Ethos

Gregorian Egyptian Museum

Museum · Vatican City, Vatican City

Nine rooms and a hemicycle opening onto the terrace of the Niche of the Pinecone, on the Vatican Museums itinerary and covered by the Museums ticket. It is strong in material from Roman Egypt and Egyptianising Rome, including the statuary group from the Horti Sallustiani, now in the hemicycle, and items from Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli; the final three rooms hold Ancient Near Eastern material acquired in the 1970s.

History

Gregory XVI founded the museum in 1839, in rooms taken from the apartment of Pius IV in the Belvedere Palace of Innocent VIII. The Barnabite Fr Luigi Ungarelli, a disciple of Ippolito Rosellini, first curated it, and the architectural and wall decoration evokes the Nile.

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