Five centuries separate the creation of the Sistine Chapel and its last restoration, which revealed to the world the unknown features of Michelangelo's color technique. However, the losses that accompanied unexpected color discoveries are so tangible and expressive, as if they were deliberately called upon to remind us of the transitory nature of everything earthly, of the need for a careful attitude to art, which seeks to take a person beyond the bounds of everyday life, opening doors to other planes of existence.
We owe the appearance of this architectural monument of Christian art to Francesco della Rovere, aka Pope Sixtus IV, an ambiguous figure in the results of his church affairs, but purposefully patronizing the arts and sciences. Guided by religious motives when creating a house church, he could hardly have predicted that for the whole world the Sistine Chapel would become a symbol of an entire era - the Renaissance, its two hypostases out of three, the Early Renaissance and the High.
The main purpose of the chapel was to serve as a place for the election of popes at a meeting of cardinals. It was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin in August 1483 according to the Julian calendar. Today, the Sistine Chapel is an unrivaled Vatican Museum, which houses precious frescoes depicting biblical themes.
Inside view of the Sistine Chapel
The work on the painting of the northern and southern walls marked the beginning of the creation of the chapel's interior. They took it up:
- Sandro Botticelli;
- Pietro Perugino;
- Luca Signorelli;
- Cosimo Rosselli;
- Domenico Ghirlandaio;
They were the painters of the Florentine school of painting. In just a surprisingly short time - about 11 months - two cycles of 16 frescoes were created, 4 of which have not survived. The northern wall is a description of the life of Christ, the southern one is the story of Moses. From the biblical stories about Jesus today, the fresco The Birth of Christ is missing, and from the history on the south wall, the fresco Finding of Moses has not reached us, both works by Perugino. They had to be donated for the image of the Last Judgment, on which Michelangelo later worked.
The ceiling, as originally conceived, looked completely different than we can see now. It was decorated with stars twinkling in the depths of the sky, created by the hand of Pierre Matteo d'Amelia. However, in 1508, Pope Julius II della Rovere commissioned Michelangelo Buonarotti to rewrite the ceiling. The work was completed by 1512. The artist painted the Last Judgment on the altar of the Sistine Chapel by order of Pope Paul III between 1535 and 1541.
Fresco sculptor
One of the extraordinary details of the creation of the Sistine Chapel is the circumstances of Michelangelo's work. He, who always insisted that he was a sculptor, was destined to paint frescoes that people have admired for more than 5 centuries. But at the same time, he had to learn the art of wall painting already in practice, rewriting d'Amelia's star-studded ceiling and even being unable to disobey the instructions of the popes. The figures in his area of work are distinguished by the sculptural style, strikingly different from what was created before him, in them the volume and monumentality are so pronounced that at first glance many frescoes are read like bas-reliefs.
That which does not resemble what existed before is often rejected, since the mind perceives newness as the destruction of the canon. Michelangelo Buonarotti's frescoes have repeatedly provoked a controversial assessment of contemporaries and descendants - they were both admired during the artist's life, and harshly condemned for the nakedness of the biblical saints.
In a fit of criticism, they almost died for the next generations, but were skillfully saved by one of the artist's students, Daniele da Volterra. Under Paul IV, the figures on the Last Judgment fresco were skillfully draped, thereby avoiding reprisals against the master's work. The drapery was made in such a way that the frescoes were not damaged in any way when they were decided to be restored to their original form. Records continued to be made after the 16th century, but during the restorations only the very first of them were left as historical evidence of the requirements of the era.
The fresco conveys the impression of a global event that unfolds around the central figure of Christ. His raised right hand forces the figures trying to climb up, to descend to Charon and Minos, the guardians of hell; while his left hand pulls the people to his right as the elect and righteous to heaven. The judge is surrounded by saints, like planets attracted by the sun.
It is known that more than one contemporary of Michelangelo was captured in this fresco. In addition, his own self-portrait appears twice in the fresco - in the removed skin held by Saint Bartholomew in his left hand, and in the guise of a male figure in the lower left corner of the picture, reassuringly looking at those rising from the graves.
Painting of the vault of the Sistine Chapel
When Michelangelo painted the chapel, he did not choose the only position from which each fresco with biblical subjects should be viewed. The proportions of each shape and the size of the groups are determined by their own absolute significance, not by relative hierarchy. For this reason, each figure retains its own individuality, each figure or group of figures has its own background.
Painting the plafond was technically the most difficult task, since the work was carried out on the scaffolding for 4 years, which is actually a short time for a work of this magnitude. The central part of the vault is occupied by 9 frescoes from three groups, each of which is united by a single Old Testament theme:
- Creation of the world ("Separation of light from darkness", "Creation of the sun and planets", "Separation of firmament from waters");
- The history of the first people ("Creation of Adam", "Creation of Eve", "Fall and expulsion from paradise");
- The story of Noah ("Noah's Sacrifice", "The Flood", "Noah's Drunkenness").
The frescoes in the central part of the ceiling are surrounded by figures of prophets, sibyls, the ancestors of Christ and more.
Lower tier
Even if you have never visited the Vatican, in the numerous photos of the Sistine Chapel available on the web, you can easily notice that the lowest tier is draped with curtains and does not attract attention. Only on holidays, these draperies are removed, and then the view of visitors opens up picture copies of tapestries.
The tapestries, also from the 16th century, were woven in Brussels. Now, seven of them that have survived can be seen in the Vatican museums. But the drawings, or cardboards, on which they were created, are in London, in the Victoria and Albert Museum. Their author has withstood the test of work alongside unsurpassed craftsmen. They were painted by Raphael at the request of Pope Julius II, and the life of the apostles is the central theme of the surviving masterpieces, which are not inferior in their aesthetic significance to either Michelangelo's fresco painting or the painting of his teacher Perugino.
Museum today
The Sistine Chapel is located in the Vatican Museum Complex, which consists of 13 museums located in two Vatican palaces. Four guided tours of Italy's spiritual treasury end with a visit to the Sistine Chapel, which is hidden between St. Peter's Basilica and the walls of the Apostolic Palace. It is not so difficult to find out how to get to this world museum, but if a real trip is not yet available for you, then on You can take a virtual tour of the Vatican. One way or another, all roads, as they say, lead to Rome.
We recommend that you look at the Krutitskoye Compound.
Although the chapel looks like a fortress outwardly, not everyone will find it particularly attractive, but the conceptuality of the building is hidden from the eyes of modern tourists and requires immersion in the context of the Bible. The Sistine Chapel has a strict rectangular shape and its dimensions are by no means accidental - 40.93 by 13.41 m in length and width, which is an exact reproduction of the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon indicated in the Old Testament. Under the roof is a vaulted ceiling, daylight streaming through the six tall windows of the north and south walls of the church. The building was designed by Baccio Pontelli, and the construction was supervised by the engineer Giovannino de 'Dolci.
The Sistine Chapel has been renovated several times. The last restoration, completed in 1994, revealed Michelangelo's talent for color. The frescoes shone with new colors. They appeared in the color in which they were written. Only the blue background of the Last Judgment fresco brightened, since the lapis lazuli, from which the blue paint was made, does not have great durability.
However, part of the drawing of the figures with soot was cleaned off together with the soot of candle soot, and this, unfortunately, affected not only the outlines of the figures, creating the impression of incompleteness, but some figures also lost their expressiveness. This was partly due to the fact that Michelangelo worked in several techniques to create frescoes, which required a different approach to purification.
In addition, the restorers had to work on the mistakes of the previous restorations. Perhaps the unexpectedness of the result obtained should remind us once again that one should look at the works of real creators with an open mind - and then new secrets are revealed to the inquisitive eyes.
