The Vatican (Part 3) The Sistine Chapel

 

The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between 1473 and 1481. Since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today, it is the site of the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo. During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe-l'œil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the chapel's ceiling, a project which changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization. In a different climate, after the Sack of Rome, he returned and, between 1535 and 1541, painted The Last Judgment for Popes Clement VII and Paul III. The fame of Michelangelo's paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago.

The Sistine Chapel as it may have appeared in the 15th century (19th-century drawing)

Sistine Chapel in 2017

Exterior of the Sistine Chapel

A reconstruction of the appearance of Sistine Chapel in the 1480s, prior to the painting of the ceiling

Diagram of part of the vertical fresco decoration of the Sistine Chapel

Trials of Moses by Botticelli Sistine Chapel

The Delivery of the Keys by Perugino Sistine Chapel

Hendrick van den Broeck - Resurrección de Cristo Sistine Chapel

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling

Michelangelo's The Last Judgement Sistine Chapel

Daniel, before and after restoration. Sistine Chapel

Raphael tapestries in the Sistine Chapel

View of The Last Judgement as originally painted by Michelangelo Sistine Chapel

Drawing by Pinturicchio of Perugino's lost Assumption in the Sistine Chapel.