The Sistine Chapel [antikvár]

The Sistine Chapel Built in the time of Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere (1471-1484), from whom it takes its name, the Sistine Chapel had originally the functions both of Palatine Chapel and of keep for the complex of buildings set in a square around the Court of the "Pappagallo", the most ancient center of the Apostolic palaces. Later on, as times changed and the Belvedere Courtyard, Borgia Courtyard and Courts of the Sentinel and of St. Damasus came into being, giving a Renaissance character to the papal residence, it lost its defensive function, though the appearance remained, in the severe and massive structure of the exterior and the crenellation of the upper part. It rises on the site of a "cappella magna" built in the palace by Nicholas III (1277-1280) and used as the popes' chapel until 1477; in that year the thirteenth-century chapel was destroyed or, more probably rebuilt around some of the existing structures. Today, the building comprises, vertically, a cellar, a mezzanine floor and the chapel, above which lies a spacious attic. The mezzanine floor, like the cellar, is divided into nine rooms, which were the offices of the "Magistri Ceremoniarum". The outside walls rise smoothly, with their bricks visible, their expanse hardly interrupted by the openings that light the interior or by the slightly projecting cornices. They were crowned by crenellations supported by corbels, with a hole in every two for throwing burning oil and other ammunition on possible attackers. The chapel is very simple in shape; without an apse, it measures 40.93 meters long by 13.41 meters wide, that is, the dimensions that the Bible gives for the Temple of Solomon. It is 20.70 meters high, and roofed by a flattened barrel vault, with little side vaults over the centered windows. The smoothness of the walls, primed for the painted decoration, is divided, as on the outside of the building, into three cornices, of which the middle and widest one forms a strip running round the perimeter of the chapel at the level of the windows. A low marble seat runs along the walls on three sides in the area reserved for the faithful. The floor is of colored marble inlay, showing how the tradition of the Roman marble workers was still alive in the late fifteenth century, and is divided into contrasting geometrical patterns whose design reflect the architectural distinctions of the chapel (distinguished also by differences in floor level and by the screen). On one side is the presbytery, with the altar and the pope's throne, reserved for officiating clergy, and on the other the space for the faithful. The marble screen with trellises, a free rendering of the Byzantine ico-nostasis, was moved back during the reign of Gregory XIII to enlarge the presbytery, but originally it was attached to the "cantoria" which, as in Florentine churches, replaces the "schola cantorum". Both are decorated with very delicate reliefs, the work of Mino da Fie-sole, possibly assisted by Andrea Bregno and Giovanni Dalmata. According to Vasari, the architect called to construct the new building was the Florentine Baccio Pontelli, to whom the pope probably entrusted the construction of the Della Rovere palace in Borgo Vecchio. In 1477, however, he could not have been in Rome and in any case the documents mention only Gio-vannino de' Dolci, who is called "superstans sive commissarius fabrice palacii apostolici". In 1480 the construction must already have