Sistine Chapel

Built by Pope Sixtus IV in the late fifteenth century to serve as the locus of liturgical celebrations and papal elections, the Sistine Chapel is one of the great examples of Renaissance architecture and fresco decoration and of the potential to imbue both with symbolic implications. Here, the building and its decorations speak of papal primacy and authority and of humankind’s recognition of the "true faith." The building’s imposing frescoes were carried out during three separate decorative campaigns. The first campaign took place in 1481–1482 and entailed the frescoing of the walls with narratives from the lives of Moses and Christ, executed by Sandro Botticelli, Domenico del Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, Cosimo Rosselli, and Pietro Perugino, this last believed to have overseen the commission. The second campaign was in 1508–1511, when Michelangelo rendered his famed Sistine Ceiling, and the last was in 1536–1541, when Michelangelo painted the Last Judgment on the altar wall.

Brief History

Baccio Pontelli provided the plans for the Sistine Chapel and Giovanni dei Dolci directed its construction. The chapel’s proportions followed the description in I Kings of the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was housed to evoke comparison between Sixtus IV and Solomon, hailed for his building activities and wisdom. The building’s exterior is furnished with battlements, while the interior is a simple barrel-vaulted rectangle with clerestory windows. The walls are devoid of applied architectural elements so they may be covered with frescoes. In the earliest decorative campaign, narratives pertaining to Moses and Christ were paired thematically to denote that the law of the Jews was supplanted by that of Christians and to assert the papacy’s divine sanction. The vault was painted blue and dotted with stars to indicate the heavens.

The motivation for the second campaign was a crack that appeared on the ceiling in 1504, leaving an unsightly mark. Julius II, Sixtus’ nephew, asked Michelangelo to render the twelve apostles surrounded by ornamental motifs. Michelangelo objected to the program’s simplicity and Julius gave him the freedom to do as he wished. He was likely guided by a theologian, perhaps Cardinal Vigerio della Rovere, Julius’ cousin. In the final design, Michelangelo organized the scenes in three coherent bands, the outer ones occupied by the sibyls and prophets who foretold the coming of Christ. Above each sit two ignudi (nude men), between them a fictive bronze medallion and in their hands oak leaves and acorns, references to the pope’s family, the della Rovere (rovere is oak in English). The lunettes above the chapel’s windows and the spandrels (triangular spaces) between the seers are occupied by Christ’s ancestors, while the corner spandrels feature scenes that prefigure Christ’s sacrifice. In the central band are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis: three of the Creation, three pertaining to Adam and Eve, and three to Noah.

In 1534, Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to paint a fresco on the altar wall depicting the Resurrection of Christ. Then Clement died and Paul III, his successor, changed the subject to the Last Judgment. Michelangelo was criticized for featuring a profusion of nudes. Therefore, his pupil, Danielle Volterra, covered some of the nudity by adding draperies.

Overview

The scenes rendered by Botticelli, Perugino, and the other masters involved in the earliest decorative campaign were intended to assert the pope’s God-given right to rule as the leader of the Catholic Church, as exemplified by Perugino’s Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to St. Peter, his most celebrated work. This is the moment when Christ commands Peter to go to Rome, establish the first Christian Church, and rule as the first pope. Aptly, behind them is a domed church flanked by Roman triumphal arches that speak of the triumph of Christianity over paganism. In general, the program was not successful as it lacked visual unity. Though all scenes feature a horizontal format with figures that occupy about two-fifths of the pictorial space, there are severe discrepancies of style and composition.

Michelangelo’s ceiling, on the other hand, is one of the great masterpieces of the Renaissance. The central scene presents the Creation of Eve, which Vigerio in his Christian Decachord, published in Rome in 1507, indicated to represent the creation of the Church. The most famous of the Genesis scenes is the Creation of Adam. Here Michelangelo depicted the moment when God the Father imparts the spark of life into Adam, the central focus being their two index figures touching in the center of the composition. As Michelangelo considered himself primarily a sculptor, his figures are muscular, with clearly delineated contours, and strong contrasts of light and dark that enhance their volume. Many interpretations have been offered on the ceiling’s program. For some, Michelangelo’s work speaks of the history of humankind from a time before religion, to paganism, and finally the Christian era. This move from blindness to enlightenment corresponds to the Neoplatonic tenet of the soul’s trajectory from the mundane to the spiritual through contemplation in order to achieve union with God. Others have related the ceiling to Dominican, Franciscan, and Augustinian theology. Pentecostal and Apocalyptic interpretations have also been given.

In 1536, Michelangelo returned to the chapel to render the Last Judgment on the altar wall. To accommodate the fresco, he had no choice but to destroy the Nativity and Finding of Moses rendered by Perugino during the first decorative campaign, as well as one of his own lunettes painted during the second campaign. Earlier representations of the Last Judgment were usually compartmentalized, with Christ, the Virgin, and the apostles enthroned in heaven. Michelangelo instead provided a continuous scene with Christ above center commanding the souls to rise from the graves below. The Virgin is at his side and the apostles surround him. The blessed are pulled up to heaven and the damned are pushed down to hell and tormented. The scale of the figures changes with the rising levels. Christ and those flanking him are almost twice the size of the rest of the figures. The criticism over excessive nudity caused Michelangelo to fall into a state of depression, manifested in the fresco. His nude St. Bartholomew is a portrait of the poet Pietro Aretino, one of his bitterest critics, who in his hand holds Michelangelo’s likeness, shown as the saint’s withered skin.

Bibliography

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Grabon, Michel, et al. "The Sistine Chapel." ASHRAE Journal, vol. 57, no. 6, 2015, pp. 20–34.

Hall, Marcia B. Michelangelo: The Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Abrams, 2002.

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"The History of the Sistine Chapel." Sistine Chapel, www.thesistinechapel.org/history-sistine-chapel. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

Nelson, Andrew. "Sistine Chapel." National Geographic Traveler, vol. 30, no. 5, 2013, p. 86.

Partridge, Loren. Michelangelo: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Rome. Braziller, 1996.

Pfeiffer, Heinrich. The Sistine Chapel: A New Vision. Abbeville, 2007.

"Sistine Chapel". Encyclopedia Britannica, 17 Jan. 2025, www.britannica.com/topic/Sistine-Chapel. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.

Wind, Edgar. The Religious Symbolism of Michelangelo: The Sistine Ceiling. Edited by Elizabeth Sears, Oxford UP, 2000.