Sistine Chapel (
Italian:
Cappella Sistina) is the best-known
chapel in the
Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the
Pope in
Vatican City. It is famous for its architecture, evocative of
Solomon's Temple of the
Old Testament, and its decoration which has been
frescoed throughout by the greatest
Renaissance artists including
Michelangelo,
Raphael,
Bernini, and
Sandro Botticelli. Under the patronage of
Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the
chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. He resented the commission, and believed his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur. However, today the ceiling, and especially
The Last Judgement, are widely believed to be Michelangelo's crowning achievements in painting.
The chapel takes its name from
Pope Sixtus IV, who restored the old Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480. During this period a team of painters that included
Pietro Perugino,
Sandro Botticelli and
Domenico Ghirlandaio created a series of frescoed panels depicting the life of
Moses and the life of
Christ, offset by papal portraits above and
trompe l’oeil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on August 15, 1483,
[1] Sixtus IV consecrated the first mass in honor of
Our Lady of the Assumption.
Since the time of Sixtus IV, the chapel 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.