Italy has many artistic treasures throughout the country. In Padua, the Scrovegni Chapel sits, housing multiple frescoes from Giotto di Bondone. Milan holds Leonardo da Vinci’s last supper. The city of Rome holds many outstanding art destinations, but the most renowned is the Vatican in Vatican City. Although it’s home to many pieces from varying artists, such as Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Guido Reni, Giovanni Bellini, and more, the Sistine Chapel will be focused.
The famous Sistine Chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere, the individual who also commissioned the building as well. Baccio Pontelli was approached in 1475 to become a designer for a building, in the hopes of Rovere, to become the Vatican’s chapel and fortress. The construction was in the hands of Giovannino de’ Dolci, who watched over the pictorial embellishments in the chapel until the final inauguration in 1483. It was raised and built upon a medieval structure of similar size. Both figures can be seen in Perugino’s fresco, Jesus Handing the Keys to St. Peter, in portrait form upon the Sistine Chapel wall. The architecture is just as outstanding as the works themselves. A singular, long nave in the interior is capped by a flat barrel vault with multiple spandrels. Twelve arched windows are of fault to the natural light, lunettes sat above each. The floor consists of multicolored marble. The ornamentally decorated choir stalls and chancel screen were created by Mino de Fiesole and his multiple assistants. The dimensions of the Chapel directly correspond to those of the Jerusalem temple.
The original set of paintings on the wall, which concluded between 1480 and 1483, was produced by a group of Umbrian and Tuscan artists, such as Signorelli and Botticelli, who focused on scenes from the Old and the New testaments. They were placed in a symbolic way below the windows along all the walls of the chapel. Directly below these, draperies bordered a series of Della Rovere family crests. A small fragment remains near the entrance. The rest was painted in the 19th century. Portraits of the first thirty popes were placed between the windows, executed between 1480 and 1483. A portion of the lateral walls was saved. In efforts to make room for Michaelangelo’s Last Judgement on the altar wall, the originals were forgotten and destroyed, such as the Assumption of the Virgin. Only a few years after completion, structural issues occurred, ultimately creating cracks in the vault. Not only did he take the proper measures to fix the building’s issue, but Pope Julius II almost immediately decided upon updating the art inside of the vault. As a result, in Spring, 1508, he requested Michaelangelo to paint and decorate the Sistine Chapel ceiling, originally covered with blue topped with gold stars, in hopes of giving the viewer a sense of looking at the starry sky. He thought of himself more as a sculptor than a painter and wanted to save his time for his other projects, such as the tomb of Julius II, which began in 1505. Regardless, he accepted the commission, but not at first. Michelangelo thought that his rival, Julius II’s architect Donato Bramante, made Julius commission him, hoping that he would either turn down the pope, leading to an unpopular opinion of himself, or potentially showing the viewers of the ceiling that his fresco paintings would be mundane. Bramante believed Michelangelo wasn’t an impressive painter.
He declined the Pope’s offer at first and it was strictly due to continuous insistence that he gave in. He began his momentous work in May 1508. Even though he had many difficulties regarding the project at once, he declined the assistance of laborers, completing the work himself. His writings regarding this have survived. Through his paintings, he connected the authentic architecture of the chapel to the art itself. The ceiling is divided into nine different narratives in separate panels. Regardless of the lack of assistance he accepted, the project progressed at a relatively fast rate. The first portion of the ceiling was revealed in August 1511 and the formal inauguration with Pope Julius II presiding occurred on November 2, 1512. The original plan for the ceiling depicted twelve large-scaled Apostles. Buonarroti planned this out through numerous preliminary sketches, now housed in the British Museum. However, as it is read in a letter to his friend Fattucci in 1524, he changed his course. The finished execution was strictly based upon Michaelangelo’s thoughts and mind alone without the persuasion of any larger figure.
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