Greyhounds playing sculpture in the Vatican Museum

A 2nd Century CE Roman statue group of two sighthounds playing.

The statue group was discovered in 1774 in Monte Cagniolo, Italy.

Group of greyhounds playing | Rome, Vatican Museums, Hall of Animals

Vatican Museums, Hall of Animals

The display in the two rooms which together make up the Hall of the Animals was set up under Pope Pius VI (1775-1799) with antique works of art, often much restored and sometimes completely re-worked, with the aim of creating a 'stone zoo'.

Many artists worked on the sculptures in this display during the 1700s, the most important of whom was Francesco Antonio Franzoni.

Sandro Botticelli | The Map of Hell, 1480-1490

The Divine Comedy Illustrated by Botticelli is a manuscript of the Divine Comedy by Dante, illustrated by 92 full-page pictures by Sandro Botticelli that are considered masterpieces and amongst the best works of the Renaissance painter.

The images are mostly not taken beyond silverpoint drawings, many worked over in ink, but four pages are fully coloured.

The manuscript eventually disappeared and most of it was rediscovered in the late nineteenth century, having been detected in the collection of the Duke of Hamilton by Gustav Friedrich Waagen, with a few other pages being found in the Vatican Library.

Sandro Botticelli | The Map of Hell, 1480-1490 | Vatican Museums