Travelogue CHRISTMAS OF 1983 IN VATICAN G Surya Prakash Rao
Sistine Chapel. Creation of Adam by Michelangelo
Vatican and the Sistine Chapel
I was in Rome for a few days preceding the Christmas of 1983. I had anticipated that it would be teeming with international tourists at that time but was surprised to find only sparse crowds everywhere. The largish hotel where I stayed was literally empty. Many of the galleries were closed for Christmas. There was not much of activity on the streets except in the evenings.
One of my main interests was to visit the Vatican, which lies within the city of Rome. It was very close to my hotel and I walked down there on the second day itself. Though an independent city-state, I did not notice any check-posts at entry points to Vatican. One moved in and out of it freely. As I went around the Vatican museum, the St Peters Square and the Basilica, I could see the magnificence of European art and architecture of the Renaissance period. The Vatican museum had very few visitors when I went there in the forenoon. The Museum has a remarkable collection of paintings of several artists, notably Michelangelo and Raphael. Many of the rooms and corridors have rare frescoes in the ceilings and walls. One walked past them in great awe. A connoisseur can spend several hours studying the paintings in each room. The piece-de-resistance, of course, was the Sistine Chapel that came at the end of my visit to the museum.
The Sistine Chapel is a large and renowned chapel in the official residence of the Pope. Since its restoration by Pope Sixtus IV, between 1477 and 1480, it 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. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescoes that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.
During the reign of Pope Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters created a series of frescoes depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel and it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Just imagine, I was in that hallowed place exactly 500 years later!!
Michelangelo painted the celebrated Sistine Chapel ceiling, a masterpiece without precedent, between 1508 and 1512, lying on scaffolds. It was done under the compulsion and decree of Pope Julius II. One of the most important of these paintings is the panel‘ Creation of Adam’( picture above). Michelangelo returned and between 1535 and 1541 painted The Last Judgement under other Popes. These paintings have drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel, ever since. Visitors are as wonderstruck today as they were when the gallery was first thrown open five centuries ago. I was witness to one of the most celebrated pieces of art the world has seen.
My awe was to continue during the visit to other parts of Vatican!
St. Peter’ s Basilica After viewing the remarkable frescoes in Sistine Chapel, I moved on to St. Peter’ s Basilica which is close by and the most dominant building in
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