Tag Archive | "Sistine Chapel"

Michelangelo in Rome: the Sistine Chapel


There are many traces of Michelangelo in Rome, starting from St Peter’s and the  Sistine Chapel to  Farnese Palace,  the Capitol Square,  the Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli or even the decorations of the Pauline Chapel. But maybe the most impressive of these works  is the decoration of the vault of the Sistine Chapel in Rome  and  ‘The last judgement’ since painting was not the first profession of the sculptor Michelangelo. Where one  stood a starry sky painted by Pier Matteo D’Amelia,  the contract stipulated by Pope Julius II with Michelangelo in 1508 started a project that would result, some  years later,  in a ceiling  with biblical episodes, episodes from the Genesiis, the creation of our forefathesrs  and  ended in the painting of  the Last Judgement on the wall behind the altar. The original choice of the subject included the series of the twelve apostles but was later changed into an articulated iconographic program imposed by Michelangelo: the fate of mankind from  the primordial chaos  and the mythical origins of the world to the Redemption. Words cannot describe this titanic painting  and therefore there isnly a solution: a visit to the Sistine Chapel.

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