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Coliseum St. Peter's Basilica Vatican Museums Sistine Chapel Trevi Fountain Spanish Steps Piazza Navona Piazza Venezia Roman Forum Ancient Rome Pantheon St. Ignazio Cat Sanctuary Other European Cities |
Sistine Chapel This was frescoed by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. The main panels show scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The most famous is the "Creation of Adam" which is on one of the centre ceiling panels. Others include "The Deluge", the "Creation of the Sun and Moon" and "Original Sin". On the end wall is "The Last Judgement" by Michelangelo completed in 1541 after seven years of work. It shows souls of the dead rising up to face the wrath of God. The dead are torn from their graves and hauled up to face Christ the Judge. Built between 1475 and 1483, in the time of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere,
the Sistine Chapel has originally served as Palatine Chapel. The chapel
is rectangular in shape and measures 40.93 meters long by 13.41 meters
wide, i.e. the exact dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in
the Old Testament. It is 20.70 meters high and is roofed by a flattened
barrel vault, with little side vaults over the centered windows. The central part of the ceiling shows nine stories of the Genesis, divided
into groups of three, relative to the origin of the universe, of man and
of evil. The first three episodes (Separation of Light from Darkness:
Genesis 1:1-5; Creation of the sun, moon and planets: Genesis 1:11-19;
Separation of Land from Sea: Genesis 1,9-10) dominated by the figure of
God, Creator of the Universe, are followed by those of the Creation of
Adam (Genesis 1:26-27) and of Eve (Genesis 2:18-25), with the figures
of man and woman in their nakedness, the symbol of innocence (Genesis
2:25) which will be lost with Original Sin (Genesis 3:1-13), shown in
the next panel together with the resulting Banishment from the Garden
of Eden (Genesis 3:22-24). The last three frescoes (The Sacrifice of Noah:
Genesis 8:15-20, The Flood: Genesis 6:5-8,20, The Drunkenness of Noah:
Genesis 9:20-27) show the fall of mankind and its rebirth with Noah, chosen
by God as the only man to be saved for repopulating the earth after the
Creator had decided to destroy every living creature in it because of
human evil.
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