SISTINE CHAPEL

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THE SISTINE CHAPEL
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THE SISTINE CHAPEL
The Chapel has the dimension of the Temple of
Solomon, as given in the Old Testament.
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• A holy place
• The Conclave for the election of the Supreme
  Pontiff is held in the Chapel. His Holiness John
  Paul II underlined the primary importance of the
  Sistine Chapel in the life of the Church "The
  Sistine Chapel is the place that, for each Pope,
  holds the memory of a special day in his life.
  ... Precisely here, in this sacred space, the
  Cardinals gather, awaiting the manifestation of
  the will of Christ with regard to the person of
  the Successor of St Peter ....

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The Story

• The Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope
  Sixtus IV della Rovere (pontiff from 1471 to
  1484).
• the old Cappella Magna was restored between 1477
  and 1480. The 15th century decoration of the
  walls includes the false drapes, the Stories of
  Moses and of Christ and the portraits of the
  Popes It was executed by a team of painters made
  up initially of Pietro Perugino, Sandro
  Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo
  Rosselli,
• On the Ceiling Pier Matteo d'Amelia painted a
  starry sky. The work on the frescoes began in
  1481 and was concluded in 1482
• .On 15 August 1483, Sixtus IV
• consecrated the new chapel
• dedicating it to Our Lady of
• the Assumption.

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THE CEILING
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Julius II della Rovere (pontiff from 1503 to
1513), nephew of Sixtus IV, decided to partly
alter the decoration. In 1508 Michelangelo
Buonarroti painted the Ceiling and, on the upper
part of the walls, the lunettes. The work was
finished in October 1512 and on the Feast of All
Saints (1 November), Julius II inaugurated the
Sistine Chapel with a solemn Mass.
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• The ceiling illustrates that God made the
  World as a perfect creation and put humanity into
  it, humanity fell into disgrace and was punished
  by death, and by separation from God. God sent
  Prophets and Sibyls to tell humanity that
  Christ, Jesus, would bring them redemption. God
  prepared a lineage of people, all the way from
  Adam, through various characters written of in
  the Old Testament, such as King David, to the
  Virgin Mary through whom the Saviour of humanity,
  Jesus, would come.

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• The Ceiling is divided in nine central panels.
  They show the Stories of Genesis, from the
  Creation to the Fall of man, to the Flood and the
  subsequent rebirth of mankind with the family of
  Noah.

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THE CREATION OF STARS AND PLANETS
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THE CREATION OF ADAM
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THE EXPULSION OF ADAM AND EVE
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THE GREAT FLOOD
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• Reference to the first letter of Peter is
  likely. In this the water of the flood is seen as
  a prophetic sign of the water of Baptism, from
  which a new mankind emerges, that of those saved
  by Christ.
• In the spaces between the webs we see, seated on
  monumental thrones, five Sibyls and seven
  Prophets.

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THE PERSIAN SIBYL
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JEREMIAH
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Cuman Sybil
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THE PROPHET ISAHIA
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EZECHIEL AND ERYTHREAN SYBIL
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• Christ's forefathers are portrayed in the eight
  Webs and in the Lunettes (north wall, south wall,
  entrance wall).

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SALOMON
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• Finally, in the four corner Pendentives, the
  artist illustrated some episodes of the
  miraculous salvation of the people of Israel.

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THE IGNUDI

• The Ignudi are the 20 athletic, nude males that
  Michelangelo painted as supporting figures at the
  four corners of the five smaller narrative scenes
  of central part of the ceiling. The meaning of
  these figures has never been clear. They are
  certainly in keeping with the Humanist acceptance
  of the classical Greek view that the man is the
  measure of all things.

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TWO DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF THE CHAPEL
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THE LAST JUDGEMENT
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• The composition is centred around the dominant
  figure of Christ. It is the moment before the
  verdict of the Last Judgement . His calm
  imperious gesture seems to command attention and
  from it starts a wide slow rotary movement in
  which all the figures are involved.

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• Next to Christ is the Virgin. She turns her head
  because she can no longer intervene in the
  decision, but only await the result of the
  Judgement. The Saints and the Elect are around
  Christ and the Virgin, also anxiously await the
  verdict. Some of them can be easily recognized
  St Peter with the two keys, St Bartholomew with
  his own skin which is usually recognized as being
  a self-portrait of Michelangelo, St Catherine of
  Alexandria with the cogwheel and St Sebastian
  holding the arrows.

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• Excluded are the two upper lunettes with groups
  of angels bearing in flight the symbols of the
  Passion (on the left the Cross, the nails and the
  crown of thorns on the right the column of the
  scourging, the stairs and the spear with the
  sponge soaked in vinegar).

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• In the lower section there are the angels of the
  Apocalypse who are wakening the dead to the sound
  of trumpets.

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• On the left the bodies ascend towards heaven
  (Resurrection of the flesh), on the right angels
  and devils fight and the damned fall down to
  hell.

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• Finally, at the bottom Charon with his oars,
  together with his devils, makes the damned get
  out of his boat to lead them before the infernal
  judge Minos, whose body is wrapped in the coils
  of the serpent. The reference in this part to the
  Inferno of Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia is
  clear.

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Opinions and Reactions

• As well as praise, the Last Judgement also caused
  violent reactions among the contemporaries. For
  example the Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena
  said that "it was most dishonest in such an
  honoured place to have painted so many nude
  figures who so dishonestly show their shame and
  that it was not a work for a Chapel of the Pope
  but for stoves and taverns" (G. Vasari, Le Vite).
  The controversies, that continued for years, led
  in 1564 to the decision by the Congregation of
  the Council of Trent to have some of the figures
  of the Judgement that were considered "obscene"
  covered. The task of painting the covering
  drapery, the so-called "braghe" (pants) was given
  to Daniele da Volterra, since then known as the
  "braghettone". Daniele's "braghe" were only the
  first and in fact others were added in the
  following centuries.