The Sistine Chapel

No pictures are allowed of the ceiling. Below is a ceiling seen on the way to the chapel, as you’re first touring the Vatican. There was plenty of information and parts that stuck years later were: 1. Michelangelo did not think he was attractive in the slightest. 2. It took him four years to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel lying on his back in the dark holding only a candle. 3. At the time the credit for major commissions such as this four year painting was not given to the artist, but instead to the pope. When we eventually got inside and looked up, after the initial “well there it is” came “*gasp*…how…in….the”. Just like that.

Note: we received tour information from this nice, assertive man off the street hanging around the Vatican, and had no issues. But there are other ways.

Those who took pictures were escorted out (the flash effects the longevity of the painting) though it doesn’t leave the room any less packed. Straight ahead is The Last Judgment, a completely separate bright-blue-background painting on the alter wall, which he painted while in his 60s. I don’t think we were in there long enough. Too many details. One being, I think I did find him, the self portrait Michelangelo did far off to the side of his first painting, so he wouldn’t be forgotten. Alexa may know the name of the pope. :)

Cover Photo: Léonard Cotte/Unsplash