My visit to the Sistine Chapel

The Vatican museums took hours to get through and I didn’t even get to look at every piece of art. Some of the masterpieces that I passed while in the museum that I really enjoyed were the Laocoon, and the School of Athens. When I finally got to the Sistine Chapel there were crowds of people taking sitting along the sides of the room admiring all of frescoes that covered the walls. The Last Judgment consumed the entire back wall behind the altar. After seeing the elaborately detailed paintings it was no surprise to me that it took Michelangelo seven years to complete the project. The entire length of the wall was covered in souls of the dead floating up to face God. They were drawn with such detail in their facial features and muscular tones. Even though the painting didn’t reflect the faith of Michelangelo, it was ordered by Pope Paul III Farnese to warn all Catholics to remain faithful during the reformation.

When I looked up to the ceiling of the chapel I noticed the Creation of the Sun and Moon on the side of the painting closest to The Last Judgment. The whole picture was colored in black and white except for the sun and God’s sash clothing. Michelangelo did a great job of displaying the terrifying face of God as he is commanding the sun to light up the earth. I kept looking up at each individual painting and stopped for a couple minutes when I reached the Adam and Eve. In this picture God is reaching out his finger to Adam to pass on the spark of life. Another famous painting in the Chapel is The Original Sin. It was painted to demonstrate a woman whose legs turned into the snake of Satan after Adam and Eve tasted the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. There was so much to look at in the Sistine Chapel I could have been there for hours examining the detail of the famous paintings. I’m so happy that I didn’t leave Rome without getting to see the legendary site.