There's so much to see: Saint Peter's Basilica, the Stanze, the Sistine Chapel, and the Museums.
Scenes from Homer’s Odyssey, Via Graziosa
This fresco cycle showing scenes from Homer's Odyssey would have decorated an ancient Roman home.
Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus
Made for a member of the Roman elite, this early tomb features Old and New Testament scenes in a classical style.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Cathedra Petri (Chair of Saint Peter)
Did Peter sit here? Dizzying but unified, light and gold glorify this sacred place.
Athanadoros, Hagesandros, and Polydoros of Rhodes, Laocoön and his Sons
The writhing agony of the Trojan Laocoon made this Hellenistic masterpiece famous throughout history.
The Regolini-Galassi tomb and the Parade Fibula
The assemblage of objects in the Regolini-Galassi tomb represents a broad geographic range and an aesthetic that indicates the influence of the ancient Near East.
Codex Borgia
Thirty-three feet long, the Codex Borgia records historical, ritual, mythological, and botanical information.
Kente cloth
This cloth—first woven by a wise spider—sends social messages through a system of specific patterns.
Tomb of the Scipios and the sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus
Even in death, great Roman families were concerned with reinforcing and projecting their status.
Raphael, School of Athens
Whose side are you on? Two great philosophers of antiquity, Plato and Aristotle, face off in this meeting of minds.
Lysippos, Apoxyomenos (Scraper)
Ancient Greek athletes cleaned themselves with oil. This sculpture shows one athlete’s bathing ritual.
Veristic male portrait
With age comes experience, and sculptors in the Roman Republic highlighted seniority—warts and all.
