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Sistine Chapel: The Last Judgement, by Michelangelo Buonarroti

The Sistine Chapel is located inside the Vatican Museums complex, on the Vatican City north side, in Rome, Italy.
The Sistine Chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV Della Rovere (it is therefore also called Sixtine Chapel), and was built between 1475 and 1480.
The structure of the Sistine Chapel is quite simple, with a rectangular plan, but its frescoes are breathtaking.
The side walls and the East wall of the Sistine Chapel were frescoed by many famous artists, among them Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Rosselli.
The vault and the West wall, instead, were painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
On the West wall of the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo painted an extraordinary fresco of the Last Judgement.
If we can say that the Pietà (Mary lamenting the Dead Christ) is the product of the artist's juvenile genius, in the Last Judgement Michelangeloexpressed the highest level of his mature art.
The wall seems to open beyond the Sistine Chapel, on an impressive Last Judgement scenario. The fresco shows scenes from the Old Testament and details taken from other sources, such as the figures of Charon and Minox, from Dante's Divine Comedy.

Creation of Man, by Michelangelo Buonarroti

The composition has a dynamic progress that starts with the sound of the trumpets and reaches its climax in Christ's gesture of condemnation.
In the two crescents: the Angels (Archangel Gabriel among them) carry the symbols of Christ's passion.Below, centre: Christ the Judge, unusually vigorous and without beard, with a powerfully built body.
The Virgin, on the left, turns her eyes compassionately. At their feet, Rome's patron Saints, Saint Lawrence and Saint Bartholomew (Holding his skin, where Michelangelo's self portrait appears).

On the right, Saint Peter holding the keys, Adam and Eve, Esau and Jacob, the Cyrenaic carrying the cross on his shoulders, Saint Sebastian holding the arrows, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Blaise, Dysmas with the cross and Simon Zelotes holding a saw.
On the left, Saint Andrew and the cross, John the Baptist, a naked Eve and Virgil. In the lower section, the Angels in the centre are waking up the dead with their trumpets.
Bottom left: the chosen are ascending to the sky, and they are given back their bodies.

Sain Peter in The Last Judgement

The two men hanging from a rosary are an anti-Lutheran allusion.The sinners condemned to Hell are on the right, where we can see the two characters from Dante's Comedy: Charon e Minos.
Michelangelo gave the latter the face of Biagio da Cesena, who had strongly criticised the artist's work.

The Sistine Chapel represents in painting what Saint Peter's Cathedral is in architecture: the fulfilment of an ideal artistic perfection. In the Sistine Chapel Michelangelo has fully interpreted the Italian Renaissance, using a lively and powerful pictorial language.

This is one of the reasons why the Sistine Chapel keeps attracting visitors from all over the world.

click over one of the four areas to enlarge

The Spring House Hotel in Rome is located about 50 meters aways (a half-minute walk) from the Entrance of the Vatican Museums in Rome, Italy; it is therefore an ideal starting point to visit the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel.


courtesy page offered by Spring House Hotel Rome