6The Sistine Chapel: the apotheosis of Christian art

The main stop on your tour of the Vatican Museums is obviously the Sistine Chapel, the mecca of World Art. Its history began under the pontificate of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere (1471-1484) who decided in those years to restructure the ancient Magna Chapel.

The Stories of the Old and New Testaments placed along the side walls, made by a team of Tuscan artists, “the pupils of Lorenzo the Magnificent”, such as Sandro Botticelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Pietro Perugino, date back to those times. Il Ghirlandaio, etc … The famous vault built by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, with Stories of Genesis, Sibyls, Prophets and lunettes with Stories of the Ancestors, is due to the commission of Pope Julius II della Rovere. An authentic figurative Bible, which connecting to the iconographic cycle of the side walls, finds its correct conclusion in the Last Judgment of the wall of the high altar, still made by Michelangelo between 1533 and 1541 on commission of Clement VII Medici. It must be remembered that the Conclave for the election of the pope still takes place between these magnificent walls.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR