Sistine Chapel :: Essays Papers

Sistine chapel Papal chapel in the Vatican Palace that was erected in 1473-81 by the intriguer Giovanni dei Dolci for Pope Sixtus IV (hence its name). It is famous for its Renaissance frescoes by Michelangelo.The Sistine Chapel is a rectangular brick building with six arched windows on each of the devil main (or side) walls and a barrel-vaulted detonator. The chapels exterior is drab and unadorned, but its interior walls and ceiling be decorated with frescoes by many Florentine Renaissance masters. The frescoes on the side walls of the chapel were multicoloured from 1481 to 1483. On the north wall are six frescoes render events from the life of Christ as painted by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandajo, and Cosimo Rosselli. On the south wall are six other frescoes depicting events from the life of Moses by Perugino, Pinturicchio, Botticelli, Domenico and Benedetto Ghirlandajo, Rosselli, Luca Signorelli, and Bartolomeo della Gatta. Above these w orks, smaller frescoes between the windows depict unhomogeneous popes. 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 most important ar iirks in the chapel are the frescoes by Michelangelo on the ceiling and on the west wall behind the altar. The frescoes on the ceiling, collectively known as the Sistine Ceiling, were commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1508 and were painted by Michelangelo in the years from 1508 to 1512. They depict incidents and personages from the antiquated Testament. The Last Judgment fresco on the west wall was painted by Michelangelo for Pope Paul III in the period from 1534 to 1541. These two gigantic frescoes are among the