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Museums of the Mediterranean
are the “Baptism of Constantine“, the “Vision of the As the name suggests, the main space is devoted to ex-
Cross“, the “Battle at Milvian Bridge“ and the “Donation cavations from ancient Egypt: to sarcophagi, vases and
of Constantine“. The “Donation of Constantine“ shows plenty of sculptures. While these objects are of extraor-
the famous historical fake which was based on a forged dinary historical value, the display can not be compared
document in which Emperor Constantine gave putatively with Egyptian collections in museums like the British Mu-
the supremacy over Rome and the Western Roman Em- seum or the Louvre. The background of the Egyptian col-
pire to Pope Sylvester I and all other popes after him. lection was, as often in the Vatican, not a scientific one.
Historians dated the fraudulent document on 800 AD. It openend in 1838 at the climax of the Ancient Egypt
The painting boosts this lie with propaganda: Emperor fashion in Europe. The friendship between the egyptol-
Constantine kneels before Pope Sylvester and offers him ogist Jean-Francois Champollion and the Prefect of the
the whole Western Roman Empire like it is written in the Vatican Library, Angelo Mai, led to an archaeological
document. Furthermore, Sylvester is modelled after the expedition which resulted in the presented collection.
effigy of Pope Clemens VII who became pope one year But Pope Gregory XVI did not have any archaeological
before the painting was finished – in 1523. Tommaso Lau- interest in the pharaohs time, only a religious one: He
reti painted the ceiling in 1585. collected the sarkophagi and mummies not for better
understanding of a civilzation but because the excava-
tions reveiled a culture mentioned in the Old Testament.
The Museo Pio-Christiano
This exhibition contains objects from the Late Antiquity.
Extraodinary are reliefs on Christian sarcophagi and the
sculpture of the “Good shepherd“, the most emblematic
theme in Christian art during the first centuries. The
Good Shepherd is portrayed as a beardless young man
carrying a lamb on his shoulders.
The remaining huge head of the Emperor Augustus in the
Vatican Museums. All pictures, if not otherwise mentioned,
by the author
Raphael himself painted the Hall of Heliodorus between
1511 and 1514. His artwork contains the “Mass of Bolse-
na“, the “Expulsion of Heliodorus“ which was influenced
by the Venetian style, and the three scenes of the “Lib-
eration of Saint Peter“: In the first scene, an angel de-
mands Saint Peter to follow him, in the seconds scene
he evades with the angel and, in the third scene, he
escapes the guards at night. 5
The Egyptian Museum
In the Egyptian museum, excavations and ethnogical ob-
jects are mixed together. It is, in fact, in most parts a
missionary museum. The objects presented include art
from Central America as well as Islamic artwork and
cultural items from Central Africa. The most interesting
pieces are sculptures from Hadrian‘s Villa in Tivoli. Models
show non-Christians religions: an Altar of Confucius, and
a Shintoist Temple from Japan. Buddhism is represented
by statues from Tibet, Indonesia, India and the Far East. 6 The Hall of animals in the Pio Clementino Museum
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EXPOTIME!, issue October / November 2017