Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

So-called “Apoxyomenos” (“the Scraper”). Marble, Roman copy of the 1st century AD after a Greek bronze original ca. 320 BC. From the Trastevere in Roma.

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Athena-Marsyas-Gruppe, Rom, Museo Gregoriano Profano

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

L’Amazone Mattei est la meilleure copie existante d’un original perdu en bronze de Phidias, réalisé dans la seconde moitié du cinquième siècle av. J.C.

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Cnidus Aphrodite. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century. Marble; original elements: torso and thighs; restored elements: head, arms, legs and support (drapery and jug).

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

The Apollo Belvedereor Apollo of the Belvedere

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Laocoön and His Sons

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Scène de l’Odyssée

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Attaque des Lestrygons

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Mosaic, Caracalla bath

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Athletenmosaike aus den Caracalla-Thermen

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

 

Stefaneschi Triptych

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Stefaneschi Altarpiece is a triptych by the Italian medieval painter Giotto, commissioned by Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani Stefaneschi^[1] to serve as an altarpiece for one of the altars of Old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Annunciazione (Gentile da Fabriano)

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

 

The Perugia Altarpiece(Italian: Pala di Perugia) is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico

 

Musei Vaticani Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums
Sculptures above the exits of museums
Location of the Vatican Museums within Vatican City
Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap
Established	1506
Location	Vatican City
Coordinates	41°54′23″N 12°27′16″ECoordinates: 41°54′23″N 12°27′16″E
Type	Art museum
Visitors	6,427,277 (2017) [1]
Director	Barbara Jatta[2]
Website	Official website

The Vatican Museums, north of St. Peter’s Basilica

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The Vatican Museums (Italian: Musei Vaticani; Latin: Musea Vaticana) are Christian and art museums located within the city boundaries of the Vatican City. They display works from the immense collection amassed by popesthroughout the centuries including several of the most renowned Roman sculptures and most important masterpieces of Renaissance art in the world. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display,^[3] and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, and restoration departments.^[4]

Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century.^[5]The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze di Raffaello decorated by Raphael, are on the visitor route through the Vatican Museums. In 2017, they were visited by 6 million people, which combined makes it the 5th most visited art museum in the world.^[6][7]

There are 54 galleries, or sale, in total,^{[citation needed]} with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the very last sala within the Museum. It is one of the largest museums in the world.

In 2017, the Museum’s official website and social media presence was completely redone, in accord with current standards and appearances for modern websites.^[8]

History

The Vatican Museums trace their origin to one marble sculpture, purchased in the 16th century: Laocoön and His Sons was discovered on 14 January 1506, in a vineyard near the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. Pope Julius II sent Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were working at the Vatican, to examine the discovery. On their recommendation, the pope immediately purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner. The pope put the sculpture, which depicts the Trojan priest Laocoön and his two sons being attacked by giant serpents, on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery.

Benedict XIV founded the Museum Christianum, and some of the Vatican collections formed the Lateran Museum, which Pius IXfounded by decree in 1854.^[9]

The Museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006 by permanently opening the excavations of a Vatican Hill necropolis to the public.^[10]

On 1 January 2017, Barbara Jatta became the Director of the Vatican Museums, replacing Antonio Paolucci who had been director since 2007.^[11][12]

Pinacoteca Vaticana

The art gallery was housed in the Borgia Apartment until Pope Pius XIordered construction of a proper building. The new building, designed by Luca Beltrami, was inaugurated on 27 October 1932.^[13] The museum has paintings including:

• Giotto‘s Stefaneschi Triptych
• Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Opere di Misericordia
• Raphael’s Madonna of Foligno, Oddi Altarpiece and Transfiguration
• Leonardo da Vinci‘s St. Jerome in the Wilderness
• Caravaggio‘s Entombment
• Perugino‘s Madonna and Child with Saints and San Francesco al Prato Resurrection
• Filippo Lippi‘s Marsuppini Coronation
• Jan Matejko‘s Sobieski at Vienna

Collection of Modern Religious Art

The Collection of Modern Religious Art was added in 1973 and houses paintings and sculptures from artists like Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Salvador Dalí, and Pablo Picasso.^[14]

Sculpture museums

The group of museums includes several sculpture museums surrounding the Cortile del Belvedere. These are the Gregoriano Profano Museum, with classical sculpture, and others as below:

Museo Pio-Clementino

The New Wing, Braccio Nuovobuilt by Raffaele Stern

The Prima Porta Augustus

A Roman naval bireme depicted in a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste(Palestrina),^[15] constructed c. 120 BC;^[16] exhibited in the Pius-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio-Clementino) of the Vatican.

The museum takes its name from two popes; Clement XIV, who established the museum, and Pius VI, the pope who brought the museum to completion. Clement XIV came up with the idea of creating a new museum in Innocent VIII‘s Belvedere Palace and started the refurbishment work.^[17]

Pope Clement XIV founded the Pio-Clementino museum in 1771, and originally it contained the Renaissance and antique works. The museum and collection were enlarged by Clement’s successor Pius VI. Today, the museum houses works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Some notable galleries are:

• Greek Cross Gallery: (Sala a Croce Greca): with the porphyri sarcophagi of Constance and Saint Helen, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great.
• Sala Rotonda: shaped like a miniature Pantheon, the room has impressive ancient mosaics on the floors, and ancient statues lining the perimeter, including a gilded bronze statue of Hercules.
• Gallery of the Statues(Galleria delle Statue): as its name implies, holds various important statues, including Sleeping Ariadneand the bust of Menander. It also contains the Barberini Candelabra.
• Gallery of the Busts (Galleria dei Busti): Many ancient busts are displayed.
• Cabinet of the Masks (Gabinetto delle Maschere): The name comes from the mosaic on the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana, which shows ancient theater masks. Statues are displayed along the walls, including the Three Graces.
• Sala delle Muse: Houses the statue group of Apollo and the nine muses, uncovered in a Roman villa near Tivoli in 1774, as well as statues by important ancient Greek or Roman sculptors. The centerpiece is the Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men.^[18]
• Sala degli Animali: So named because of the many ancient statues of animals.

Tourists in the Pinacoteca Vaticana

Museo Chiaramonti

This museum was founded in the early 19th century by Pope Pius VII, whose surname before his election as pope was Chiaramonti. The museum consists of a large arched gallery in which are exhibited several statues, sarcophagi and friezes. The New Wing, Braccio Nuovo, built by Raffaele Stern, houses statues including the Augustus of Prima Porta, the Doryphoros, and The River Nile. The Galeria Lapidaria forms part of the Museo Chiaramonti, and contains over 3,000 stone tablets and inscriptions. It is accessible only with special permission, usually for the purpose of academic study.

Museo Gregoriano Etrusco

Founded by Pope Gregory XVI in 1836, this museum has eight galleries and houses important Etruscan pieces, coming from archaeological excavations.^[19] The pieces include: vases, sarcophagus, bronzes and the Guglielmi Collection.

Museo Gregoriano Egiziano

This museum houses a large collection of artifacts from Ancient Egypt.^[20] Such material includes papyruses, the Grassi Collection, animal mummies, and reproductions of the Book of the Dead.^[21]

History

The Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was inaugurated on 2 February 1839 to commemorate the anniversary of Gregory XVI’s accession to the papacy. The creation of the Museo Gregoriano Egiziano was particularly close to the pope’s heart as he believed the understanding of ancient Egyptian civilisation was vital in terms of its scientific importance as well as its value in understanding the Old Testament. This feeling was expressed in a paper by the museum’s first curator, the physiologist and Barnabite, Father Luigi Maria Ungarelli.^[17]

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

Statue of the Nile recumbent 1st-2nd Century AD, from Rome Museo Gregoriano Egiziano

Vatican Historical Museum

The Vatican Historical Museum (Italian: Museo storico vaticano) was founded in 1973 at the behest of Pope Paul VI,^[22] and was initially hosted in environments under the Square Garden. In 1987, it moved to the main floor of the Apostolic Palace of the Lateran where it opened in March 1991.

The Vatican Historical Museum has a unique collection of portraits of the Popes from the 16th century to date, the memorable items of the Papal Military Corps of the 16–17th centuries and old religious paraphernalia related to rituals of the papacy. Also on display on the lower floor are the papamobili (Popemobiles); carriages and motorcars of Popes and Cardinals, including the first cars used by Popes.^[23]

Highlights from the Painting Collection

Giacobbe Giusti, Vatican Museums

• 

  Leonardo da Vinci

  St. Jerome in Wilderness, 103 x 75 cm.

   

 

• 

  Giotto di Bondone
  Stefaneschi Triptych, 224 x 245 cm

   

 

• 

  Giovanni Bellini
  Pieta, 106 x 84 cm.

   

 

• 

  Raphael
  Oddi Altarpiece, 272 x 165 cm

   

 

• 

  Raphael
  Transfiguration, 405 x 278 cm.

   

   

• 

  Raphael
  Madonna of Foligno, 320 x 194 cm.

   

• 

  Titian
  Frari Madonna, 338 x 270 cm.

   

   

• 

  Caravaggio
  Entombment, 300 x 203 cm.

   

 

• 

  Veronese
  The Vision of St. Helen, 166 x 134 cm.

   

 

• 

  Correggio
  Christ in Glory, 105 x 98 cm.

   

 

• 

  Titian
  Portrait of Doge Marcello

   

 

• 

  Perugino
  Decemviri Altarpiece, 193 x 165 cm.

   

 

• 

  Raphael
  Adoration of the Magi
  27 x 50 cm.

   

 

• 

  Raphael
  Annunciation
  27 x 50 cm.

   

 

• 

  Raphael
  Presentation in the Temple
  27 x 50 cm.

Other Highlights in the Museum

Gallery of Maps

• The red marble papal throne, formerly in the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano;
• Roman sculpture, tombstones, and inscriptions, including the Early Christian Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus and Dogmatic sarcophagus, and the epitaph of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus;
• The Raphael Rooms with many works by Raphael and his workshop, including the masterpiece The School of Athens
• The Niccoline Chapel
• The Sistine Chapel, including the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
• The Gallery of Maps: topographical maps of the whole of Italy, painted on the walls by friar Ignazio Danti of Perugia, commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII (1572–1585). It remains the world’s largest pictorial geographical study.
• The frescoes and other works in the Borgia Apartment built for Pope Alexander VI (Borgia).

Bramante Staircase; spiral stairs of the Vatican Museums, designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932

• The Bramante Staircase, is a double spiral staircasedesigned by Giuseppe Momo in 1932. The staircase has two parts, a double helix, and is of shallow incline, being a stepped ramp rather than a true staircase. It is encircles the outer wall of a stairwell of approximately fifteen metres (49 feet) wide and with a clear space at the centre. The balustrade around the ramp is of ornately worked metal.

Visitors

The Museums had 6,427,277 visitors in 2017, making them the fourth-most-visited art museum in the world.^[1]

On the last Sunday of each month, the Vatican Museum is open to the public for free. It is popular and common for people to wait in line for many hours. The other days of the week tickets are available online or in-person. This image is a panoramic view of one small stretch of the entire queue on Sunday 29 April 2007, which continues for some distance in both directions beyond view.

Former entrance (now an exit) to the Vatican Museums, Vatican City

• Accademia, Venice
• Uffizi, Florence
• Index of Vatican City-related articles
• List of most visited art museums

References

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b The Art Newspaper Review, April 2018
2. Jump up^ Troszczynska, Katarzyna (1 January 2017). « To ona rządzi w Watykanie. Kim jest Barbara Jatta? » [Who is Barbara Jatta? She is the director of the Vatican] (in Polish). Virtual Poland. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
3. Jump up^ « Meet Antonio Paolucci ». Divento. Archived from the original on 2016-12-29. Retrieved 2016-12-28.
4. Jump up^ Jatta, Barbara (16 October 2016). « The Vatican Museums: transformation of an organisation » (PDF). Vatican Museums. Retrieved 29 August2017.
5. Jump up^ Bianchini, Riccardo (30 August 2017). « Vatican Museums – Rome ». Inexhibit. Retrieved 30 August 2017.
6. Jump up^ Top 100 Art Museum Attendance, The Art Newspaper, 2014. Retrieved on 13 July 2014.
7. Jump up^ « Museums and gallery visitors figure for 2017 ». Retrieved 18 March 2018.
8. Jump up^ « Conferenza Stampa di presentazione del nuovo sito web dei Musei Vaticani., 23.01.2017 »[Press Conference Presentation of the New Vatican Museum Website, 23.01.2017] (Press release) (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. Retrieved 29 August2017.
9. Jump up^  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). « Christian Museums« . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
10. Jump up^ McMahon, Barbara (10 October 2006). « Ancient Roman treasures found under Vatican car park ». The Guardian. Manchester. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
11. Jump up^ Glatz, Carol (20 December 2016). « Pope names first woman to head Vatican Museums ». The Catholic Herald. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
12. Jump up^ Rykner, Didier (7 December 2007). « Antonio Paolucci, the new Director of the Vatican Museums ». The Art Tribune. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
13. Jump up^ « Pinacoteca ». Vatican Museums. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
14. Jump up^ « The Vatican Museums ». Vatican City State. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
15. Jump up^ Saddington, D.B. (2011). « Classes: the Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets Plate 12.2 on p. 204 ». In Erdkamp, Paul. A Companion to the Roman Army. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 201–217. ISBN 978-1-4051-2153-8.
16. Jump up^ Coarelli, Filippo (1987). I Santuari del Lazio in età repubblicana [The Sanctuaries of Lazio in the Republican age] (in Italian). Carocci. pp. 35–84. (Subscription required (help)).
17. ^ Jump up to:^a b Bertoldi, Susanna (2011). The Vatican Museum: Discover the history, the works of art, the collections. Vatican City: Sillabe. pp. 46, 96. ISBN 978-88-8271-210-5.
18. Jump up^ Montebello, Philippe De; Kathleen Howard (1983). « Sala delle Muse ». The Vatican: Spirit and Art of Christian Rome. Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 178–180. ISBN 978-08-70993480.
19. Jump up^ « Museo Gregoriano Etrusco ». Vatican Museums. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
20. Jump up^ « Gregorian Egyptian Museum ». Vatican Museums. Retrieved 2014-08-21.
21. Jump up^ « Monuments exhibited in Room II of the Egyptian Museum ». Archived from the original on 5 July 2011.
22. Jump up^ Guide to the Vatican Museums and City. Musei Vaticani. 1986. ISBN 978-88-86921-11-4. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
23. Jump up^ « Museo Storico Vaticano (San Giovanni) ». Roma Capitale. Retrieved 28 August 2017.

Further reading

• G. Spinola, Il Museo Pio-Clementino (3 vols., 1996, 1999, 2004)
• G. B. Visconti and E. Q. Visconti, Il Museo Pio-Clementino Descritto (8 vols., 1782–1792)
• Daley, John (1982). The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0810917118.
• Peter Rohrbacher: Völkerkunde und Afrikanistik für den Papst. Missionsexperten und der Vatikan 1922–1939 in: Römische Historische Mitteilungen 54 (2012), 583–610.

Vatican Museums.

• Official website 
• Vatican Museums official on-line ticket office
• Official English information

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Museums

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

Holle, Gerard du Ry van Beest (Hg.),Kunstgeschichte, Mueller Karl, Erlangen 1994

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

Autore	Michelangelo Buonarroti
Data	1508 circa
Tecnica	affresco
Dimensioni	280×560 cm
Ubicazione	Cappella Sistina, Musei Vaticani, Città del Vaticano (Roma)

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

Dettaglio

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Sistine chapel – Deluge

Dettaglio

Il Diluvio Universale è un affresco (280×560 cm) di Michelangelo Buonarroti, databile al 1508–1510circa e facente parte della decorazione della volta della Cappella Sistina, nei Musei Vaticani a Roma, commissionata da Giulio II.

Storia

Nel dipingere la volta, Michelangelo procedette dalle campate vicino alla porta d’ingresso, quella usata durante i solenni ingressi in cappella del pontefice e del suo seguito, fino alla campata sopra l’altare. Il Diluvio Universale (Genesi 6,5-8,20) fa quindi parte del primo blocco, e secondo Ascanio Condivi fu la prima scena a essere dipinta sul soffitto.

La scena mostra qualche disparità esecutiva che conferma le notizie di problemi tecnici (una miscela impropria nell’intonaco che causò muffe) e della presenza di collaboratori, nella fase iniziale del lavoro.

Fin dalla prima scopertura degli affreschi, il Diluvioriscosse particolari dimostrazioni di stima. Vasariad esempio scrisse una descrizione incisiva: «nella storia del Diluvio, dove appaiono diverse morti d’uomini, che spaventati dal terror di quei giorni, cercano il più che possono per diverse vie scampo alle lor vite. Perciò che nelle teste di quelle figure, si conosce la vita esser in preda della morte, non meno che la paura, il terrore et il disprezzo d’ogni cosa. Vedevisi la pietà di molti, aiutandosi l’un l’altro tirarsi al sommo d’un sasso cercando scampo. Tra’ quali vi è uno che abracciato un mezzo morto, cerca il più che può di camparlo, che la natura non lo mostra meglio» (Le Vite, 1568).

L’affresco venne interessato da vari danni, come cadute (visibile nel lembo di cielo al centro di un colore diverso) e numerose crepe, soprattutto in occasione dello scoppio della polveriera di Castel Sant’Angelo nel 1791.

Descrizione e stile

Il Diluvio fa parte delle nove Storie della Genesi, in particolare è la penultima della serie, a metà delle tre Storie di Noè degli ultimi riquadri. Queste scene andavano a comporre un mosaico delle storie dell’umanità « ante legem », prima cioè di Mosè (le cui storie si trovano nei riquadri alle pareti opera di artisti quattrocenteschi). Ciascuna di queste scene della Genesi aveva inoltre una lettura a ritroso legata alla prefigurazione della Settimana Santa, le cui solenni celebrazioni avevano luogo nella cappella e prevedevano una processione che dall’ingresso cerimoniale arrivava all’altare. In questo sistema di concordanze il Diluvio rappresentava il Battesimo di Cristo: come l’acqua del battesimo cancella i peccati, così l’acqua del diluvio purificò il mondo dai peccatori. L’Arca di Noè era poi simbolo della Chiesa stessa: essa è di legno, come il legno della Croce, e analogamente ad esso è un mezzo di salvezza.

A differenza delle scene successive, vi sono raffigurate circa sessanta figure, relativamente piccole. I personaggi spesso nudi, sono, raggruppati e distribuiti lungo direttrici diagonali che accentuano la profondità prospettica. Secondo l’interpretazione dell’episodio fornita da Ugo da San Vittore, l’umanità si divise in tre gruppi umani, ciascuno visibile nell’affresco michelangiolesco. I giusti trovano posto nell’arca (quindi nella Chiesa) e vi trovano la Salvezza; i reprobi tentano di assalirla; il resto delle persone, pur non essendo malvagie, sono perduti per via del loro attaccamento alle cose del mondo, che causeranno la loro fine. Questi ultimi sono la schiera di persone in primo piano che cerca rifugio sulla terra ferma, portando vistosamente i propri beni: alcuni cercano di salire sugli alberi, altri hanno sulle spalle o i propri figli o i familiari. Di essi fanno parte anche le figure sull’isolotto di destra, dove spicca il commovente gruppo dell’anziano genitore che con forza titanica e grande fatica porta in braccio il corpo stremato del figlio. In generale sembra che quest’ultima tipologia di figure abbia la consapevolezza della loro sorte, accettandola dolorosamente ma con rassegnazione, cercando piuttosto di aiutare i più deboli, per quanto possibile.

I reprobi invece sono visibili anche sulla barchetta al centro, mentre litigano l’uno contro l’altro per impedire ad altri di imbarcarsi e rischiando l’affondamento; un altro gruppo cerca di dare assalto all’arca, con una scala o con un’accetta per fare a pezzi lo scafo. Ma niente sembra turbare la grandiosa imbarcazione, simile a una cittadella, sulla quale è già discesa la colomba dello Spirito Santo e Noè vi si affaccia, a sinistra, per vedere il segno divino di un raggio di sole, al centro del cielo come un disco dorato.

Le prime cinque « giornate » (su un totale di ventinove) riguardarono le figure sull’isolotto a destra, che sono condotte a secco (i due personaggi in primo piano a destra del barilotto) o comunque non a « buon fresco » (il giovane nudo sdraiato al centro). Dopodiché dovettero aver luogo i contrasti con gli assistenti, che vennero licenziati, e l’artista dovette procedere da solo, a « buon fresco ». Tra queste parti alcune hanno una maggiore freschezza, eseguite dal maestro, mentre altre sono più impacciate, legate alla preoccupazione di seguire attentamente il disegno del cartone, con un modellato più debole e una minore ricchezza nelle pennellate.

Nonostante gli scarti qualitativi, essi non sono sufficienti ad attenuare l’effetto della grandiosa invenzione compositiva.

 

Bibliografia

• Pierluigi De Vecchi, La Cappella Sistina, Rizzoli, Milano 1999

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diluvio_universale_(Michelangelo)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo, lunetta, Jacob – Joseph

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Perugino: Taufe Christi

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Botticelli: Begebenheiten aus dem Leben des Mose

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Ghirlandaio: The.Calling.of.the.First.Apostles

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Perugino, Consegna delle chiavi

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Botticcelli, Sandro – The Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

V&A – Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Signorelli: Testament und Tod Mose

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo, The Libyan Sibyl

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Rosselli: Die Bergpredigt

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Detail from The Last Judgement by Michelangelo

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Rosselli: Das letzte Abendmahl

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Hendrick van den Broeck Resurrection of Christ

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo – Fresco of the Last Judgement

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Creazione di Adamo

Michelangelo Buonarroti 

Sistine Chapel Cappella Sistina(Italian) Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel, from the altar end
Location on a map of Vatican City
Basic information
Location	Vatican City
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
District	Diocese of Rome
Country	Vatican City
Year consecrated	15 August 1483
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Papal oratory
Leadership	Francis
Website	mv.vatican.va
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Baccio Pontelli, Giovanni de Dolci[1]
Architectural type	Church
Groundbreaking	1473[1]
Completed	1481[1]
Specifications
Length	40.9 metres (134 ft)
Width (nave)	13.4 metres (44 ft)
Height (max)	20.7 metres (68 ft)
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Vatican City
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iv, vi
Designated	1984[2]
Reference no.	286
State Party	Holy See
Region	Europe and North America

The Sistine Chapel(/ˌsɪstiːn ˈtʃæpəl/; Latin: Sacellum Sixtinum; Italian: Cappella Sistina[kapˈpɛlla siˈstiːna]) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between 1477 and 1480. Since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.^[3][4]

Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the chapel’s ceiling, a project which changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization.^[5][6] In a different climate after the Sack of Rome, he returned and between 1535 and 1541, painted The Last Judgment for Popes Clement VII and Paul III.^[7]The fame of Michelangelo’s paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago.

History

While known as the location of Papal conclaves, the primary function of the Sistine Chapel is as the chapel of the Papal Chapel(Cappella Pontificia), one of the two bodies of the Papal household, called until 1968 the Papal Court(Pontificalis Aula). At the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the late 15th century, the Papal Chapelcomprised about 200 people, including clerics, officials of the Vatican and distinguished laity. There were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet.^[8] Of these 50 occasions, 35 were masses, of which 8 were held in Basilicas, in general St. Peter’s, and were attended by large congregations. These included the Christmas Day and Easter masses, at which the Pope himself was the celebrant. The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, for which the Cappella Maggiore was used before it was rebuilt on the same site as the Sistine Chapel.

The Cappella Maggiore derived its name, the Greater Chapel, from the fact that there was another chapel also in use by the Pope and his retinue for daily worship. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV, this was the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, which had been decorated by Fra Angelico. The Cappella Maggiore is recorded as existing in 1368. According to a communication from Andreas of Trebizond to Pope Sixtus IV, by the time of its demolition to make way for the present chapel, the Cappella Maggiore was in a ruinous state with its walls leaning.^[9]

The Sistine Chapel as it may have appeared in the 15th century (19th-century drawing)

The present chapel, on the site of the Cappella Maggiore, was designed by Baccio Pontelli for Pope Sixtus IV, for whom it is named, and built under the supervision of Giovannino de Dolci between 1473 and 1481.^[1] The proportions of the present chapel appear to closely follow those of the original. After its completion, the chapel was decorated with frescoes by a number of the most famous artists of the High Renaissance, including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino, and Michelangelo.^[9]

The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 15 August 1483, the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.^[10]

The Sistine Chapel has maintained its function to the present day, and continues to host the important services of the Papal Calendar, unless the Pope is travelling. There is a permanent choir, the Sistine Chapel Choir, for whom much original music has been written, the most famous piece being Gregorio Allegri‘s Miserere.^[11]

Papal conclave

Main article: Papal conclave

One of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, from which smoke arises as a signal. If white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election, a new Pope has been elected. If a candidate receives less than a two-thirds vote, the cardinals send up black smoke — created by burning the ballots along with wet straw and chemical additives — it means that no successful election has yet occurred.^[12]

The conclave also provided for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time attended by servants. From 1455, conclaves have been held in the Vatican; until the Great Schism, they were held in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.^[13] Since 1996, John Paul II‘s Apostolic ConstitutionUniversi Dominici gregis requires the cardinals to be lodged in the Domus Sanctae Marthae during a papal conclave, but to continue to vote in the Sistine Chapel.^[14]

Canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves—a sign of equal dignity. After the new Pope accepts his election, he would give his new name; at this time, the other Cardinals would tug on a rope attached to their seats to lower their canopies. Until reforms instituted by Saint Pius X, the canopies were of different colours to designate which Cardinals had been appointed by which Pope. Paul VI abolished the canopies altogether, since, under his papacy, the population of the College of Cardinals had increased so much to the point that they would need to be seated in rows of two against the walls, making the canopies obstruct the view of the cardinals in the back row.

Architecture

Structure

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Exterior of the Sistine Chapel

The chapel is a high rectangular building, for which absolute measurements are hard to ascertain, as available measurements are for the interior: 40.9 metres (134 ft) long by 13.4 metres (44 ft) wide, the dimensionsof the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament.^[15]

Its exterior is unadorned by architectural or decorative details, as is common in many Italian churches of the Medieval and Renaissanceeras. It has no exterior façade or exterior processional doorways, as the ingress has always been from internal rooms within the Apostolic Palace (Papal Palace), and the exterior can be seen only from nearby windows and light-wells in the palace. Subsidence and cracking of masonry such as must also have affected the Cappella Maggiore has necessitated the building of very large buttresses to brace the exterior walls. The accretion of other buildings has further altered the exterior appearance of the Chapel.

The building is divided into three stories of which the lowest is a very tall basement level with several utilitarian windows and a doorway giving onto the exterior court. Internally, the basement is robustly vaulted to support the chapel. Above is the main space, the Sistine Chapel, the vaulted ceiling rising to 20.7 metres (68 ft). The building had six tall arched windows down each side and two at either end, several of which have been blocked. Above the vault is a third story with wardrooms for guards. At this level, an open projecting gangway was constructed, which encircled the building supported on an arcade springing from the walls. The gangway has been roofed as it was a continual source of water leaking in to the vault of the Chapel.

A reconstruction of the appearance of the chapel in the 1480s, prior to the painting of the ceiling.

The general proportions of the chapel use the length as the unit of measurement. This has been divided by three to get the width and by two to get the height. Maintaining the ratio, there were six windows down each side and two at either end. Defined proportions were a feature of Renaissance architectureand reflected the growing interest in the Classical heritage of Rome.

The ceiling of the chapel is a flattened barrel vault springing from a course that encircles the walls at the level of the springing of the window arches. This barrel vault is cut transversely by smaller vaults over each window, which divide the barrel vault at its lowest level into a series of large pendentives rising from shallow pilasters between each window. The barrel vault was originally painted brilliant-blue and dotted with gold stars, to the design of Piermatteo Lauro de’ Manfredi da Amelia.^[9] The pavement is in opus alexandrinum, a decorative style using marble and coloured stone in a pattern that reflects the earlier proportion in the division of the interior and also marks the processional way from the main door, used by the Pope on important occasions such as Palm Sunday.

A screen or transenna in marble by Mino da Fiesole, Andrea Bregno, and Giovanni Dalmata divides the chapel into two parts.^[16] Originally these made equal space for the members of the Papal Chapel within the sanctuary near the altar and the pilgrims and townsfolk without. However, with growth in the number of those attending the Pope, the screen was moved giving a reduced area for the faithful laity. The transenna is surmounted by a row of ornate candlesticks, once gilt, and has a wooden door, where once there was an ornate door of gilded wrought iron. The sculptors of the transenna also provided the cantoriaor projecting choir gallery.

Decoration

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Diagram of part of the vertical fresco decoration of the Sistine Chapel

The first stage in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel was the painting of the ceiling in blue, studded with gilt stars, and with decorative borders around the architectural details of the pendentives. This was entirely replaced when Michelangelo came to work on the ceiling in 1508.

Of the present scheme of frescos, the earliest part is that of the side walls. They are divided into three main tiers. The central tier of the walls has two cycles of paintings, which complement each other, The Life of Moses and The Life of Christ. They were commissioned in 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV and executed by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Cosimo Roselli and their workshops. They originally ran all round the walls, but have since been replaced on both end walls.

The project was perhaps supervised by Perugino, who arrived at the chapel prior to the Florentines. It is probable that the commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and Roselli was part of a reconciliation project between Lorenzo de’ Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, and Pope Sixtus IV. The Florentines started to work in the Sistine Chapel in the Spring of 1481.

Beneath the cycles of The Life of Moses and The Life of Christ, the lower level of the walls is decorated with frescoed hangings in silver and gold. Above the narrative frescos, the upper tier is divided into two zones. At the lower level of the windows is a Gallery of Popespainted at the same time as the Lives. Around the arched tops of the windows are areas known as the lunettes which contain the Ancestors of Christ, painted by Michelangelo as part of the scheme for the ceiling.

The ceiling was commissioned by Pope Julius II and painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. The commission was originally to paint the twelve apostles on the triangular pendentives which support the vault; however, Michelangelo demanded a free hand in the pictorial content of the scheme. He painted a series of nine pictures showing God’s Creation of the World, God’s Relationship with Mankind, and Mankind’s Fall from God’s Grace. On the large pendentives he painted twelve Biblical and Classical men and women who prophesied that God would send Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind, and around the upper parts of the windows, the Ancestors of Christ.

In 1515, Raphael was commissioned by Pope Leo X to design a series of ten tapestries to hang around the lower tier of the walls.^[17] The tapestries depict events from the Life of St. Peter and the Life of St. Paul, the founders of the Christian Church in Rome, as described in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Work began in mid-1515. Due to their large size, manufacture of the hangings was carried out in Brussels, and took four years under the hands of the weavers in the shop of Pieter van Aelst.^[18] Raphael’s tapestries were looted during the Sack of Rome in 1527 and were either burnt for their precious metal content or were scattered around Europe. In the late 20th century, a set was reassembled from several further sets that had been made after the first set, and displayed again in the Sistine Chapel in 1983. The tapestries continue in use at occasional ceremonies of particular importance. The full-size preparatory cartoonsfor seven of the ten tapestries are known as the Raphael Cartoons and are in London.^[19]

At this point, the decorative scheme displayed a consistent iconographical pattern. The tier of Popes, which, in the scheme intended by Pope Julius, would have appeared immediately below the Twelve Apostles, would have emphasised the apostolic succession. It has been argued that the present scheme shows the two Biblical Testaments merged in order to reveal the Old predicting and framing the New, synthesizing, the logic of the Christian Bible.^[20]

This was disrupted by a further commission to Michelangelo to decorate the wall above the altar with The Last Judgment, 1537–1541. The painting of this scene necessitated the obliteration of two episodes from the Lives, the Nativity of Jesus and the Finding of Moses; several of the Popes and two sets of Ancestors.

Frescoes

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Trials of Moses by Botticelli

The southern wall is decorated with the Stories of Moses, painted in 1481–1482. Starting from the altar, they include:

• Moses Leaving to Egypt by Pietro Perugino and assistants
• The Trials of Moses by Sandro Botticelli and his workshop
• The Crossing of the Red Sea by Cosimo Rosselli, Domenico Ghirlandaio or Biagio di Antonio Tucci
• Descent from Mount Sinai by Cosimo Rosselli or Piero di Cosimo
• Punishment of the Rebels by Sandro Botticelli
• Testament and Death of Mosesby Luca Signorelli or Bartolomeo della Gatta

Northern wall

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

The Delivery of the Keys by Perugino

The northern wall houses the Stories of Jesus, dating to 1481–1482. They include:

• Baptism of Christ by Pietro Perugino and assistants
• Temptation of Christ by Sandro Botticelli
• Vocation of the Apostles by Domenico Ghirlandaio
• The Sermon on the Mount, attributed to Cosimo Rosselli
• The Delivery of the Keys by Pietro Perugino
• The Last Supper by Cosimo Rosselli

Eastern wall

• Resurrection of Christ

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

• 

  Resurrection of Christ

  by Hendrick van den Broeck (1572) over Domenico Ghirlandaio’s original

 

• Disputation over Moses’ Body by Matteo da Lecce (1574) over Luca Signorelli’s original

Michelangelo’s frescoes

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1508 to repaint the vault, or ceiling, of the Chapel. It was originally painted as golden stars on a blue sky. The work was completed between 1508 and 2 November 1512.^[21] He painted the Last Judgment over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, on commission from Pope Paul IIIFarnese.^[22]

Michelangelo was intimidated by the scale of the commission, and made it known from the outset of Julius II’s approach that he would prefer to decline. He felt he was more of a sculptor than a painter, and was suspicious that such a large-scale project was being offered to him by enemies as a set-up for an inevitable fall. For Michelangelo, the project was a distraction from the major marble sculpture that had preoccupied him for the previous few years.^[23]

The sources of Michelangelo’s inspiration are not easily determined; both Joachite and Augustinian theologians were within the sphere of Julius influence.^[24]

Ceiling

: Sistine Chapel ceiling

: Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling

To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo needed a support; the first idea was by Julius’ favoured architect Donato Bramante, who wanted to build for him a scaffold to be suspended in the air with ropes. However, Bramante did not successfully complete the task, and the structure he built was flawed. He had perforated the vault in order to lower strings to secure the scaffold. Michelangelo laughed when he saw the structure, and believed it would leave holes in the ceiling once the work was ended. He asked Bramante what was to happen when the painter reached the perforations, but the architect had no answer.

The matter was taken before the Pope, who ordered Michelangelo to build a scaffold of his own. Michelangelo created a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall, high up near the top of the windows. Contrary to popular belief, he did not lie on this scaffolding while he painted, but painted from a standing position.^[25]

Michelangelo used bright colours, easily visible from the floor. On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section, Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis. He was originally commissioned to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles. He turned down the commission because he saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter. The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a compromise. After the work was finished, there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Evein the Garden of Eden, and the Great Flood.

The painted area is about 40 m (131 ft) long by 13 m (43 ft) wide. This means that Michelangelo painted well over 5,000 square feet (460 m²) of frescoes.^[26]

Last Judgement

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement.

 The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)

The Last Judgement was painted by Michelangelo from 1535 to 1541, between two important historic events, the Sack of Rome by mercenary forces of the Holy Roman Empire in 1527 and the Council of Trent which commenced in 1545. The work was designed on a grand scale, and spans the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. The painting depicts the second coming of Christ on the Day of Judgment as described in the Revelation of John, Chapter 20. High on the wall is the heroic figure of Christ, with the saints clustered in groups around him. At the bottom left of the painting the dead are raised from their graves and ascend to be judged. To the right are those who are assigned to Hell and are dragged down by demons.

The Last Judgement was an object of a bitter dispute between Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo. Because he depicted naked figures, the artist was accused of immorality and obscenity. A censorship campaign (known as the « Fig-Leaf Campaign ») was organized by Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua‘s ambassador) to remove the frescoes.

The Pope’s Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena said « it was most disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns, »^[27] In response Michelangelo worked da Cesena’s semblance into the scene as Minos, judge of the underworld. It is said that when he complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so the portrait would have to remain. Michelangelo also painted his own portrait, on the flayed skin held by St Bartholomew.

The genitalia in the fresco were later covered by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom history remembers by the derogatory nickname « Il Braghettone » (« the breeches-painter »).

Restoration and controversy

Main article: Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes

The Sistine Chapel’s ceiling restoration began on 7 November 1984. The restoration complete, the chapel was re-opened to the public on 8 April 1994. The part of the restoration in the Sistine Chapel that has caused the most concern is the ceiling, painted by Michelangelo. The emergence of the brightly coloured Ancestors of Christ from the gloom sparked a reaction of fear that the processes being employed in the cleaning were too severe and removed the original intent of the artist.

Daniel, before and after restoration.

The problem lies in the analysis and understanding of the techniques utilised by Michelangelo, and the technical response of the restorers to that understanding. A close examination of the frescoes of the lunettes convinced the restorers that Michelangelo worked exclusively in « buon fresco« ; that is, the artist worked only on freshly laid plaster and each section of work was completed while the plaster was still in its fresh state. In other words, Michelangelo did not work « a secco« ; he did not come back later and add details onto the dry plaster.

The restorers, by assuming that the artist took a universal approach to the painting, have taken a universal approach to the restoration. A decision was made that all of the shadowy layer of animal glue and « lamp black », all of the wax, and all of the overpainted areas were contamination of one sort or another: smoke deposits, earlier restoration attempts, and painted definition by later restorers in an attempt to enliven the appearance of the work. Based on this decision, according to Arguimbau’s critical reading of the restoration data that have been provided, the chemists of the restoration team decided upon a solvent that would effectively strip the ceiling down to its paint-impregnated plaster. After treatment, only that which was painted « buon fresco » would remain.^{[citation needed]}

Replicas

The only reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted by Gary Bevans at a church in Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex, England.^[28] A full-size architectural and photographic replica of the entire building was commissioned by the Mexican Government and funded by private donors.^[29] It was on view at Mexico City from June 1 to July 15, 2016; it may then be exhibited at other Mexican cities and possibly elsewhere in the world. It took 2.6 million high definition photographs to reproduce the totality of the frescoes and tapestries.^[30] A video of the history of the Chapel is shown to the visitors before entering the building; inside, a light-and-sound demonstration explains the content of each of the frescoes.

Quotes on Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel

« Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving. »

— Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 23 August 1787, ^[31]

« This work has been and truly is a beacon of our art, and it has brought such benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting that it was sufficient to illuminate a world which for so many hundreds of years had remained in the state of darkness. And, to tell the truth, anyone who is a painter no longer needs to concern himself about seeing innovations and inventions, new ways of painting poses, clothing on figures, and various awe-inspiring details, for Michelangelo gave to this work all the perfection that can be given to such details. »

— Giorgio Vasari on Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel

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• Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
• Miserere (Allegri)

References

Citations

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Ekelund, Hébert & Tollison 2006, p. 313
2. Jump up^ Vatican City, Whc.unesco.org, retrieved 9 August 2011
3. Jump up^ Pietrangeli 1986, p. 28
4. Jump up^ Monfasani, John (1983), « A Description of the Sistine Chapel under Pope Sixtus IV », Artibus et Historiae, IRSA s.c., 4 (7): 9–18, doi:10.2307/1483178, ISSN 0391-9064, JSTOR 1483178.
5. Jump up^ Gardner, Helen (1970) Art through the Ages, p. 469, Harcourt, Brace and World. ISBN 978-0-15-508315-8
6. Jump up^ Robert Coughlan, The World of Michelangelo, Time-Life International, (1966) p. 116
7. Jump up^ Robert Coughlan, p. 127
8. Jump up^ Pietrangeli 1986, p. 24
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b c John Shearman, « The Chapel of Sixtus IV ». In Pietrangeli 1986
10. Jump up^ « The Sistine Chapel », Vatican Museums, retrieved 9 August 2013
11. Jump up^ Stevens, Abel & Floy, James. « Allegri’s Miserere ». The National Magazine, Carlton & Phillip, 1854. 531.
12. Jump up^ Saunders, Fr. William P. « The Path to the Papacy« . Arlington Catholic Herald, 17 March 2005. Retrieved on 2 June 2008.
13. Jump up^ Chambers, D. S. (1978), « Papal Conclaves and Prophetic Mystery in the Sistine Chapel », Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, The Warburg Institute, 41: 322–326, doi:10.2307/750878, JSTOR 750878.
14. Jump up^ « Interesting Conclave Facts ». ewtn.com.
15. Jump up^ Campbell, Ian (1981), « The New St Peter’s: Basilica or Temple? » (PDF), Oxford Art Journal, 4 (1): 3–8, doi:10.1093/oxartj/4.1.3, ISSN 0142-6540, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2015.
16. Jump up^ Hersey 1993, p. 180
17. Jump up^ Talvacchia 2007, p. 150
18. Jump up^ Talvacchia 2007, p. 152
19. Jump up^ Cheney, Iris. Review of « Raphael’s Cartoons in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen and the Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel » by John Shearman ». The Art Bulletin, Volume 56, No. 4, December 1974. 607–609.
20. Jump up^ Oliveira, Paulo Martins « The Sistine Chapel and the two Testaments« , 2013, (online, academia.edu)
21. Jump up^ Graham-Dixon 2008, p. 2
22. Jump up^ Stollhans, Cynthia (1988), « Michelangelo’s Nude Saint Catherine of Alexandria », Woman’s Art Journal, Woman’s Art, Inc., 19 (1): 26–30, doi:10.2307/1358651, ISSN 0270-7993, JSTOR 1358651.
23. Jump up^ Graham-Dixon 2008, p. 1
24. Jump up^ Graham-Dixon 2008, p. xii
25. Jump up^ 7 Things You May Not Know About the Sistine Chapel
26. Jump up^ Michelangelo – The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, « Seven Common Questions About the Frescoes »
27. Jump up^ Vasari 1987, p. 379
28. Jump up^ Welcome to The Sistine Chapel Reproduction United Kingdom
29. Jump up^ Vatican Approves $2.4 Million Replica of Sistine Chapel in Mexico City
30. Jump up^ Full-size replica of Vatican’s Sistine Chapel opens in Mexico City
31. Jump up^ Letter. Original: (in German) Ich kann euch nicht ausdrücken, wie sehr ich euch zu mir gewünscht habe, damit ihr nur einen Begriff hättet, was ein einziger und ganzer Mensch machen und ausrichten kann; ohne die Sixtinische Kapelle gesehen zu haben, kann man sich keinen anschauenden Begriff machen, was ein Mensch vermag. Italian Journey, 2nd journey to Rome.^{Italienische Reise, Teil 21}

Bibliography

• Deimling, Barbara (2000), Sandro Botticelli 1444/45–1510, Köln: Taschen, ISBN 3-8228-5992-3
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• Ekelund, Robert B.; Hébert, Robert F.; Tollison, Robert D. (2006), The Marketplace of Christianity, Cambridge: MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-05082-X
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• Hersey, George (1993), High Renaissance Art in St. Peter’s and the Vatican, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-32782-5
• Michelangelo (1999), Bull, George, ed., Michelangelo, Life, Letters, and Poetry, Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-283770-2
• Pietrangeli, Carlo, ed. (1986), The Sistine Chapel, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-517-56274-X
• Seymour, Charles (1972), Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel Ceiling: illustrations, introductory essays, backgrounds and sources, critical essay, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-04319-3
• Stinger, Charles (1998), The Renaissance in Rome, Bloomington: Indianapolis, ISBN 0-253-21208-1
• Talvacchia, Bette (2007), Raphael, Oxford Oxfordshire: Phaidon Press, ISBN 978-0-7148-4786-3
• Vasari, Giorgio (1987), The Lives of the Artists, George Bull, New York: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-044500-5
• Wright, Lawrence (1983), Perspective in Perspective, London: Routledge & K. Paul, ISBN 0-7100-0791-4

Further reading

• Ettlinger, Leopold (1965), The Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo: Religious Imagery and Papal Primacy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, OCLC 230168041
• King, Ross (2003), Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling, New York: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-200369-7
• Lewine, Carol (1993), The Sistine Chapel Walls and the Roman Liturgy, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 0-271-00792-3
• Hirst, Michael; Colalucci, Gianluigi; Mancinelli, Fabrizio; Shearman, John; Winner, Matthias; Maeder, Edward; De Vecchi, Pierluigi; Nazzareno, Gabrielli; et al. (1994), Pietrangeli, Carlo, ed., The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration, Takashi Okamura (photographer), New York: H.N. Abrams, ISBN 0-8109-3840-5
• Pfeiffer, Heinrich (2007), Die Sixtinische Kapelle neu entdeckt (in German), Stuttgart: Belser, ISBN 978-0-8109-3840-3
• Stone, Irving (2004), The Agony and the Ecstasy, London: Nal Trade, ISBN 0-451-21323-8. Previously publish by Doubleday in 1961; a novel.
• Blech, Benjamin; Doliner, Roy (2008), The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, New York: HarperOne, ISBN 978-0-06-146904-6
• The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1982. ISBN 0-87099-348-8.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: The Deluge

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: The Deluge

Michelangelo, Deluge (part.)

 

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: The Deluge

The Deluge after restoration

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: The Deluge

Michelangelo, Deluge (part.)

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: The Deluge

Michelangelo, Deluge (part.)

Author Michelangelo Buonarroti

Approximately 1508 days

fresco technique

Dimensions 280 × 560 cm

Location Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, Vatican City (Rome)

The Deluge is a fresco (280×560 cm) by Michelangelo Buonarroti, datable  about 1508-1510 and is part of the decoration of the vault of the Sistine Chapel, in the Vatican Museums in Rome, commissioned by Julius II.

 

 

In painting the vault, Michelangelo proceeded from the bays near the entrance door, the one used during the solemn entry into the chapel of the pontiff and his suite, up to the span above the altar. The Deluge (Genesis 6.5-8.20) is therefore part of the first block, and according to Ascanio Condivi it ​​was the first scene to be painted on the ceiling.

 

The scene shows some executive disparity that confirms the news of technical problems (an improper mixture in the plaster that caused mold) and the presence of collaborators, in the initial phase of the work.

 

Since the first uncovering of the frescoes, the Deluge collected particular demonstrations of esteem. Vasari, for example, wrote an incisive description: « in the story of the Flood, where several deaths of men appear, who, frightened by the terror of those days, seek as many as they can for different ways out of their lives. Therefore, in the heads of those figures, life is known to be in the grip of death, no less than fear, terror and contempt for everything. See the piety of many, helping each other to pull to the top of a stone looking for escape. Among which there is one who has abraded a dead body, seeks the most he can to do it, that nature does not show it better « (Le Vite, 1568).

 

The fresco was affected by various damages, such as falls (visible in the strip of sky in the center of a different color) and numerous cracks, especially during the outbreak of the Castel Sant’Angelo powdoften naked characters are grouped and distributed along diagonal lines that accentuate the perspective depth. According to the interpretation of the episode provided by Ugo da San Vittore, humanity was divided into three human groups, each visible in the fresco by Michelangelo. The righteous find their place in the ark (therefore in the Church) and find Salvation there; the reprobates try to assault her; the rest of the people, although not evil, are lost because of their attachment to the things of the world, which will cause their end. The latter are the ranks of people in the foreground who seek refuge on the mainland, bringing their assets conspicuously: some try to climb trees, others have their shoulders or their children or family members. They also include the figures on the right islet, where the moving group of the elderly parent stands out, who with titanic strength and great fatigue carries the exhausted body of his son in his arms. In general it seems that this last type of figures is aware of their fate, accepting it painfully but with resignation, trying rather to help the weakest, as far as possible.

The reprobates, on the other hand, are also visible on the boat in the middle, while they fight against each other to prevent others from embarking and risking sinking; another group tries to assault the ark, with a ladder or an ax to cut the hull to pieces. But nothing seems to upset the grand boat, like a citadel, on which the dove of the Holy Spirit has already descended, and Noah faces it, on the left, to see the divine sign of a ray of sun, in the center of the sky like a disk gold.

The first five « days » (out of a total of twenty-nine) concerned the figures on the islet on the right, which are conducted dry (the two characters in the foreground to the right of the barrel) or otherwise not « good fresh » (the young naked lying in the middle). Then they had to take place the contrasts with the assistants, who were fired, and the artist had to proceed alone, to « good fresh ». Among these parts some have a greater freshness, performed by the master, while others are more awkward, related to the concern to carefully follow the design of the cardboard, with a weaker modeling and less wealth in the brush strokes. Despite the qualitative differences, they are not sufficient to mitigate the effect of the grandiose compositional invention.

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diluvio_universale_(Michelangelo)

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Remains of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia.

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

A Roman navalbireme depicted in a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste (Palastrina),^[1]which was built c. 120 BC;^[2] exhibited in the Pius-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio-Clementino) in the Vatican Museums.

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Capitoline Triad

Palestrina
Comune
Comune di Palestrina
Coat of arms

Palestrina (ancient Praeneste; Ancient Greek: Πραίνεστος, Prainestos) is an ancient city and comune(municipality) with a population of about 21,000, in Lazio, about 35 kilometres (22 miles) east of Rome. It is connected to the latter by the Via Prenestina.

It is the birthplace of composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Geography

Palestrina is sited on a spur of the Monti Prenestini, a range in the central Apennines.

Palestrina borders the following municipalities: Artena, Castel San Pietro Romano, Cave, Gallicano nel Lazio, Labico, Rocca di Cave, Rocca Priora, Rome, San Cesareo, Valmontone, Zagarolo.

History

Ancient Praeneste

A Roman naval bireme depicted in a relief from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia in Praeneste (Palastrina),^[1]which was built c. 120 BC;^[2] exhibited in the Pius-Clementine Museum (Museo Pio-Clementino) in the Vatican Museums.

Early burials show that the site was already occupied in the 8th or 7th century BC. The ancient necropolis lay on a plateau at the foot of the hill below the ancient town. Of the objects found in the oldest graves, and supposed to date from about the 7th century BC, the cups of silver and silver-gilt and most of the gold and amber jewelry are Phoenician (possibly Carthaginian), but the bronzesand some of the ivory articles seem to be of the Etruscan civilization.^[3]

Praenestine graves from about 240 BC onwards have been found: they are surmounted by the characteristic pineapple made of local stone, containing stone coffins with rich bronze, ivory and gold ornaments beside the skeleton. From these come the famous bronze boxes (cistae) and hand mirrors with inscriptions partly in Etruscan. Also famous is the bronze Ficoroni Cista^[4] (Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Rome), engraved with pictures of the arrival of the Argonauts in Bithynia and the victory of Pollux over Amycus, found in 1738. An example of archaic Latin is the inscription on the Ficoroni Cista: « Novios Plautios Romai med fecid / Dindia Macolnia fileai dedit » (« Novios Plautios made me in Rome, Dindia Macolnia gave me to her daughter »). The caskets are unique in Italy, but a large number of mirrors of precisely similar style have been discovered in Etruria. Hence, although it would be reasonable to conjecture that objects with Etruscancharacteristics came from Etruria, the evidence points decisively to an Etruscan factory in or near Praeneste itself. Other imported objects in the burials show that Praeneste traded not only with Etruria but also with the Greek east.

The origin of Praeneste was attributed by the ancients to Ulysses, or to other fabulous characters variously called Caeculus, Telegonus, Erulus or Praenestus. the name derives probably from the word Praenesteus, referring to its overlooking location.

Praeneste was probably under the hegemony of Alba Longa while that city was the head of the Latin League. It withdrew from the league in 499 BC, according to Livy (its earliest historical mention), and formed an alliance with Rome. After Rome was weakened by the Gauls of Brennus (390 BC), Praeneste switched allegiances and fought against Rome in the long struggles that culminated in the Latin War. From 373 to 370, it was in continual war against Rome or her allies, and was defeated by Cincinnatus.

Eventually in 354 and in 338 the Romans were victorious and Praeneste was punished by the loss of portions of its territory, becoming a city allied to Rome. As such, it furnished contingents to the Roman army, and Roman exiles were permitted to live at Praeneste, which grew prosperous. The roses of Praeneste were a byword for profusion and beauty. Præneste was situated on the Via Labicana.

Its citizens were offered Roman citizenship in 90 BC in the Social War, when concessions had to be made by Rome to cement necessary alliances. In Sulla’s second civil war, Gaius Marius the Youngerwas blockaded in the town by the forces of Sulla (82 BC). When the city was captured, Marius slew himself, the male inhabitants were massacred in cold blood, and a military colony was settled on part of its territory. From an inscription it appears that Sulla delegated the foundation of the new colony to Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus, who was consul in 73 BC. Within a decade the lands of the colonia had been assembled by a few large landowners.

From the late Republic to the late Empire, markets, baths, shrines and even a second forum were built in the lower city, near today’s Madonna dell’Aquila.^[5]

Under the Empire the cool breezes of Praeneste made it a favorite summer resort of wealthy Romans, whose villas studded the neighborhood, though they ridiculed the language and the rough manners of the native inhabitants. The poet Horace ranked « cool Praeneste » with Tibur and Baiae as favored resorts. The emperor Augustus stayed in Praeneste, and Tiberius recovered there from a dangerous illness and made it a municipium. The emperor Marcus Aurelius was at Praeneste with his family when his 7-year-old son Verus died.^[6] The ruins of the imperial villa associated with Hadrian stand in the plain near the church of S. Maria della Villa, about three-quarters of a mile from the town. At the site was discovered the Braschi Antinous, now in the Vatican Museums. Pliny the Younger also had a villa at Praeneste, and L. Aurelius Avianius Symmachus retired there.^[7] Inscriptions show that the inhabitants of Praeneste were fond of gladiatorial shows.

Giacobbe Giusti, Palestrina (ancient Praeneste)

Remains of the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia.

The Forum of Praeneste

Archaeologists working in the 1950s were able to identify the area around the Cathedral and the Piazza Regina Margherita as the Forum of Ancient Praeneste.^[8] The buildings of the forum comprised a central temple, whose walls were re-used for the cathedral, and a two-storey civil basilica consisting of four naves separated by columns, once roofed but today an open space. The basilica was flanked by two buildings, the easternmost containing a raised podium (suggestus)^[9] and the public treasury, the aerarium, identified by an inscription dating it to ~150 BC. At some later date (perhaps around 110-100 BC^[10]), the buildings flanking the basilica were each embellished with a nymphaeum with a mosaic floor. The western mosaic represents a seascape: a temple of Poseidon on the shore, with fish of all kinds swimming in the sea. The eastern building was decorated with the famous mosaic with scenes from the Nile, relaid in the Palazzo Colonna Barberini ^[11] in Palestrina on the uppermost terrace (now the National Archaeological Museum of Palestrina).

In the forum area an obelisk was erected in the reign of Claudius, fragments of which can be seen in the National Archaeological Museum of Palestrina.

Sanctuary of Fortuna Primigenia

Praeneste was chiefly famed for its Temple of Fortuna Primigenia connected with the oracle known as the Praenestine lots (sortes praenestinae). The remains of the sanctuary still standing today were constructed sometime around 120 BC^[12] as a spectacular series of terraces, exedras and porticos on four levels down the hillside, linked by monumental stairs and ramps. The inspiration for this feat of unified urbanistic design lay not in republican Rome but in the Hellenistic monarchies of the eastern Mediterranean. Praeneste offered a foretaste of the grandiose Imperial style of the following generation.^[13]

Reconstruction of the temple of the Fortuna Primigenia by Palladio.

The sanctuary of Fortune occupies a series of five vast terraces, which, resting on gigantic masonry substructures and connected with each other by grand staircases, rise one above the other on the hill in the form of the side of a pyramid, crowned on the highest terrace by the round temple of Fortune, today incorporated into the Palazzo Colonna Barberini.^[13]This immense edifice, probably by far the largest sanctuary in Italy, must have presented a most imposing aspect, visible as it was from a great part of Latium, from Rome, and even from the sea.

The goddess Fortuna here went by the epithet of Primigenia (« Original »), she was represented suckling two babes, as in the Christian representation of Charity, said to be Jupiter and Juno, and she was especially worshipped by matrons.^[14] The oracle continued to be consulted down to Christian times, until Constantine the Great, and again later Theodosius I, forbade the practice and closed the temple.

Features of the temple influenced Roman garden design on steeply sloped sites through Antiquity and once again in Italian villa gardens from the 15th century. The monument to Victor Emmanuel II in Rome owes a lot to the Praeneste sanctuary complex.

Later history

The modern town is built on the ruins of the famous temple of Fortuna Primigenia. A bishop of Praenesteis first mentioned in 313.

In 1297 the Colonna family, who had owned Praeneste (then known as Palestrina) from the eleventh century as a fief, revolted against Pope Boniface VIII. In the following year the town was taken by Boniface’s Papal forces, razed to the ground and salted by order of Boniface.^[15]

In 1437 the rebuilt city was captured by the Papacy contractor Condottieri Giovanni Vitelleschi and once more utterly destroyed at the command of Pope Eugenius IV.^{[citation needed]} It was rebuilt once more and fortified by Stefano Colonna in 1448. It was sacked in 1527 and occupied by the Duke of Alba in 1556.^{[citation needed]}

Barberini Family

Barberini Palace.

Palestrina as it appeared in 1671 during Barberini administration.

 Barberini

In 1630, the comune passed by purchase into the Barberini family.^[16] It is likely the transfer was included as one of the conditions of the marriage of Taddeo Barberini and Anna Colonna. Thereafter, the famously nepotistic family, headed by Maffeo Barberini (later Pope Urban VIII), treated the comune as a principality in its own right.

Patriarchs of the Barberini family conferred, on various family members, the title of Prince of Palestrina. During the reign of Urban VIII, the title became interchangeable with that of Commander of the Papal Army (Gonfalonier of the Church) as the Barberini family controlled the papacy and the Palestrina principality.

The Wars of Castro ended (while Taddeo Barberini held both titles) and members of the Barberini family (including Taddeo) fled into exile after the newly elected Pope Innocent X launched an investigation into members of the Barberini family. Later the Barberini reconciled with the papacy when Pope Innocent X elevated Taddeo’s son, Carlo Barberini to the cardinalate and his brother Maffeo Barberini married a niece of the Pope and reclaimed the title, Prince of Palestrina.

Two members of the Barberini family were named Cardinal-Bishop of the Diocese of Palestrina: Antonio Barberini and Francesco Barberini (Junior), the son of Maffeo Barberini.

The Barberini Palace originally included the Nile mosaic of Palestrina.

Modern history

It was the scene of an 1849 action between Garibaldi and the Neapolitan army during his defence of the Roman Republic.

The centre of the city was destroyed by Allied bombings during World War II; but that brought the ancient remains of the sanctuary to light.

Main sights

An old street in the city.

The modern town of Palestrina is centered on the terraces once occupied by the massive temple of Fortuna. The town came to largely obscure the temple, whose monumental remains were revealed as a result of American bombing of German positions in World War II. The town also contains remnants of ancient cyclopean walls.

On the summit of the hill at 753 metres (2,470 ft), nearly 1.6 kilometres (1 mi) from the town, stood the ancient citadel, the site of which is now occupied by a few poor houses (Castel San Pietro) and a ruined medieval castle of the Colonna family. The view embraces the Monte Soratte, Rome, the Alban Hills, and the Pontinian Plain as far as the sea. Considerable portions of the southern wall of the ancient citadel, built in massive cyclopean masonry consisting of limestone blocks, are still visible; and the two walls, also polygonal, which formerly united the citadel with the town, can still be traced.

Capitoline Triad

A calendar, which according to Suetonius was set up by the grammarian Marcus Verrius Flaccus in the imperial forum of Praeneste (at the Madonna dell’Aquila), was discovered in 1771 in the ruins of the church of Saint Agapitus, where it had been used as building material.

The cathedral, just below the level of the temple, occupies the former civil basilica of the town, whose façade includes a sundialdescribed by Varro, traces of which may still be seen. In the modern piazza the steps leading up to this basilica and the base of a large monument were found in 1907; evidently only part of the piazza represents the ancient forum. The cathedral has fine paintings and frescoes. In the Church of Santa Rosalia (1677) there is a noteworthy Pietà, carved in the solid rock.

The National Archeological Museum of Palestrina is housed inside the Renaissance Barberini Palace, the former baronial palace, built above the ancient temple of Fortuna. It exhibits the most important works from the ancient town of Praeneste. The famous sculpture of the Capitoline Triad is exhibited on the first floor. The second floor is dedicated to the necropoli and sanctuaries, while the third floor contains a large polychrome mosaic depicting the flooding of the Nile (Nile mosaic of Palestrina).

Culture

Praeneste was the native town of the 3rd-century Roman writer Aelian, and of the great 16th-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

Thomas Mann spent some time there in 1895 and, two years later, during the long harsh summer of 1897, he stayed over again, with his brother Heinrich Mann, in a sojourn that provided the backdrop, nearly half a century later, for Adrian Leverkühn’s pact with the Devil in Mann’s novel Doktor Faustus^[17]

In popular culture

Dante makes reference in the Inferno to advice given by Guido da Montefeltro to Pope Boniface VIII fraudulently enticing the surrender of Palestrina 1298 by offering the Colonna family an amnesty they never intended to honor, instead razing it to the ground afterward.^[18]

In Voltaire’s novel Candide a woman claims to be the daughter of Pope Urban X and the Princess of Palestrina.

A fictional account of the action at Palestrina in 1849 appears in Geoffrey Trease‘s novel Follow My Black Plume.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestrina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com