Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The Ceiling
The Sistine Chapel provided the greatest challenge of Michelangelo's career, and
painting the 800-sq-metre vaulted ceiling at a height of more than 20m pushed him to
the limits of his genius.
When Pope Julius II first approached him - some say on the advice of his chief ar-
chitect, Bramante, who was keen for Michelangelo to fail - he was reluctant to ac-
cept. He regarded himself as a sculptor and had had virtually no experience painting
frescoes. However, Julius was determined and in 1508 he persuaded Michelangelo to
accept the commission for a fee of 3000 ducats (more or less €1.5 to €2 million in
today's money).
Originally, Pope Julius wanted Michelangelo to paint the twelve apostles and a
series of decorative architectural elements. But the artist rejected this and came up
with a much more complex design to cover the entire ceiling based on stories from
the topic of Genesis. And it's this that you see today.
HEAVENLY BLUE
One of the striking features of the
Giudizio Universale
is the amount of ultramarine blue in the painting -
in contrast with the ceiling frescoes which don't have any. In the 16th century, blue paint was made from
the hugely expensive stone lapis lazuli, and artists were reluctant to use it unless someone else was paying.
In the case of the
Giudizio Universale
, the pope picked up the tab for all of Michelangelo's materials; on
the ceiling, however, the artist had to cover his own expenses and so used less costly colours.
The Ignudi
The focus of the ceiling frescoes are the nine central panels, but set around them are
20 athletic male nudes, known as
ignudi
. These muscle-bound models caused a
scandal when they were first revealed and today art historians are still divided over
their meaning - some claim they are angels, others say that they represent Michelan-
gelo's neo-Platonic vision of ideal man.
Wall Frescoes
If you can tear your eyes from the Michelangelos, the Sistine Chapel also boasts
some superb wall frescoes. These formed part of the original chapel decoration and
