The Vatican Museums originated as a group of sculptures collected by Pope Julius II (1503-1513)
and placed in what today is the “Cortile Ottagono” within the museum
complex. The popes were among the first sovereigns who opened the art
collections of their palaces to the public thus promoting knowledge of
art history and culture. As seen today, the Vatican Museums are a
complex of different pontifical museums and galleries that began under
the patronage of the popes Clement XIV (1769-1774) and Pius VI (1775-1799).
In fact, the Pio-Clementine Museum was named after these two popes, who
set up this first major curatorial section. Later, Pius VII (1800-1823)
considerably expanded the collections of Classical Antiquities, to
which he added the Chiaromonti Museum and the “Braccio Nuovo” gallery.
He also enriched the Epigraphic Collection, which was conserved in the
Lapidary Gallery.
Gregory XVI (1831-1846) founded the Etruscan Museum
(1837) with archaeological finds discovered during excavations carried
out from 1828 onwards in southern Etruria. Later, he established the Egyptian Museum
(1839), which houses ancient artifacts from explorations in Egypt,
together with other pieces already conserved in the Vatican and in the
Museo Capitolino, and the Lateran Profane Museum (1844), with statues,
bas-relief sculptures and mosaics of the Roman era, which could not be
adequately placed in the Vatican Palace...
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