Most of the art galleries in Italy do not allow photography, but the Vatican allows photography except inside the Sistine Chapel itself.
The lighting is quite variable, and thus a lens such as the Leica-D 25mm f/1.4 or the Olympus ZD 50mm f/2.0 macro is very handy to have with you – tripods are impossible, and you do not want to be using electronic flash!
These photos were taken with the Leica-D 25mm f/1.4 lens on the Panasonic GH-1 Micro Four Thirds camera.
They even had a Van Gogh painted ca 1890 (ISO 400, 1/40th sec, f/1.4):
And a version of Rodin’s The Thinker:
Much of the collection, is either religious symbolism, art nudes or disturbing, graphic depictions of violence, such as this large tapestry wall mural of which only a small section is shown here:
More of my photos of the Vatican collection can be found here.
