The sculpture gardens at the Vatican

One of the most pleasurable parts of visiting the Vatican museums in Vatican City is nipping out of the museum halls full of incredible art for a brief respite in the sunshine in an interior outdoor sculpture garden. Among the gods and goddesses and patricians and mythological figures are the famous iconic ancient Greek statue group Laocoön and his sons, rediscovered in 1506, and the Apollo Belvedere (once believed to be a Roman copy of a Greek original, it is now believed to be a Roman original based on an homage to the figure, his sandals are even on Roman design). The Apollo Belvedere has served for many centuries as representative of a sort of classical ideal of the male form, and among the niches and porticos can be found the female ideal counterpart, Aphrodite/Venus. The Lapcoön is a fascinating tangle of muscular limbs and sea serpent tentacles, with intense and complex human emotion writ large etched into marble. The feelings the piece evokes are timeless, connecting us to the distant past as we imagine ourselves somehow in the shoes of a father desperate to protect his children and his people, but hopeless against the brute force of mythological creatures and to the fates themselves.

The Apollo Belvedere.

Venus and Cupid and a torso fragment and funerary reliefs and sarcophagi.

Funerary relief.

A Roman patrician.

Sunlight and ancient umbrella pine trees against St. Peter’s dome.

One of the inner outdoor Vatican museum sculpture gardens with views of Saint Peter’s cupola dome next door, and some modern art among classical antiquity.

Laocoön and his sons.

A gigantic colossus head.

Minerva.

The ancient Roman pine cone of Rome, at the Fontagna di Pigna.

Viewing the Laocoön Group through a crowd.

Aphrodite / Venus.