SISTINE CHAPEL WORKS OF ART
Plan of Sistine Chapel
1. Adam and Eve
God imparts the spark of life to Adam in one of western art’s best known scenes, The Creation of Adam, then pulls Eve from Adam’s rib.
2. Creation
God separates darkness from light, water from land, and creates the sun and moon. Michelangelo veers toward blasphemy by depicting God’s dirty feet.
3. The Sacrifice, Flood, and Drunkenness of Noah
After disassembling his scaffolding and gazing up from floor level, Michelangelo noticed that these three tumultuous scenes were too minutely drawn.
4. Life of Moses Scenes
Left wall highlights include Botticelli’s The Trials of Moses and Signorelli and della Gatta’s Moses Giving his Rod to Joshua.
5. Sibyls and Prophets
Hebrew prophets, including Jonah, mingle with the Sibyls who foretold Christ’s coming.
6. Old Testament Salvation Scenes and Ancestors of Christ
Portraits from Jesus’s family tree are above the windows, and bloody Salvation scenes, including David and Goliath, are on corner spandrels.
7. Life of Christ Scenes
The chapel’s right wall stars Botticelli’s Cleansing of the Leper, Ghirlandaio’s Calling of Peter and Andrew, and Perugino’s Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter.
8. Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter
Classical buildings form the backdrop to this pivotal scene of transferring power from Christ to the popes. Each scene is divided into three parts.
9. Botticelli’s Punishment of the Rebels
Schismatics question Aaron’s priestly prerogative to burn incense. A vengeful Moses opens the earth to swallow them.
10. Last Judgement
This vast work depicts figures nude, equalized and stripped of their earthly rank. This was considered indecorous and the figures were covered by fig leaves. Saints are identified by their medieval icons.
UNDERSTANDING THE SISTINE CHAPEL ART
The Sistine Chapel’s frescoes are not merely decorations by some of the greatest artists of the Renaissance—the images tell a story and make a complex theological argument. Pope Sixtus IV commissioned wall frescoes for the Pope’s Chapel in 1481–83. They were intended to underscore papal authority, in question at the time, by drawing a line of power from God to the pope. In the Life of Moses cycle, Moses’ and Aaron’s undisputed roles as God’s chosen representatives are affirmed by the fate of those who oppose Aaron—significantly and anachronistically wearing a papal hat—in the Punishment of the Rebels. Directly across from this work, Perugino’s Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter bridges the Old Testament with the New as Christ hands control of the church to St. Peter—and therefore to his successors, the popes (who are pictured between the Sistine windows). Michelangelo’s breathtaking frescoes on the ceiling (1508–12) later added Genesis, Redemption, and Salvation to the story.
The Fall and Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, from Michelangelo’s Genesis cycle, shows Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden for eating fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge.
The Trials of Moses by Botticelli depicts scenes from the life of the prophet.
TOP 10 PAINTERS OF THE SISTINE CHAPEL
1. Fra Diamante (1430–98)
2. Rosselli (1439–1507)
3. Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510)
4. Bartolomeo della Gatta (1448–1502)
5. Domenico Ghirlandaio (c. 1449–94)
6. Luca Signorelli (c. 1450–1523)
7. Perugino (1450–1523)
8. Pinturicchio (1454–1513)
9. Piero di Cosimo (1462–1521)
10. Michelangelo (1475–1564)
