Sistine chapel, Rome

(fin. 1483)

   The Sistine Chapel was built for Pope Sixtus IV to replace the 13th-century Great Chapel of Nicholas III. The proportions of the new structure followed the biblical description in I Kings of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple in Jerusalem where the Ark of the Covenant was housed. With this, Sixtus could compare himself to Solomon, hailed for his building activities and wisdom. The chapel's interior was decorated in 1481-1482 with frescoes by some of the leading central Italian masters of the period, namely Sandro Botticelli, Domenico del Ghirlandaio, Luca Signorelli, Cosimo Rosselli, and Pietro Perugino, this last believed to have overseen the commission. These men painted on the walls narratives from the lives of Moses and Christ, paired thematically to denote that the law of the Jews has been supplanted by that of Christians. Although the frescoes on the walls turned out to be somewhat of a fiasco as severe stylistic and compositional discrepancies exist between the scenes, some of the contributions stand out as masterpieces, among them Botticelli's Punishment of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, Ghirlandaio's Calling of Sts. Peter and Andrew, and Perugino's Christ Giving the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to St. Peter. In this decorative campaign, the vault was covered in blue and dotted with stars to resemble the heavens, the understated design replaced in 1508-1512 by Michelangelo's magnificent Sistine ceiling. Later, Michelangelo also replaced Perugino's Assumption on the altar wall, with his Last Judgment (1536-1541). The chapel's overall decoration serves as imposing backdrop for liturgical celebrations and the election of the new pope, which, to this day, takes place in this building. This is why the frescoes on the wall speak of papal primacy and authority while those on the ceiling relate the recognition by mankind of Christianity as the true faith.