The Vatican Museums: History, Art Works & Personalities: Volume I [VHS]

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This volume explains how the Museums were organized in the ancient Vatican Palaces at the very time when a plethora of projects and works had been entrusted to great architects such as Bramante and Michelangelo for a wide-ranging reorganization of St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican Palaces. In deference to the humanist spirit of the Renaissance age, the first works of art to be brought to the Belvedere Palace were Greek and Roman. The great architect Bramante was the organizer, and also the effective creator of the first nucleus of the Vatican Museums. In addition to Bramante there were masters such as Pollaiolo, Pinturicchio, Ghirlandaio and Melozzo working almost elbow-to-elbow on the great project. To think that, a few hundred meters apart, Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel at the same time as Raphael was painting the "Stanze," and both of them in the company of a train of great pupils who often became celebrated masters in their turn.

The Vatican Museums: History, Art Works & Personalities: Volume I [VHS] Review

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"The birth of the Vatican Museums is usually dated to the accession of Julius II to the Papal throne, though as private treasures of a prince, this first Vatican collection was rather different in nature."

The above are the printed words that begins this impressive set of DVDs that together have one purpose: to allow the viewer to see what's inside one of the world's most spectacular museums by taking him/her on a tour of each museum's highlights.

This documentary surveys the Vatican's artistic treasures through stunning location footage (and even archival footage!) with narration (accompanied by beautiful background music throughout that has the translated lyrics of Michelangelo).

The viewer feels as if he/she is walking through each museum's halls or flying over the outside buildings. The key point here is that the camera is always moving thus avoiding the static and boring feel of just looking at works of art that are just sitting there.

The narrator explains, amongst other things, the history of the artworks, how they came to be in a particular museum, and information is even given about the construction of each museum.

The variety of what's presented was, at least for me, overwhelming. The viewer will see and hear about such things as furniture, tapestries, costumes, and armour, as well as sculptures, busts, statues, paintings, portraits, mosaics, friezes, frescoes, artifacts, and much more.

The interior photography of buildings is exquisite and aerial photography that captures the unique architecture of the exterior of buildings is quite impressive.

Note that each disc is not one continuous showing but instead you select a chapter from the main menu, that chapter plays (most chapters are about 25 minutes long), then the disc reverts back to the main menu where you select a different chapter.

To give the potential viewer an idea of the vast amount presented, here are the chapter titles (five chapters per disc):

(1) History of the museums (2) Greek art in the Vatican museums (3) Roman art (4) The Egyptian museum (5) The Etruscan museum (6) The origins of Christian art (7) The Sistine chapter (8) The Raphael rooms and the Loggia (9) The historical museum at St. John Lateran (10) The Ethnological Museum (11) The picture gallery (12) The collection of modern religious art (13) The Apostolic palace (14) Vatican City (15) The Great Basilica

Finally, the DVDs themselves are perfect in picture and sound quality. However, in a few cases the lighting for the photography of some pictures was not optimal.

In conclusion, on the back of the DVD case it states that this documentary was the "culmination of three years research and filming" and involved a "crew of forty directors of photography" with the "collaboration of 32 scholars and historians from around the world." As a person who has viewed this amazing collection, I can attest that all this research, direction, and collaboration has produced a fantastic documentary to be admired!!

(1995, 1996, 1997; 6 hr, 40 min.; 15 chapters; 3 discs; full screen; no closed captioning or subtitles)

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