The Sistine Chapel

Laced with some murky and violent Italian politics, not to mention a painter’s pet dog, this talk considers the vainglory of Pope Sixtus IV and of his family in the building and the decoration of the Sistine Chapel between 1480 and 1512. Today, thousands of tourists ogle at Michelangelo’s Ceiling and Last Judgement, but they altogether miss some of the other amazing features of this monumental creation which only existed so that two men (Popes Sixtus IV and his nephew Pope Julius II) would be remembered for ever. People only remember Michelangelo these days: the plan did not work!

This talk has been broken down into three because there is so much of it. The three parts are: (1) The Building, Floor & Walls, 1481-1482 (2) Michelangelo’s Ceiling, 1508-1512, and (3) Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement, 1535-41. Each talk can be given as a stand-alone talk, or as part of a series of two or three.