Devour Art & Culture at 9 of the Best Museums in the World
The Vatican Museums
Religion has always been a popular subject in art and much of the history of Catholicism has been contained in paintings and sculptures. Since the 16th century, Italian popes have been collecting and displaying the best pieces of religious art they could find.
In the Vatican Museums you’ll find work by Italian artists such as Raphael, Caravaggio and Michelangelo, including the latter’s most famous fresco painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Egyptian and Greek artifacts depicting their own ancient religions are also prevalent in some of the newer museums.
You can even get a fresh perspective on spirituality in the Collection of Modern Religious Art with pieces by van Gogh, Gauguin, Dali and Picasso.
Rijksmuseum
Dutch artists are heavily featured in the Netherlands Rijksmuseum, or the National Museum, located in Amsterdam. Rembrandt’s enormous 11.91 feet by 14.34 feet painting, “The Night Watch,” has its own room, which serves as the focal point of a long Gallery of Honor lined with masterpiece after masterpiece.
Specialty galleries can also be found on the grounds, including a small pavilion of Asian art and a room of ship models from the Department of the Navy. Besides the art itself, equally beautiful are museum’s gardens and the architecture of its library and great hall.
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Egyptian Museum in Cairo
For anyone interested in ancient Egypt, a visit to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo is a must. Over 100 halls are filled with Egyptian artifacts that tell the stories of the pharaohs, their gods and their people. In the basement of the museum, King Tut’s treasured possessions are on display, including many that are completely covered in gold leaf.
Room after room houses funerary items such as beds, organ containers and masks recovered from numerous tombs during the 20th century. Die-hard Egyptologists will want to pay a little extra to see the mummy rooms where many of the preserved bodies still have intact teeth and hair.
