The metopes are individual sculptures in high relief. The Parthenon was decorated by 92 metopes, 32 on each long side and 14 on each short. Each metope was separated from the next one by a small grooved slab called trygliph.
The metopes, placed above the external row of columns, represented several mythical battles: episodes of the Trojan War on the north side, the Struggle between Lapiths and Centaurs (half-men, half-horses) on the south, the Gigantomachy (fight between gods and giants) on the east and the Amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons) on the west.
Of the 64 metopes preserved 48 are in the New Acropolis Museum of Athens, 15 in the British Museum of London and 1 with fragments of others in the Louvre Museum of Paris. Further fragments of Metopes are also in the Vatican Museums of Rome and 1 (a head) is at the University of Würzburg.
Martydom of St Processo and St Martiniano was executed for an altar of the right transept of St Peter's Basilica. The references to the Martyrdom of St Erasmus, painted by Poussin for a nearby altar, are clear, so much so that the two works were considered at first as being in competition with one another.
Contemporaries acknowledged that the purely Caravaggio style painting (due to its realism and the particular use of light) of Valentin exceeded that of Poussin in naturalism, force, richness and harmony of colour.
The painting was commissioned by the Congregation of St Jerome of Charity for the church of the same name in Via Giulia in Rome. The Bolognese painter came to the city in 1602 at the request of Annibale Carracci, with whom he worked in the Farnese Gallery.
The Communion of St Jerome constitutes his first important recognition in Rome and largely excited the enthusiastic approval of his contemporaries, who considered it among the masterpieces of Italian art. The subject, which is quite rare, is that of St Jerome who, by now ninety years of age, on the point of death wants to take his last communion surrounded by his disciples and St Paula. Domenichino took his inspiration from a painting with the same subject by his master Agostino Carracci ten years previously.
St Helen, mother of the Roman emperor Constantine (306-337 A.D.), is shown sleeping, seated, with her head resting on her hand. Sacred history attributes to her the vision – or rather the dream – that led her to find the true Cross, materialised and supported by a winged cherub. The iconography is not especially traditional for Venetian art, where the Saint is usually shown standing by the cross.
The altarpiece illustrates two episodes narrated in succession in the Gospel according to Matthew: the Transfiguration above, with Christ in glory between the prophets Moses and Elijah, and below, in the foreground, the meeting of the Apostles with the obsessed youth who will be miraculously cured by Christ on his return from Mount Tabor.
As Raphael's last painting, it appears as the spiritual testament of the artist. The work is considered in his biography, written by the famous artist and biographer of the 16th century, Giorgio Vasari, as "the most famous, the most beautiful and most divine".
The Crowning of the Virgin was originally painted for the altar of the Oddi Chapel in the church of S. Francesco al Prato in Perugia. In the upper part of the composition, among angel musicians, Christ crowns the Virgin, while in the lower part the Apostles – among whom are St Thomas, with the girdle which he had received as a gift from the Virgin – are arranged around the tomb. The tomb contains flowers in place of the Virgin who has ascended to heaven.
This was an early work of Raphael’s and has been recognised for its closeness in style to that of his maestro Perugino. The predella illustrates three episodes from Christ's infancy: the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the Temple.
This work, from the polyptych of Montelparo (Ascoli Piceno), was perhaps painted for the convent church of Sant'Agostino and then transferred to the church of S. Michele Arcangelo in Castello of Montelparo following the earthquake of 1703. The complex composition, arranged in a very rich Gothic frame, testifies to the obvious influence of Venetian culture. In the centre of the polyptych are the Crowning of the Virgin and Deposition of Christ flanked by a large number of Saints.
The 14 fragments with the Apostles and Angel musicians (these are also exhibited in room IV) together with the figure of Christ (in the Quirinal Palace) were all part of the old decoration of the apse of the Church of the SS Apostoli in Rome, illustrating the Ascension of Christ. The solemn, monumental figures, strongly foreshortened, testify to the full maturity of the great artist, a follower of Piero della Francesca, and his skill with perspective.
This unusually shaped table (round with a rectangular base) came from the oratory of the church of S. Gregorio Nazianzeno in Rome. The depiction is of the last Judgement, divided into five overlapping phases, each with an explicative text in Latin.
Starting from the top, in the first phase we see Christ between cherubs and angels; in the second phase Christ is before an altar between two angels and the twelve Apostles. In the third, more complicated phase, there are three scenes: on the left St Paul guides the Elect, in the centre the Virgin and St Stephen intercede for the Holy Innocents and on the right are three Works of Mercy (Dress the naked, Visit the imprisoned, Give the thirsty drink).
The fourth band illustrates the Resurrection of the Dead. Finally, on the base of the table we find Hell and Heavenly Jerusalem with the Virgin praying among the Elect. Before its walls are portrayed the donors (identified by a text): the abbess Costanza and the nun Benedetta.
The Fire in the Borgo – which lends this particular room in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace its name – shows an event that is documented in the Liber Pontificalis: a fire that broke out in the Borgo, the neighbourhood in front of St Peter's basilica in Rome, in 847.
According to legend, Pope Leo IV miraculously extinguished the fire with his benediction, thus saving the church and the people. The young man with an old man on his back in the foreground is an echo of the classical theme of Aeneas carrying his father Anchises from the fires of Troy; it is therefore an allusion to the traditional idea that Rome was the new Troy.
