Day 20 - Sensory Overload

Here is a good example of what I meant a couple of days ago when I said that you easily get lost in all the things there are to look at in the Vatican Museum. There are several rooms like this where art is all around you - the floors, the walls and the ceilings - and very rich at that.

This corridor is called the Gallery of Maps. The maps, 40 of them in total, were painted between 1580-1583 by Ignazio Danti, a famous geographer of the time. Danti wasn't only a cartographer though, he was a man of many talents and was also a priest (a bishop in fact), a mathematics professor and an astronomer.

As you can see the maps are quite large - 15 by 16 feet in size - and quite detailed. They're all of regions of Italy. The towns, villages (and even hamlets) are painted with great accuracy and upon close inspection you can even see historical incidents occurring in each area, or find important characters like Christopher Columbus.

/MrsHjort