The Sistine Chapel

By Carter Keeling

The chapel was built to provide an area for electing new popes, and was dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin.

The actual chapel part of the Sistine Chapel complex was built between 1475 and 1483 under the request of Pope Sixtus IV, from whom the name of the chapel derived.

The dimensions of the chapel are that of the Solomon Chapel; a rectangle that is 4,093 meters long, and 1,341 meters wide.

During the middle of the Chapel’s Construction (app. 1481), Pope Sixtus IV called the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Domenic Ghirlandaio, and Cosimo Rosselli to decorate the walls with frescoes. The outcome was a simple simulation of a starry night.

The very first mass in the Chapel, the Feast of the Assumption, was held on August 9, 1483.

After the Chapel’s construction, it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet 50 times each year. His has ever since been maintained.

The original scene was painted over by Michelangelo in 1508. The new fresco was a collection of scenes from the Old Testament.

Random Tidbits on Michelangelo’s Fresco…

On the fresco, God is depicted six times. The only old testament prophet that was not

depicted on Michelangelo’s fresco is Amos. “Jacob and Esau” was one of the only Old

Testament scenes that is not depicted on the ceiling.

When first painted, nearly everyone on the fresco was naked. However, when the Pope saw this, he ordered Michelangelo to immediately paint garments on the people.

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