Sistine Chapel in Rome Italy
The Sistine Chapel The chapel occupies the upper floor of the fortified centre in the Apostolic Palaces. Right from the beginning (1474), the room dedicated to the Assumption - planned on the size of the Temple of Solomon - was the pontifical chapel and seat of the Conclaves. The restoration works promoted by Sixtus IV in 1477 gave it a precious mosaic floor. And marble transennas, which were moved later to enlarge the area reserved for the clergy. The two cycles of the Old and New Testaments frescoed between 1481 and '83 by Pinturicchio, Botticelli, Cosimo Roselli, by Ghirlandaio and students began with scenes, later destroyed, of the finding of Moses and the Nativity of Christ completed by Pergino on the wall behind the altar where the Michelangelo "The last judgment" is now.
After the appearance of cracks in the walls of the Sistine Chapel in 1574, Michelangelo was commissioned to work on a new decoration for the vault, in the place of the starry sky, painted by Pier Matteo d'Amelia during the time of Sixtus IV. Despite the commission, it proved to be particularly onerous for the artist, engaged on the interminable project for the grave of Julius II, the contract was stipulated n 10 May, 1508. Right from the beginning, he wanted to emphasise the "difficulty of the work," sustained by a only a small payment and the anguish of not succeeding in the titanic painting, that the sculptor knew was not his profession. Having overcome the early technical problems, special scaffolding was erected. The helpers who had arrived from Florence were a reason for dissatisfaction by Michelangelo who, in the end, decided to "throw out everything they had done". It has been possible to find, through the weaker details of the first scenes near the entrance, the biggest operation by the helpers who, from the autumn of 1509, would be more and more limited to the ornamental parts and tied to the works of much less able painters. The choice of subject was similarly complex, originally including only the series of twelve Apostles arranged around the central area with geometrical decorations, later changed into the most articulated iconographic programme imposed by Buonarotti.
It is possible to interpret the architectural framework of the ceiling as a symbolic path where the fate of mankind has already been marked, from primordial chaos to the Redemption An indispensable introduction to the events illustrated in the two cycles of 15th century frescoes on the lower walls where there is a constant parallel between the Mosaic events and the life of Christ.
From the lunettes and the respective ribbing where Christ's ancestors beginning with Abraham, are portrayed, to the four corner-stones which narrate the heroic undertakings of David, Judith, Moses and Esther as far as the marble thrones occupied by the series of Prophets and Sibyls, the divine intervention for the salvation of man is always exalted.
In the fields of the ceiling, flanked by monochrome reliefs of biblical episodes, five scenes (the Creation of Light, the Separation of the earth from the waters, the Creation of Eve, the Sacrifice and the Inebriation of Noah) alternate with another four episodes from Genesis. The decoration above the cornice, in the large celestial ceiling, illustrates the mythical origins of the world (the Creation of Stars and Planets), populated by the forefathers (the Creation of Adam and the Original sin), up to the mythical Flood.
The work method used, starting with the last scene and, that is, from the first fresco done, allowed Michelangelo to proceed directly in the elaboration of the traditional technique of pouncing or pricking directly into the fresh plaster. The fluid and transparent brushwork, soaked with light, exalts the plasticity of the enormous bodies, while the gamma of cold and changing colours emerged after the recent restorations (1980 -89) offer an unedited version of Michelangelo's art.
Even if Julius II succeeded in seeing the grandiose work finished after the opening of the chapel on 31st October 1512, the commitment in completing the project with the Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar and in that of the entrance (where the Fall of the Rebelling Angels was foreseen) was due to Clement VII. Although already begun, the entire work was then carried out on a smaller scale, at the expense of his successor, Paul III Farnese, maybe portrayed by the artist in the clothes of St Peter.
The construction of the scaffolding and the removal of the frescoes, including the pair of lunettes in the ceiling that Michelangelo himself had painted, was begun on 16th April, 1535, Michelangelo was disposed to continue only after the demolition of the plaster that, on the advice of the Venetian, Sebastiano del Piombo, had been set up for oil painting and not, as the artist wanted, for the more traditional fresco technique. The tremendous apocalyptic vision - certainly relating to the Sack of Roma in 1527 - turned round the supreme gesture of Christ the Judge who marks the resurrection by the ascent of the appointed to the left and, to the right, the inexorable fall of the damned, into the violent maelstrom which the same angels are involved in, now transporting the instruments of the Passion, now to drive back the sinners to the presence of Minos wrapped round by a serpent. In his clothes, Michelangelo wanted to portray, according to Vassari, one of the first censors of work, according to whom, the fresco "was not a work for the Chapel of the Pope but of stoves and taverns"!
The decision to destroy the frescoes pointed out by Paul IV - mitigated by the Council of Trent on the 21st January, 1564 shortly before the death of Buonarotti - was carried out the year after with the veiling of the nudity by his disciple Daneile da Volterra, from then on known by the nick name of "Braghettone".
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