FREE ESSAY ON SISTINE CHAPEL

SISTINE CHAPEL

papal chapel in the Vatican Palace that was erected in 1473-81 by the architect 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
two main (or side) walls and a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The chapel's exterior is drab and
unadorned, but its interior walls and ceiling are decorated with frescoes by many
Florentine Renaissance masters. The frescoes on the side walls of the chapel were painted
from 1481 to 1483. On the north wall are six frescoes depicting 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 works, smaller
frescoes between the windows depict various 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 artworks 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 Old 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 greatest achievements of Western painting. A 10-year-long cleaning and restoration of
the Sistine Ceiling completed in 1989 removed several centuries' accumulation of dirt,
smoke, and varnish. Cleaning and restoration of the Last Judgment was completed in 1994.
As the pope's own chapel, the Sistine Chapel is the site of the principal papal
ceremonies and is used by the Sacred College of Cardinals for their election of a new
pope when there is a vacancy.