2023-08-15 08:33:00
August 15, 2023 / 1:33 am
On August 15, 1483, Pope Sixtus IV consecrated the Sistine Chapel to Our Lady of the Assumption. Today, Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, we remember some important facts about this historic chapel visited by millions of people every year.
It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Vatican Cityknown for its magnificent frescoed ceilings, but it is also the place where the cardinals meet to elect the new Pope.
1. Where does the name of the chapel come from?
The chapel owes its name to the man who consecrated it: Pope Sixtus IV, who was Roman Pontiff from 1471 to 1484. He commissioned the restoration of the Magna Chapelthe chapel that was where the Sistine Chapel is today.
2. Who painted the frescoes?
The most famous artist associated with the Sistine Chapel ands Michelangelo by Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni. However, it was not until several years after a team of artists began work on the chapel that Pope Julius II commissioned works from Michelangelo.
Between 1481 and 1482, four artists, Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, worked on the frescoes in the chapel. These artists had the help of their workshops to paint the walls with false cloths, the Histories of Moses and Christ, as well as the portraits of the popes.
Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the chapel and perhaps the most famous fresco in the chapel is his “Creation of Adam”, which depicts God in the form of a man, surrounded by angels and wrapped in a cloak, reaching out to Adam, while he returns it to God.
3. Michelangelo told a story
The “Creation of Adam”, although it is the central point of the ceiling, is part of nine frescoes that represent different stories from the book of Genesis. The stories are separated into groups of three.
4. Pope John Paul II, the Sistine Chapel and the Theology of the Body
Entering the Sistine Chapel, one may be surprised to see the many nude figures in the frescoes. During the mass celebrated in the Sistine Chapel on April 8, 1994, Pope John Paul II described the chapel as a “sanctuary of the theology of the human body”.
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Saint John Paul II said in his homily: “It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be guided by the suggestive words of the Book of Genesis which, regarding the creation of the human being, man and woman, reveals: ‘The man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed'”.
“The Sistine Chapel is precisely – if one can say so – the sanctuary of the theology of the human body,” he added. “Witnessing to the beauty of man created by God as male and female, it also expresses, in a certain way, the hope of a transfigured world, the world inaugurated by the Risen Christ, and even earlier by Christ on Mount Tabor.”
5. You can make a virtual visit to the Sistine Chapel.
It is possible to visit the Sistine Chapel without leaving home. The website of the Vatican Museums allows you to virtually walk through the chapel and get closer to the details of each fresco.
Translated and adapted by Almudena Martínez-Bordiú. Originally posted on CNA
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