portrait of the little boy, with a lively tilt to his head, as if we'd just disturbed him from reading the scroll in his hand. This same studious boy is shown on the front of the box, as a sort of Apollo-like philosopher, heroically bare-chested, with other boys on either side of him holding the attributes of the Muses. We know he's the deceased because behind him hangs the knotted sheet or peripetasma that indicates the portrait of the dead. His parents must have been very proud of him to have him represented in such an individual way.

#SarcophagusSaturday at the #VaticanMuseums presents us with this wonderful little #sarcophagus of a boy, from 270-290 CE, with his reclining #portrait on the lid and another portrait of him on the side, as a philosopher #Apollo with other children as #Muses at either side. #AncientBluesky 🏺

Archangel Michael defeating Lucifer, Vatican Museums.

#VaticanMuseums #Artworks

Indigenous artifacts returned by the Vatican are now at a Canadian museum - Sight Magazine Inuit artifacts returned by the Vatican are at the Canadian Museum of History, after calls for the repatriation of Indigenous items.

Indigenous artifacts returned by the Vatican are now at a Canadian museum @sightmagazine.bsky.social #Canada #IndigenousCanadians #Indigenousartifacts #Vatican #CanadianMuseumofHistory #FirstNations #Inuit #Métis #VaticanMuseums

sightmagazine.com.au/news/indigen...

MARBLE RELIEF OF DANCING NYMPHS, 390-380 BCE. MUSEO GREGORIANO PROFANO, VATICAN MUSEUMS This beautiful graceful relief of unknown provenance shows three female figures in full figure, holding hands and dancing. Though the faces of the figures are almost completely worn off, the rest of the relief is full of movement and detail. The light dresses of the women cling to their bodies and flutter in the dance. The two figures at centre and at right are looking at each other, the central woman turning her head to look back at the woman on the right. This is not a Dionysiac dance, but might be a representation of the Horai, nymphs of the hours, and their dance might be a lyrical expression of the swift passage of time.

This #ReliefWednesday at the exhibition "La Grecia a Roma" at the #CapitolineMuseums, we're admiring an #Attic #relief of dancing #nymphs from 390-380 BCE, borrowed from the #VaticanMuseums. Perhaps from a funeral stela, this dance might be a reminder of how quickly time passes. #AncientBluesky 🏺

THE GEOMETRY OF ENLIGHTENMENT
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When you're shaking your head at the human race..... remember we're capable of this too! #NileGod #VaticanMuseums

Caminar por el Museo Chiaramonti 🏛️ es atravesar siglos de historia.
Cada escultura te mira, cada sombra cuenta una historia de dioses y sueños.
Roma no envejece: se inmortaliza en el arte 🇮🇹✨ #RomaEterna #MuseoChiaramonti #VaticanMuseums #ArteClásico #ViajarEsVivir 🌍💫

After a century in Vatican Museums, Indigenous sacred objects heading back to Canada | CBC News Sources tell CBC News the Vatican and the Canadian Catholic Church are making good progress toward an agreement to return Indigenous cultural objects before the end of the year, in a handoff facilitat...

#Indigenous artifacts held in #VaticanMuseums finally heading back to Canada:

www.cbc.ca/news/vatican...

Vatican will return dozens of artifacts to Indigenous groups in Canada as gesture of reconciliation - Sight Magazine The Vatican is expected to soon announce that it will return a few dozen artifacts to Indigenous communities in Canada, officials said.

Vatican will return dozens of artifacts to Indigenous groups in Canada as gesture of reconciliation @sightmagazine.bsky.social #Vatican #Canada #Indigenousartifacts #VaticanMuseums #CatholicChurch #AnimaMundimuseum #AssemblyofFirstNations

sightmagazine.com.au/news/vatican...

Fragment from the foot of a bronze statue with green patina, from the Vatican Museums

For this week's #BlueSkyArtShow submission on the theme of #pieces ... #bronze #fragment #foot #statue #VaticanMuseums #Rome @bigbarnacle.bsky.social

5️⃣ Rome Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Tour
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#RomeTours #TangoBooking #VaticanMuseums #SistineChapel #ItalyTravel

Vatican unveils last of restored Raphael Rooms after 10 year cleaning that yielded new discoveries - Sight Magazine The Vatican Museums unveiled last of the restored Raphael Rooms, the spectacularly frescoed reception rooms of the Apostolic Palace.

Vatican unveils last of restored Raphael Rooms after 10 year cleaning that yielded new discoveries @sightmagazine.bsky.social #Vatican #CatholicChurch #RaphaelRooms #ApostolicPalace #VaticanMuseums #Raphael

sightmagazine.com.au/news/vatican...

The Vatican After breakfast at the W, we took the Metro over to the Vatican where we spent our last full day of this trip exploring the Vatican Museums, including the famous Sistine Chapel with its Michelangelo f...

The Vatican
Monday, March 10th, 2025 @ Vatican City & Rome, Italy

#WRome #VaticanMuseums #MuseiVaticani #SistineChapel #SaintPetersBasilica #BasilicaDiSanPietro #Vatican #VaticanCity #Rome #Italy