In the ancient Roman Museum, enriched by Pope Julius II in the 16th century, there are many works of art, among which the Lacoon. It represents the Trojan priest with his two sons being crushed to death by snakes as a penalty for warning the Trojans against the wooden horse. Of uncertain date, it was found in 1506 in the Domus Aurea.
The Belvedere Torso, perhaps representig Hercules, was sculptured at the end of the 1st century B.C. After it was found, in the 15th century, it was extensively studied by Michelangelo. Do not miss the Wounded Amazon (a copy of Fidia 500 B.C.) and the Apoxyomenos (athlet scraping himself with a strigil), an original bronze by Lysippus, and the Doryphorus (spear carrier) a copy by Polycletus.
In the Vatican Picture Gallery the development of art can be followed through the centuries. Beginning with the Stefaneschi Polittico by Giotto (1300 AD), to the splendid Musician Angel by Melozzo da Forlì.
By Raphael are the admirable: Madonna of Foligno, commisioned as a thanks offering to the Virgin, one of Raphael's first works completed in Rome in 1512, and the Transfiguration where Christ, bathed in supernatural light, arises supported by Moses and prophet Elija, while apostles lie terrorised on the ground. The Museum also host the unfinished but beautiful Saint Gerome by Leonardo, the Pietà by Giovanni Bellini and works of art of Van Dyck, Pietro da Cortona, Poussin, Tiziano and the splendid Deposition (1604) by Caravaggio.