It was an ordinary day. Sunday morning, November 1 and I was reading the "TODAY IN HISTORY" column in my Sunday Newspaper. The second entry brought back memories that I will never forget. It was on November 1, 1512 that Michelangelo's just completed paintings on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel were publicity unveiled by the artist's patron, Pope Julius II. And, it was on Wednesday, October 23, 2007 that Carol and I were walking through the Sistine Chapel viewing that ceiling! No kidding! I'm still amazed that I was there! Actually have tears in my eyes as I typed this story knowing that I had the chance to see in real life some of the most prominent pieces of artwork in history. It was back in 2007 that Carol and I, along with about two dozen friends from Lancaster, traveled to Italy for a two week trek through places such as Vicenza, Venice, Florence, San Gimignano, Assisi, Rome and Pompeii. It was sponsored by "The Hole In The Wall Puppet Theatre" in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Our tour guide was our assistant minister, at St. James Episcopal Church, Mrs. Mary Lou Broucht, who had taken several journeys to Italy in her lifetime and enjoyed sharing her knowledge of the country with others. Carol and I have traveled to many places in our lifetime, but the trip we took to Italy has to be on the top of the list. To actually stand in the center of the Sistine Chapel and stretch my head upward to see what took someone four years to complete, was absolutely amazing. A brief bit of history would be to tell you that the Sistine Chapel is named after Sixtus IV della Roere who decided to have a large room built where the "Cappella Magna"once stood. The "Cappella Magna" was a medieval fortified hall used for assemblies by the papal court. Construction began in 1475 and ended in 1481. On August 15 of that year, the pope inaugurated the new chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Assumption. Allegedly, the chapel's dimensions are copied from Solomon's great temple in Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. Arched windows light the chapel and lunettes join the ceiling's barrel vault with the side walls. The 15th century mosaic floor is copied from medieval models and is completely original. By 1481 the structural part was completed and Florentine painters were summoned to work in the chapel, including Botticelli, Ghirlandio, Cosimo Rosselli and Signorelli and Umbrian artists such as Perugino and Pinturicchio.
They were all asked to paint the side walls, divided horizontally in three sections, and vertically, divided by elegant pilasters. The middle section was was painted with Biblical scenes from the lives of Moses and Christ. Then Michelangelo Buonarotti was summoned to fresco the vault or ceiling. It took him four years of hard work (1508-1512) to complete the painting using the theme: the history of mankind before the coming of Christ. Michelangelo also painted the "Last Judgement".
The theme represented is mankind's inevitable fate and God as the absolute judge on man's destiny. Whether you are religious or not, you would be amazed with the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Our trip to Italy was filled with day after day of new discoveries, but the time we spent inside the chapel was the highlight of my vacation, even though I wasn't allowed to touch my camera. There were quite a few people watching and if you pulled your camera from your side, you were escorted from the chapel. So, when I saw the sentence in my Lancaster newspaper this morning, saying that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was completed on November 1, 1512, I just knew I had to write about one of the most memorable days of my life. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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