October 5th                                (click images for larger slideshow view)

Every Wednesday at 10:30 am, the Pope gives a Papal Audience in St. Peter’s Square either from his balcony or from a platform in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. First he drives around in the pope mobile then reads a letter.

Teddy learned about the papal audience so we decided to spend one full day in Vatican City. I had read that tickets could only be acquired the day before so we weren’t totally sure we’d be able to enter St. Peter’s Square for the Papal Audience but we decided to try.

We arrived at the bus stop outside the hostel complex a bit before 9am hoping to beat the crowds of people that amass. There were still a lot of people but this time we were ready to make a beeline for the bus doors to ensure we got on. Success!

We walked from Cipro stop to the Vatican Museum then followed the city walls to the square. We weren’t quite sure if we should/could get in line. Time was ticking away and Teddy suggested we just get in line. Good call. It turned out that the line was only the security line to enter the square (#1). I saw people with blue tickets but those are for chairs inside the blockaded area. Since Teddy and I didn’t have tickets we stood against the barricades (#3 and #4) and looked at the pope through my awesome camera zoom (#2).

Before the Pope arrived a list of all (registered) visiting pilgrims was read aloud. There was a group from Corpus Christi! Go Texas! Psalm 23 was read aloud in at least 5 languages, the Pope drove around in his bulletproof Pope-mobile and he gave a blessing in Italian to the crowds.

Teddy isn’t Catholic and I couldn’t understand the blessing so we left a minute or two before the Pope finished. Another reason for wanting to leave early was the realization that the crowd was most likely going to visit Vatican Museum next and we wanted to get in line before it became absurdly long.

Thankfully, the line moved quickly and we were inside the Vatican Museum. Ipods out and Rick Steves Vatican Museum Tour ready to be played. We went to the Pinacoteca first based on Rick Steves recommendation that way we wouldn’t have to back track after the Sistine Chapel.

One of the first paintings highlighted was Raphael’s Transfiguration (#6) which is the last project Raphael was working on before his death at 37. (He was the artist buried in the Pantheon.) The painting depicts the scene of Moses and Elijah visiting Jesus because Peter, James, and John wanted proof of Jesus’s divinity. This painting is most famous for Raphael’s rendition of Jesus’s face.

In the next room, Leonardo da Vinci’s St. Jerome hangs. (I pulled out my book to confirm the painting name.) Leonardo da Vinci is the man I name when asked who I’d want to meet if I could meet anyone from the past. He was such a brilliant man and I admire him for his many talents. I took a picture of this painting because I think its funny that St. Jerome’s (#7) face was cut out of the painting and used as a stool. It has since been replaced obviously

#8 Michaelangelo Caravaggio painted the Disposition using regular people as models. Jesus just stands out so much.

After leaving the Pinacoteca, we walked through rooms and rooms of statues. As we headed towards the Octagonal Courtyard, Teddy and I noticed a young Indian couple and their very young son. The dad was taking a picture of his wife next to a statue so we stopped to let them take their picture. Picture taken, we move on but not before hearing the little boy telling his mother to stop as he pulled up his audio guide to take a picture of her. The dad tried to tell him it wasn’t a camera but the little boy did not care. “Mom, stand still.” “Okay, okay.” Picture taken to the little boy’s satisfaction and Teddy and I had something to keep us smiling as we walked.

In the Octagonal Courtyard, there are some fantastic sculptures that influenced so many works.

Leochares’s Apollo Belvedere (#9) is an example of human perfection in balance. “The anatomy is perfect, his pose is natural. Instead of standing at attention, face-forward with his arms at his sides [think of Egyptian statues], Apollo is on the move, coming to rest, with his weight on one leg.

“The Greeks loved balance. A well-rounded man was both a thinker and an athlete, a poet and a warrior. In art, the Apollo Belvedere balances several opposites. He’s moving, but not out of control. Apollo eyes his target, but hasn’t attacked yet. He’s realistic, but with idealized godlike features. And the smoothness of his muscles is balanced by the rough folds of his cloak. (from the Rick Steves book)”

Honestly, I don’t really like this statue but I wanted to include it to help show the transition in style of sculpture. I took the picture of Apollo Belvedere from across the courtyard after seeing Laocoon (#10) because the contrast in style is just so big. Now, the Laocoon is a sculpture I really liked. I stayed looking at it for a long time to the annoyance of this Italian tour guide lady.

This sculpture is a representation of the struggle of the priest Laocoon and his two sons against the sea serpents sent by the gods to stop Laocoon from warning the Trojan people against gifts from the Greeks i.e. the Trojan Horse. I’ve only read one epic and it was the Iliad. Perhaps, knowing the story about the fall of Troy is what makes this statue come to live even more and why I like it so much. I definitely prefer statues that capture movement and emotion like the little girl crying in O’rsay Museum or like the Boxer, which I’ll talk about later. Apollo Belvedere, you are beautiful but unreal to me so I don’t like you.

next; Raphael’s The School of Athens, Modern religious art, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s Basilica