Practical information
The Sistine Chapel is found inside the Vatican Museums. For the opening hours see elsewhere on this blog.
The nearest metro stop to the Vatican Museums is Ottaviano (6 stops from the Chaplin Bed and Breakfast Rome and 7 stops from the B&B Little Italy). The stop called Cipro - Musei Vaticani is actually further away from the entrance to the museums.
General information
The Cappella Sistina (or Sistine Chapel) is both the most important work of art in the Vatican Museums and one of the most important chapels in the Apostolic Palace: it is the chapel where, during the conclave, a new Pope is elected. The Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who ordred the construction work. It is rectangular and has the exact dimensions of the Temple Of Salomon, as described in the Old Testament. The chapel is divided into two parts, the bigger one being for religious cerimonies, the other one for the faithful.
Conclave
The religious function the Sistine Chapel is most famous for is of course the Conclave, when a new Pope is elected. A chimney is installed in the chapel’s roof. If white smoke rises from it a new Pope has been elected and if the smoke is black everybody will have to stay in St. Peter’s Square and continue staring at a chimney.
Chronology
It took 11 years to build the Sistine Chapel, after the architectectural design by Baccio Pontelli. The frescoes were finished in less than one year. Everybody liked them.
| 1473 |
Beginning of construction work |
| 1481 |
(July) Beginning of work on the frescoes |
| 1482 |
(May) Frescoes finished |
| 1483 |
(August 9) Celebration of the first mass in the Sistine Chapel |
| 1484 |
Construction work finishes. |
| 1508 |
Pope Julius II commissions Michelangelo to paint the ceiling |
| 1512 |
(November 1) Michelangelo finishes painting the ceiling |
| 1535 |
Michelangelo begins the Last Judgment |
| 1541 |
Michelangelo finishes the Last Judgment |
| 1981 |
Restauration |
| 1994 |
Restauration finishes. |
In 1981 restoration of the Sistine Chapel was started. It took 13 years to complete the work. By then art critics had invented themselves and thus the restoration (and especially the use of bright colors) was pronounced to be controversial. There are 5 centuries between the original creation of the ceiling and its restoration, so it seems rather arrogant that somebody can even think of claiming to know what Michelangelo’s intentions were, but then again what do I know?
Frescoes
In medieval times world history was divided into 3 epochs, very roughly divided into: up to Moses, between Moses and Christ, Christian era. The wall paintings were historical and religious themes, chosen according to this division. They were executed by some of the most famous painters of the Quattrocento period.
The frescoes depict scenes from the Old and the New testament, linking the lives of Moses and Christ and, ultimately the Pope, whose God-given authority was underlined by the papal portaits above the Biblical depictions. The narratives began at the altar wall and ended at the entrance wall. Thirty years later Michelangelo’s Last Judgment would however be painted over the original scenes on the altar wall. The two most important scenes from the fresco cycle are Perugino’s Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter and Botticelli’s The Punishment of Korah having the arch of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who gave the Pope temporal power over the Roman western world, in the background.
Ceiling
Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel’s vault. Michelangelo had a special scaffold built, to minimize the damage to the ceiling. It took him 4 years to complete his masterpiece. A new mixture of plaster, intonaco, still in use today, had to be invented to stop the mold in the humid chapel.
The original idea was just to have Michelangelo paint the 12 apostles. When he refused the commission he was told he could paint whatever he wanted. Michelangelo chose to paint Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and the Flood.
On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted Christ’s ancestors, with above this male and female prophets, and higher again nine stories from the book of Genesis.
Michelangelo only used male models since females were too expensive. The bright colors were used because they were easily visible from the ground.
Michelangelo’s Last Judgment
Michelangelo’s Last Judgment spans the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. It depicts the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse. The souls of humanity rise and descend to their fates as they are judged by Christ and the saints. The naked figures and their naked little genitals caused an uproar, to which Michelangelo reacted by painting the likeness of one of his fiercest critics onto the face of Minos, the judge of the underworld. When Biagio da Cesena, the person in question, complained, the Pope responded that unfortunately he could not do anything, since his jurisdiction did not extend to the underworld. In 1565, two years after the Council of Trent had condemned nudity in religious art, Pope Pius IV had the artist Daniele de Volterra paint over the genitalia. The church could thereby effectively be pronounced to have lost its sense of humour and its little genitals, but that is just a personal opinion and not really what my Rome blog is about.
I did not know anything about the Sistine Chapel before I started writing this, so basically this is an excerpt of the Wikipedia article. They also mention some quotes about the Sistine Chapel, but unfortunately they forgot Kinky Friedman, whose grandfather, if I remember correctly, in one of Kinky’s novels once dared declare: “If you’ve seen one Sistine Chapel, you’ve seen them all”.
Which is enough irreverence for today.