The Sistine Chapel is the greatest monument of architecture and painting

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The Sistine Chapel is a world famous monument of painting and architecture, located in Rome (in the Vatican). This magnificent religious building of Catholic Christianity was built in the second half of the 15th century by order of the Pope Sixtus IV by the famous Italian architect D. de Dolci. Today, the Sistine Chapel is both a museum and an active temple - it is here that the cardinals of the Catholic Church elect the Pope.

Artistic decoration of the Sistine Chapel

The chapel is made in the classical style, characteristic of the Italian art of the Renaissance. It is a small rectangle covered by a high vault. There are 12 windows along the perimeter of the rectangle, on the right side there are choirs for singers. The mosaic floor is crossed by a marble partition. Interestingly, according to the plan of Pope Sixtus IVthe proportions of the chapel accurately reproduce the proportions of the first great temple of King Solomon in the city of Jerusalem. The chapel symbolizes the inviolability of the Catholic faith and is a kind of stronghold of faith.

The Sistine Chapel is famous for its unique frescoes. The greatest artists of the Renaissance worked on their creation. Among them were S. Botticelli, C. Rosselli, Perugino, D. Ghirlandaio, B. della Gatta, Piero di Cosimo, Pinturicchio, Biagio d'Antonio, L. Signorelli and many others. The number of artistic images placed in a relatively small space strikes the viewer's imagination. Here we can see scenes from the earthly life of Jesus Christ - this is the "Baptism" (Pinturicchio, Perugino), "The Temptation of Christ" (Botticelli), "The Calling of Peter and Andrew to the Apostleship" (Ghirlandaio), "The Sermon on the Mount" (C. Rosselli), “Handover of the Keys to Saint Peter” (Perugino), “Supper” (Rosselli). Also, the frescoes depicting episodes from the life of the prophet Moses and portraits of thirty popes of Rome appear to the attentive eye.

Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo and his frescoes

But the frescoes of Michelangelo Buonarotti are truly a gem. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by the world-famous artist, today is rightfully considered a masterpiece of pictorial art. Michelangelo worked on his paintings for a long time, for five years (1508-1512). The frescoes he painted are dedicated to the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis: creation from dustearthly first man - Adam, a beautiful young man with a perfect soul and body. Along the perimeter of the upper part of the chapel, Michelangelo placed the figures of the greatest prophets of antiquity, who predicted the coming of the Savior into the world. A quarter of a century later (in 1536) Michelangelo returned to his work in the chapel. His brush belongs to the fresco, called "The Last Judgment". Its scale strikes the imagination of observers - the majestic figure of Jesus Christ, sinners and the righteous were depicted so naturally that they delighted the artist's contemporaries. Today's viewers experience the same before this masterpiece.

The Sistine Chapel was and remains the greatest monument of art of all time.