The Creation of Adam
Michelangelo · 1511
Vatican Museums
Vatican City · Founded 1506
Michelangelo painted the ceiling on his back over four years. You look up at the Creation of Adam in the room where he did it.
- 6.9M
- Visitors a year
- 1506
- Founded
- Free last Sun
- Admission
- Mon–Sat 8–8
- Daily opening hours
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The Creation of Adam
Michelangelo · 1511
The Creation of Adam, also known as The Creation of Man, is a fresco painting by Italian artist Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, painted 1508 to 1512. It illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives life to Adam, the first man.
Laocoön and His Sons
Athanadoros · c. 40–20 BC
The statue of Laocoön and His Sons, also called the Laocoön Group, has been one of the most famous ancient sculptures since it was excavated in Rome in 1506 and put on public display in the Vatican Museums, where it remains today. The statue is very likely the same one praised in the highest terms by Pliny the Elder, the main Roman writer on art, who attributed it to Greek sculptors but did not say when it was created.
Apollo Belvedere
Leochares · 120s AD
The Apollo Belvedere (also called the Belvedere Apollo, Apollo of the Belvedere, or Pythian Apollo) is a celebrated marble sculpture from classical antiquity. The work has been dated to mid-way through the 2nd century A.D.
Sistine Chapel ceiling
Michelangelo · 1511
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built within the Vatican between 1477 and 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV, for whom the chapel is named.
The School of Athens
Raphael · 1512
The School of Athens is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as part of a commission by Pope Julius II to decorate the rooms now called the Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
Augustus of Prima Porta
The Augustus of Prima Porta is a full-length portrait statue of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. The statue was discovered on April 20, 1863, during archaeological excavations directed by Giuseppe Gagliardi at the Villa of Livia owned by Augustus's third and final wife, Livia Drusilla in Prima Porta.
Artists
Republic of Florence · 1475–1564
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance.
Holy Roman Empire · 1483–1520
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, now generally known in English as Raphael (UK: RAF-ay-əl, US: RAF-ee-əl, RAY-fee-, RAH-fy-EL), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance.
1439–1507
Cosimo Rosselli was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–1482 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the
Italian · 1370–1427 · International Gothic art in Italy
Gentile da Fabriano was an Italian painter known for his participation in the International Gothic pictorial style. He worked in various places in central Italy, mostly in Tuscany.
Italy · 1438–1494
Melozzo da Forlì was an Italian Renaissance painter and architect. His fresco paintings are notable for the use of foreshortening. He was the most important member of the Forlì painting school.
Italian · 1448–1523 · Umbrian school
Pietro Perugino was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael became his most famous pupil.
Artworks
Prophet Daniel
Michelangelo · 1508
The Entombment of Christ
Caravaggio · 1600
Angels making music
Melozzo da Forlì · 1472
Perseus
Antonio Canova · 1797
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
Johann Wenzel Peter · 1814
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge
Giulio Romano · 1520
Communion of Saint Jerome
Domenichino · 1614
The Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus
Nicolas Poussin · 1628
Jan Sobieski at Vienna
Jan Matejko · 1883
Plan your visit
Hours
Monday to Saturday 8am to 8pm, with last entry at 6pm. Open the last Sunday of each month 9am to 2pm, last entry 12.30pm. Confirm on www.museivaticani.va before you travel.
Admission
Free on the last Sunday of every month, 9am to 2pm. Prices for every other day are on the museum’s own site — buy only through their official portal, which they warn is impersonated by lookalike sites charging far more.
Getting there
Viale Vaticano 6, I-00192 Roma.
On their own site
Opening hours, tickets and current exhibitions are on the museum’s own site.
Invite Vatican Museums into your living room
100 works from this collection are available on Momentable, free to view, on your TV, phone, or tablet.