Visit of the Sistine Chapel

There is nothing more breathtaking in Rome than visiting the place where the pope is elected by the cardinals. Michelangelo laying down on his back without help to fresco the biggest surface ever painted by an artist that corresponds to 7 apartments of three rooms each: this is really unbelievable to be conceived by a human being.

But all this happened in Rome andis part of the descritption we use to give to our customers when sightseeing across the giant rooms of the vatican.

The Sixtine Chapel was built by the architect Giovanni del Dolci among 1475 and 1583 on commission of Pope Sixtus IV° thatwanted this construction. Essential in the forms, enclosed and almost inaccessible from the outside, almost strengthened.

The pictorial decoration, started in 1481,transformed this severe and almost naked chapel in a precious picture-gallery of the paintings of the Italian Renaissance among the XV° and the XVI° century. It was the same Pope Sistus IV° thatentrusted some among the greatest painters of the epoch as Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio (teacher of Michelangelo) and Cosimo Rosselli of the realization of the parallel histories of Ancient and New Testament that is found of forehead in the central band of the two walls.

We can see represented "the life of Moises" on one side (Ancient Will) and "the life of Christ" from the other (New Testament).
In this way, to the "trip of Mosč in Egypt" by Pinturicchio corresponds on the opposite wall "the Baptism of Christ", always by Pinturicchio, where besides the Christian symbology Roman monuments are represented also.

Following on the left are: "the Temptation of Christ" and "the Leper's Recovery" by Botticelli and "the crossing of the Red Sea" by Rosselli.
On the opposite side "the Call of the first Apostles" by Ghirlandaio and the "Mosč that receives the Tables of the Laws" and "the Sermon of the Mountain" by Rosselli.Following "the Delivery of the Keys to S.Peter" by Perugino and the "Testament" and "the Death of Mosč" by Luca Signorelli, opposite to the "Last Supper" by Cosimo Rosselli.

But the truth gigantic masterpiece, initiated in May of 1508 and finished in November of 1512, commissioned by Pope Giulio II°, was that of the ceiling of the Sixtine Chapel, immense challenge, sees the vastness of the surface (800 square meters around).
Michelangelo succeeded in fact to get a tri-dimensional effect drawing an architectural structure on the real structure, where subsequently it put his characters magistrally mixing architecture, painting and sculpture. To the center of the complex nine panels are followed with episodes of the Genesis.

Between the decoration of the time and the realization of the Last Judgment, always of Michelangelo, on the wall of the Most Greater Altar, 23 years passed. The Last Judgment started in 1535 and it was finished in 1541, including more than 300 characters, painted with a clarity and a coherence that don't have anything of commune.
Among 1980 and 1994 a giant work of restoration of the frescoes of the vault and the Universal Judgment was realized , returning the neatness and the vivacity of the colors that only a big teacher as Michelangelohad known how to interpret.

Notes:

  • dress respectfully for visiting religious monuments; local custom requires covering knees and shoulders
  • keep an eye on your wallet and purses at all time. Do not wear jewerly or carry large amount of cash

The Vatican Museums (and the Sixtine Chapel) are always closed on Sundays (except the last of each month),and also on; January 1st and 6th, February 11th, March 19th, April 1st, May 1st, 9th and 30th, June 29th, August 14th and 15th, November 1st, December 8th, 25th and 26th.