The Sistine Chapel takes its name from
Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere (pontiff from 1471 to 1484)
who had the old Cappella Magna restored between 1477
and 1480. The 15th century decoration of the walls includes:
the false drapes, the Stories of Moses (south and entrance
walls) and of Christ (north and entrance walls) and
the portraits of the Popes (north and south and entrance
walls).
It was executed by a team of painters
made up initially of Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli,
Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, assisted by
their respective shops and by some closer assistants
among whom Biagio di Antonio, Bartolomeo della Gatta
and Luca Signorelli stand out. On the Ceiling Pier Matteo
d'Amelia painted a starry sky.
The work on the frescoes began in 1481
and was concluded in 1482. This is also the date of
the following works in marble: the screen, the choir
stalls (where the choristers took their places), and
the pontifical coat of arms over the entrance door.
On 15 August 1483, Sixtus IV consecrated the new chapel
dedicating it to Our Lady of the Assumption. Julius
II della Rovere (pontiff from 1503 to 1513), nephew
of Sixtus IV, decided to partly alter the decoration,
entrusting the work in 1508 to Michelangelo Buonarroti,
who painted the Ceiling and, on the upper part of the
walls, the lunettes. The work was finished in October
1512 and on the Feast of All Saints (1 November), Julius
II inaugurated the Sistine Chapel with a solemn Mass.
The nine central panels show the Stories of Genesis,
from the Creation to the Fall of man, to the Flood and
the subsequent rebirth of mankind with the family of
Noah.Reference to the first letter of Peter (3:20-22)
is likely.
In this the water of the flood is seen
as a prophetic sign of the water of Baptism, from which
a new mankind emerges, that of those saved by Christ.
In the spaces between the webs we see, seated on monumental
thrones, five Sibyls and seven Prophets. In the four
corner pendentives are the Miraculous salvation of Israel
while in the webs and lunettes (north and south and
entrance walls) are the Ancestors of Christ. Towards
the end of 1533 Clement VII de' Medici (pontiff from
1523 to 1534) gave Michelangelo the task of further
altering the decoration of the Sistine Chapel by painting
the Last Judgement on the altar wall. This caused the
loss of the 15th century frescoes, that is to say of
the altar-piece of the Virgin assumed among the Apostles
and the first two episodes of the Stories of Moses and
of Christ, painted by Perugino.
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