The Sistine Chapel was an interesting experience for me. When I made it there, it was completely crowded. The chapel is a lot smaller than I thought it would be. In some ways, I suppose I had romanticized the moment in my head. I wasn't expecting to have some profound experience, but I did think that I would have some sort of awe filled moment. It was difficult to really take it all in when there were so many people there and they were all talking. There were also numerous security guards milling about who kept shouting, "Quiet!" to the crowd and "No pictures!" A lot of people disc
reetly disregarded the no picture policy...myself included. How could you not? You're in one of the most well-known chapels in the world, you have a camera in your hand and you probably won't make it back there again. Why wouldn't you take pictures?Some people, however, do not know the art of being discreet. There were people who got into a couple nasty confrontations with the security guards and had to be forcibly escorted out of the chapel...so perhaps you can understand why you'd have a difficult time really soaking in the
grandeur of Michelango's work.
I eventually found my tour group and put my headset back on so I could hear about some of the details regarding the chapel. There were a couple things I was surprised to learn....Michelangelo painted a lot of the Sistine Chapel, but there were also other artists involved: Raphael, Bernini and Sandro Botticelli.
One thing I was not expecting to see was on the main wall of Michelangelo's Last Judgement. I couldn't get a picture of it without being obvious, so I'll just have to describe it to you. The mural consists mainly of people ascending into heaven on the left side and then people descending into hell on the right side. During the time of this painting, there was a certain Vatican official that did not like Michelango and heavily criticized him for how much nudity was in his work. Michelangelo responded by locking himself in the Sistine Chapel and then painted this particular official to be in the Last Judgement....directly in hell. He also painted donkey ears on him as well as painted a snake wrapping itself around the guy and then biting him in his nether-regions. When I saw this, I laughed pretty hard! Imagine being in a really sacred place, looking at the critically acclaimed work of one of the most well know artists in all the world....and all of a sudden you see a painting of some guy with donkey ears and a snake biting him in the crotch! Priceless. You can check out the picture at this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Judgment_(Michelangelo)
It's not close up...but it's found at the bottom of the very right hand corner.
I spent most of my time looking up...and got a cramp in my neck. :)
It was great to finally see something that you've heard about for years.
I took a short video of what I could:
