The Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) is the best-known chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture and frescoes by the greatest Renaissance artists including Michelangelo, Raphael, Bernini, and Sandro Botticelli...
The chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480.
Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet of the chapel ceiling in the four years between 1508 and 1512. Today the ceiling of the chapel -and in-particular The Last Judgement- is widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievement.
Under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet of the chapel ceiling in the four years between 1508 and 1512. Today the ceiling of the chapel -and in-particular The Last Judgement- is widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievement.
During this period a team of painters that included Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio created a series of frescoed panels depicting the life of Moses and the life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below.
Since the time of Sixtus IV, 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...
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