Well, I sup­pose it had to hap­pen soon­er or lat­er, what with the Cre­ation of Adam being astride the top of these blogs week in, week out: it’s time to look at that apex preda­tor of the Renais­sance art world, and num­ber one cause of vis­i­tors’ neck strain, the Sis­tine Chapel. No vis­it to Rome is com­plete with­out it, and per­haps no blog on the sub­lime can afford to omit it.

First, a whis­tle-stop his­to­ry tour: Sis­tine Chapel 101, if you like. Meet Pope Six­tus IV, pope between 1471 and 1484:

It was Six­tus (adjec­tive “Sis­tine” in case you need that mansplained) who com­mis­sioned the build­ing of the chapel, which was com­plet­ed in 1481 and has served ever since as the Pope’s offi­cial res­i­dence. Six­tus is also known for found­ing the Span­ish Inqui­si­tion, but that’s anoth­er sto­ry, let’s stick with the chapel. He arranged for a team of painters (not Michelan­ge­lo yet — he comes lat­er — but includ­ing two oth­er famous names, Bot­ti­cel­li and Ghirlan­diao) to cre­ate a series of fres­coes on the walls, depict­ing the lives of Moses and Jesus.

Fast for­ward to 1508 and Pope Julius II is in charge (Julius was a rel­a­tive of Six­tus: nepo­tism was anoth­er of Sixtus’s strong suits):

Julius com­mis­sioned Michelan­ge­lo to com­plete the dec­o­ra­tion of the chapel by paint­ing the ceil­ing, which he com­plet­ed four years lat­er in 1512. This was a project that changed the course of West­ern art and is right­ly regard­ed as one of the crown­ing artis­tic accom­plish­ments of human civil­i­sa­tion. Replete with bib­li­cal scenes,  sto­ries and char­ac­ters, the ceil­ing is a riotous col­lec­tion of limbs and draperies, at first glance, and indeed a pho­to of the ceil­ing does­n’t real­ly do it jus­tice — but giv­en time to appre­ci­ate (whilst not bump­ing into fel­low tourists), it is an artis­tic tour de force that war­rants its fame. Click on these images to expand; the first to spot the Cre­ation of Adam wins a prize…