Harry White
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Verified WriterThe Vatican's Sistine Chapel is one of the most visited attractions in the world, welcoming some 25,000 people a day (or 5 million people per year). The chapel comes at the climax of most Vatican tours, and any guide worth their salt will seed fascinating facts about the chapel in the lead up to a visit.
Should you want to get ahead, however, or refresh your memory about the world's most famous chapel, here are the top secrets of the Sistine Chapel.
Nope, it has nothing to do with the number sixteen. The Sistine Chapel or Capella Sistina gets its name from Pope Sixtus IV who commissioned its construction in 1473. An avid civic patron, he also commissioned Ponte Sisto — a bridge that still connects Trastevere to Rome's historic centre.
The Sistine Chapel was a private chapel for the papal household, but its most important function was to house the election of new popes called the Conclave. It comes from the Latin cum clave which means ‘with a key’, because the cardinals were locked inside the chapel to vote for the new pope. Still today they have no contact with the outside until reaching a majority in electing a new pope.
Between 1980 and 1994, the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel underwent a monumental restoration that cost millions of pounds. Scaffolds were erected to enable the hand-cleaning of the frescoes with distilled water, a painstaking process that removed over 450 years’ worth of grime, including soot, dust and candle wax.
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
When scholars and art historians saw the restored ceiling, they were aghast at the pastel colours, including pinks and greens with brilliant blues, and argued that the restorers had forever damaged Michelangelo’s work.
It is a common misconception that flash photography may harm the paintwork. Instead, the real reason you can’t take photographs dates back to the ceiling's restoration. Nippon television network paid for the work and held the copyright for images and sold postcards and posters to recoup the money. The contract has long since expired but the rule has stuck.
You might be surprised by the amount of flesh on display on Michelangelo's ceiling and the back wall fresco of the Sistine Chapel, but originally there was much more! According to Vasari, the Papal Master of Ceremonies Biagioi di Cesena expressed his dissatisfaction with The Last Judgment, remarking that it was inappropriate to have so many naked figures exposing themselves so shamefully in such a sacred place. This painting would be more fitting in a public bathhouse or a tavern, he suggested, than inside a papal chapel.
Shortly after Michelangelo’s death, Pope Paul III ordered the genitalia of the saints and martyrs to be covered with carefully placed drapery. More than 40 alterations were made covering family jewels and the full nudity of the female figures. The chosen artist, Daniele dal Volterra, would forever be known as ‘Il Braghettone’ the breeches-maker or underpants painter!
In response to these criticisms, Michelangelo incorporated Biagio's likeness into his Last Judgement fresco as Minos, the judge of the underworld. Biagio's face can be seen in the far bottom-right corner, with donkey ears symbolizing foolishness. Additionally, his nudity is concealed by a snake coiled around his genitals, biting his penis.
It was widely rumoured that when Biagio brought his grievances to Pope Paul III, the pontiff humorously remarked that he had no authority over hell and therefore the portrait would have to remain as it was.
Michelangelo’s depiction of God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one of the first in the history of art. Previously, the almighty was shown as a divine light coming from the sky. Michelangelo’s God is reminiscent of Zeus, a powerful bearded figure, but in a pink dress. In the panel where God separates the Moon and the sun you can even see his perfectly outlined bum!
The side panels of the chapel are often overlooked, but these earlier works include paintings by Renaissance heavyweights from Florence. When Sixtus commissioned the decoration in the 1470s he used the best artists of the day including Botticelli, Cosimo Roselli, Pinturicchio, and the tutors of Michelangelo and Raphael; Ghirlandaio and Perugino. These panels describe the lives of Moses and Jesus, representing the New and Old Testament. When Michelangelo had to remove some of Perugino and Ghirlandaio’s work he was effectively painting over the work of his mentor.
Michelangelo inserted a self-portrait into the last judgement. Michelangelo was 62 when he started painting the last judgement, 30 years after painting the ceiling. It was a difficult time in his personal life and the city of Rome had recently been sacked by an army of 10,000 which left the city literally in tatters. Take a look at the bald, bearded figure of St Bartholomew holding a knife in one hand and his flayed skin in the other. The face of the skin shows dark curled hair and a beard and is a self-portrait showing Michelangelo literally stretched thin by his work and the demands of his family.
Michelangelo was a sculptor, not a painter. In the early 1500s, he was working on a tomb for Julius II which was to be his seminal work. When the pope cancelled the commission and told him he was to paint the Sistine Chapel instead, he point-blank refused. He was so outraged, in fact, that he got on his horse and rode back to his home in Florence, vowing never to work for the pope again. When the pope’s guards dragged him back to Rome by the scruff of his neck, however, he relented, agreeing to paint the ceiling but only if he had full artistic control of the designs.
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