The Sistine Chapel Ceiling

When I visited Rome in the summer, one of the most amazing experiences was walking into the Sistine Chapel and just looking up. Despite the fact that the chapel was rammed with people and the scary security guards kept yelling at people to be quiet, seeing the beautiful frescoes by Michelangelo was just mind blowing, and an experience I will never forget.

The frescoes by Michelangelo tell the story of God's creation of the world as can be read in the book of Genesis, and the panel's show God's creation of man, their fall from grace and the story of the Great Flood as man's punishment for their sins. It should be noted however that not all the panels are in the correct order; and Michelangelo also brings in other figures from elsewhere in the bible.

In 1505, Michelangelo was called to Rome. He was already an incredibly famous artist thanks to his brilliant sculptures. But he wasn't actually called to Rome to begin painting the ceiling. He was actually commissioned by Pope Julius II to build him a magnificent tomb. And Michelangelo took to the task with gusto and huge enthusiasm, spending over 8 months in the quarries of Carrara to chose the best blocks of marble.

Michelangelo became obsessed with the tomb, and for a long time it was all he thought about. The plans for the tomb became more and more grand and Michelangelo's obsession probably started to annoy the Pope who was concentrating more on the rebuilding of St Peters Basilica. And as Julius became more obsessed with the church, he refused to give Michelangelo any more money for the tomb and dismissed the artist from the papal court. He was back in Florence in May 1506, and though bitterly disappointed never lost his enthusiasm for Julius' tomb and it was eventually built many years after Julius' death though it was much, much smaller than the original plan.

It was Julius II who came up with the idea of painting the Sistine chapel ceiling, as the original was rather outdated and didn't fit in with the other paintings on the chapel walls. And in 1508, Michelangelo was the man chosen to repaint the ceiling. There are stories that Michelangelo's rival Bramante suggested Michelangelo as a suitable candidate for the task, hoping to embarrass him. After all, Michelangelo was first and foremost a sculptor and had never proven himself as a fresco painter. In the end it would be Bramante who would be the one with the red face. On the 10th May 1508, Michelangelo wrote in his diary:

"I record that today, May 10 1508, I, Michelangelo sculptor, have received on account from our Holy Lord Pope Julius II five hundred papal ducats counted by Messer Carlino (of the chamber) and Messer Carlo degli Albrizzi, towards the painting of the vault of Pope Sixtus on which I am beginning to work today, upon the conditions and agreements that appear in thee writings of the most reverend Monsignor of Pavia (Francesco Alidosi), and signed in my own hand"

Michelangelo was original contracted to paint the twelve apostles, who were to be seated on thrones. There were to be five on each side of the chapel and one at each end. The rest of the ceiling would be painting geometrically and conventionally. But Michelangelo scrapped this idea and said that "they would turn our poorly". He decided that Julius' plan was too simple, too boring and it wouldn't use enough of his talents (especially his talent of showing the human form unclothed). Instead he began a much more complicated idea which ended up with him painting over 300 human figures and it allowed him a huge artistic outlet that reflected his own deep religious feelings.

The ceiling is made up of nine panels, depicting the stories from Genesis. The first three panels near the altar show the creation of the world by God, the next three show the creation of Adam and Eve and their fall from Grace and the last three show the story of Noah. The Noah panels are painted in reverse order, starting with the drunkenness of Noah and moving backwards. Surrounding the main panels are an assortment of complicated stories, all taken from the bible. Below are pictures of each of the panels:

The Division of Light from Darkness

The Creation of the Sun and Moon

The Separation of the Sky and the Water

The Creation of Adam

The Creation of Eve

The Fall and the Expulsion

The Flood

Noah's Sacrifice

The Drunkenness of Noah

Dotted around the panels are other panels showing other stories from the bible such as David and Goliath and The Prophet Jonah. With David and Goliath, Michelangelo shows the story at its end, when David is beheading the giant; and with Jonah you can see the Prophet about to be eaten by the whale (or fish as the bible states). An interesting point about the painting of Jonah is that Michelangelo painted it from a vantage point less than a metre away from the wall when he was up on his scaffold; and when you look at the painting one wonders how on earth he did it.

David and Goliath

The Prophet Jonah

The Prophet Daniel

The Prophet Isaiah

The ceiling was finished in 1512, four years after it was started; and was unveiled at the vigil of All Saints Day on 31st October. Michelangelo once more entered the Sistine Chapel in 1536 and painted the famous Last Judgement (quite possibly my favourite of his works of art). 

Michelangelo died on 18th February 1564 at the age of nearly 90. Originally buried in Rome, his body was smuggled out of Rome by his nephew and taken to Florence and buried in the church of Santa Croce. His paintings in the Sistine chapel had already become the stuff of legend, and the genius workmanship would be appreciated for many hundreds of years to come. Of course, the work is still the stuff of legend; and thousands upon thousands of people walk through the Sistine Chapel every day just to glimpse these remarkable frescoes..

Further Reading

Robin Richmond, Michelangelo and the Creation of the Sistine Chapel

Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

Andrew Graham-Dixon, Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel

Review - The Bad Popes by Russell Chamberlin

Each of the Popes considered in this book, from the gentle hermit pope Celestine V to the degenerate Rodrigo Borgia and the emperor pope Boniface VIII shared one heavy burden. They were not only the spiritual leaders of Europe but, through an audacious forgery (the so called Donation of Constantine), they were also territorial princes - 'papal monarchs' - struggling to maintain control over an enormous section of Italy. The careers of these popes demonstrate the disastrous effect of combining religion and politics and led at last to the event which ends this book - the Sack of Rome in 1527. Brought about by the inept attempts of Pope Clement VIV against his rival the King of France, the culmination was the sacking of the Eternal City by 20,000 starving, pitiless mercenaries. It was the end of an era.

Ever since I first started reading about the Borgia family, I have found myself becoming more and more interested in the history of the Roman Catholic church. And more so the history of the corrupt Popes from history. So when I saw this book I knew I just had to have it. And I'm glad I did. 

This book starts with an introduction to Rome and the Papacy and describes briefly the Donation of Constantine, which was a forged document giving the Pope of Rome the principality of the Papal states. I won't go too much into what it is and what it did here as it would have to be a whole other blog post. Once the introduction is out of the way Chamberlin then goes on to describe in detail the lives and careers of Rome's most corrupt and decadent popes. Of course Chamberlin does not tell us about each and every Pope as that would just be a bit too much but rather has picked out a selection of those Popes with probably the worst reputations in the history of the Catholic Church. The thing I liked about this though was that Chamberlin doesn't bash the Popes for their behaviour, far from it. Instead he gives an incredibly balanced view of things, and tells the reader of each Popes pluses and minuses, showing how they can go from quite pious and agreeable men, to sheer corruption and it really allows you to draw your own conclusions.

The book itself runs from the early popes in the Theophylact family, who reigned from 926-1046 right up until the sack of Rome in 1527. That is a huge amount of ground to cover yet Chamberlin does a great job in giving the reader the information that they need about each Pope being looked at. Of course, not every aspect can be written about, as that would end up as an entire library. But Chamberlin makes his point, expands on it and covers it in a brilliantly snappy manner that doesn't leave you feeling as if you've swallowed an encyclopedia. And it works.

Of course, my favourite section of the book was on the infamous Rodrigo Borgia who is often seen as the most corrupt Pope in history. Yet the section on him retains a balanced view, and you really get a sense that Rodrigo Borgia wasn't really all that bad. Chamberlin also gives Cesare Borgia the benefit of the doubt too, and while he admits that Cesare wasn't the nicest man in the world, he says he was "probably innocent" of his brothers murder. And this made me smile quite a lot. I must admit that I found the later sections of the book more interesting than the earlier Popes, probably because my area of interest is from the 15th Century onwards, so I did really enjoy the chapters on Alexander VI (Borgia), Julius II (Della Rovere) and the Medici popes. And whilst the chapters give you a fantastic overview of their good points and bad points, it has also given me a thirst to know more about these other Papal monarchs too. And so, I feel incredibly sorry for both my purse and my bookcase!

All in all a fantastic book and highly recommended, especially if you are interested in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and learning a bit more about those Popes who have gone down in history as the worst of the worst.