2016 ITALY Vatican 11 - Sculpture Most Prevalent

At every turn and in every direction, you will see sculpture...both inside and out on the Vatican grounds. The detail was fantastic, especially realizing the age of most. I was overwhelmed by the quantity and could not really appreciate them in the attempt to see as much as we could seen on our tour.

Here is the top half of Laocöon and His Sons. This white marble piece was excavated in Rome in 1506. I couldn't get the bottom due to too many tourist heads blocking my view finder, but it is worth googling for the full view. It depicts human agony and strength. Notice the serpent at Laocöon's  hip. Spectacular artistry!

This was part of a column, I'm thinking

These were in the Round Room (pink painted walls). This is an oversize Hercules in gilded bronze from the second century. The modesty patch was not on the original, but added later. This IS the Vatican after all!

Bust of Serapis-Zeus, sun god of fertility and afterlife to the Greeks. He is wearing a modius. I thought maybe this was a handy wine cup, but no, it is a flat topped cylindrical headdress.

Statue of Claudius posing as Jupiter. He was emperor of Rome from 42-54 AD.

Not to be morbid, but I especially like body parts. Here's a few...foot, torsos, and heads. There were so many others.

Busts on top of busts.

Okeanos or Oceanus sculpted around 135 AD. He was the Greek titan god of the ocean, streams, and fresh water. See fishy things in his hair and beard.

 Young Claudius.

Then there were the sarcophagi (more than one sarcophagus or burial coffin). This one purported to be for the wife of a nobleman. It looked quite old as many fragile noses were missing or damaged with time.

Not sure the background of this one, but I liked the detail.

I researched this one and had more questions than answers. It was referenced as The Mask of Socrates displaying an intellectual wunderkind instructing muses disguised as young boys in one version and boys dressed as muses in another version. Maybe the mask part refers to the skeleton looking faces with dark eyes and mouth. 

This red porphyry sarcophagus is that of Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great. She died in 329. She was considered a saint and purportedly found the "true cross."

This dog / wolf supports and guards Helena's sarcophagus above.

A favorite area was the Hall of Animals filled with every species imaginable--birds, lions, horses, sheep, dogs, cats, even a unicorn head (see right side wall). You weren't allowed inside the side rooms, but could peek into them.

There were exotics, too, like an elephant (small top left relief), lions, monkeys, etc. It was like a marble zoo. As most people back then could not see these rarer animals in person, statues were a way to display them for all to see.

A horse, of course! (Or maybe a donkey.)

This is dog or wolf or coyote. You get the picture.

Some Egyptian sculpture. One of the Lions of Nectanebo. Nectanebo was an ancient pharaoh, who founded the last native dynasty of Egypt. He died in 362 BC.

Mini-sphinx (WITH nose).

There were a few women, but not many. This looks Greek to me, but I'm not sure who she is.

Diane of Ephesus. A fertility goddess? Nope, daughter of Jupiter and twin sister of Apollo.

Juno Sospita in the Round Room. She is an ancient Roman goddess, protector, and special counselor of the State. She is daughter of Saturn and, sister AND wife of Jupiter (the head god). Hmmmmm! Guess you can have it all when you are in charge.

Here you see just a minute handful of the sculpture we saw that day. Wish we'd had more time to really study and learn about them. Again, I did a lot of research for this post and hoping I got it right on the descriptions. Let me know if you see something wrong.