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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