Pictures from the Vatican, as promised

The introduction of pottery among the common items of daily life, of the Neolithic Period in Syria-Palestine.

Apoxyomenos, depicting an ancient Greek athlete scraping off the oils used to anoint the body before competitions with sand and a spoon, called the strigil.

A sarcophagus, depicting a battle between Greeks and Amazons, with the leaders Achilles and Pentesilea.

The close up detail of Achilles and Pentesilea. It amazes me how much detail the artist is able to use, I can't even begin to imagine how long a piece this detailed would take to complete.

Apollo del Belvedere
Johann Joachim Winckelmann: "of all the works of antiquity that have escaped destruction, the statue of Apollo represents the highest ideal of art." 

Laocoön was said to have warned his fellow Trojans against taking in the wooden horse left by the Greeks outside the city gates. Athena and Poseidon, who were favoring the Greeks, sent two great serpents to kill Laocoön and his sons.

The Belvedere Torso, which inspired Michelangelo, Raphael, and other greats

The ceiling in the Room of Heliodorus, of the Raphael Rooms

The ceiling in the Room of the Segnatura, in the Raphael Rooms

The School of Athens, in the Room of the Segnatura

Raphael painted himself into The School of Athens. He's the one in red with the black beret.

Raphael also painted Leonardo da Vinci into The School of Athens, disguised as Plato 

Raphael did the same for Michelangelo, disguising him as Heraclitus

The Disputation of the Sacrament, in the Room of the Segnatura 

Everything up to this point was beautiful, but nothing was as breathtaking as the Sistine Chapel. I have never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I stayed in the Sistine Chapel for at least 30 minutes, just taking everything in and trying not to bawl. It was much more emotional than I expected it would be for me. I'm not overly religious, but I have wanted to see these paintings in person since I first learned about them in high school. Taking Italian Renaissance Art last semester gave me the background and the ability to truly appreciate the paintings. The few pictures I was able to discreetly take don't do the paintings justice. They are breathtaking and detailed and larger than life, and I'm so glad I've had the opportunity to see them in person. It's one thing to learn about them, to see slides and pictures of the paintings, and something else entirely to be able to be in the same room as them, to see them in person, and to just experience it in real time.

The Sistine Chapel ceiling

The Creation of Adam

The Last Judgement

*I don't feel guilty for taking the pictures in the Chapel, as I researched why it is "banned." The TV/Media company who sponsored the restoration of the paintings had owned the exclusive rights to document the paintings, but those rights had expired three years after the restoration. As long as the flash isn't on, no damage is done to the paintings.