The Sistine Chapel

The chapel has no architectural distinction, it is rectangular in shape and measures 40,93 meters long by 13,41 meters wide, i.e. the exact dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament. It is 20,70 meters high and is roofed by a flattened barrel vault, with six tall windows cut into the long sides, forming a series of pendentives between them. The architectural plans were made by Baccio Pontelli and the construction was supervised by Giovannino de'Dolci. Later alterations modified the original exterior.

In 1481 Pope Sixtus IV summoned to Rome the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Domenico

Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, as well as the Perugian Pietro Perugino to decorate the walls with frescoes. (According to Vasari, Luca Signorelli was also involved in the decoration.) The painting of the walls took place over an astonishingly short period of time, barely eleven months, from July, 1481 to May, 1482. The ceiling was frescoed by Piero Matteo d'Amelia with a star-spangled sky.

Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II della Rovere in 1508 to repaint the ceiling; the work was completed between 1508 and 1512. He painted the Last Judgement over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, being commissioned by Pope Paul III Farnese.

For great ceremonial occasions the lowest portions of the side walls were covered with a series of tapestries depicting events from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. These were designed by Raphael and woven in 1515-19 at Brussels.

The building in some respects can be considered a personal monument to the Della Rovere family, since Sixtus IV saw to its actual construction and the frescoes beneath the vaults, and his nephew Julius II commissioned the ceiling decoration. Oak leaves and acorns abound, heraldic symbols of the family whose name means literally "from the oak."

The decoration of the chapel was cleaned and restored in recent decades. The project started with the fifteenth century frescoes in 1965. The restoration of the lunettes, the vault and the Last Judgment started in 1980 and was terminated in 1994. The restoration produced a spectacular result.

The Last Judgment was commissioned from Michelangelo by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) shortly before his death. His successor, Paul III Farnese (1534-1549). forced Michelangelo to a rapid execution of this work, the largest single fresco of the century.

The first impression we have when faced with the Last Judgment is that of a truly universal event, at the centre of which stands the powerful figure of Christ. His raised right hand compels the figures on the lefthand side, who are trying to ascend, to be plunged down towards Charon and Minos, the Judge of the Underworld; while his left hand is drawing up the chosen people on his right in an irresistible current of strength. Together with the planets and the sun, the saints surround the Judge, confined into vast spacial orbits around Him. For this work Michelangelo did not choose one set point from which it should be viewed. The proportions of the figures and the size of the groups are determined, as in the Middle Ages, by their single absolute importance and not by their relative significance. For this reason each figure preserves its own individuality and both the single figures and the groups need their own background.

The figures who, in the depth of the scene, are rising from their graves could well be part of the prophet Ezechiels vision. Naked skeletons are covered with new flesh, men dead for immemorable lengths of time help each other to rise from the earth.

According to Vasari, the artist gave Minos, the Judge of the Souls, the semblance of the Popes Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, who had often complained to the Pope about the nudity of the painted figures. We know that many other figures, as well, are portraits of Michelangelo's contemporaries. The artists self-portrait appears twice: in the flayed skin which Saint Bartholomew is carrying in his left hand, and in the figure in the lower left hand corner, who is looking encouragingly at those rising from their graves.

• 9 scenes of the Genesis

• 4 corner pendentives

• 4 pairs of bronze nudes above the pendentives

• 8 triangular spandrels with pairs of bronze nudes

• 7 prophets

• 5 sybils

• 20 ignudi

• 10 medallions

Click the small arched side area at the triangles to view the lunettes (6 at the left side of the ceiling, 6 at the right side, and 2 at top).

Click the upper left corner of the image to open the viewer for enlarging the entire image.