Давайте проектировать и строить. Гвоздева А.А - 23 стр.

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UNIT 7
Warming Up
1. In what century was the Sistine Chapel built?
2. Where is it situated?
3. What and whom was the Sistine Chapel created for?
4. Which architectural style is presented in this building?
5. Can you imagine how the Sistine Chapel looks like?
THE SISTINE CHAPEL
The Sistine Chapel was built between 1475 and 1483. Its basic feature is the papal function, as the pope's
chapel and the location of the elections of new popes. It was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the
Virgin on 15 August 1483.
The chapel has no architectural distinction; it is rectangular and measures 40,93 meters long by 13,41 me-
ters wide, i.e. the exact dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament. It is 20,70 meters
high and is roofed by a flattened barrel vault, with six tall windows cut into the long sides, forming a series of
pendentives between them. The architectural plans were made by Baccio Pontelli and the construction was su-
pervised by Giovannino de'Dolci. Later alterations modified the original exterior.
In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV summoned to Rome the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlan-
daio and Cosimo Rosselli to decorate the walls with frescoes. According to Vasari, Luca Signorelli was also
involved in the decoration. The painting of the walls took place over an astonishingly short period, barely
eleven months, from July 1481 to May 1482. The ceiling was frescoed by Piero Matteo d'Amelia with a star-
spangled sky.
Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius Della Rovere in 1508 to repaint the ceiling; the work was
completed between 1508 and 1512. He painted the Last Judgment over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, being
commissioned by Pope Paul Farnese.
For great ceremonial occasions, the lowest portions of the sidewalls were covered with a series of tapes-
tries depicting events from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. These were designed by Raphael and
woven in 1515-19 at Brussels.
The building in some respects can be considered as a personal monument to the Della Rovere family, since
Sixtus IV saw to its actual construction and the frescoes beneath the vaults, and his nephew Julius II commis-
sioned the ceiling decoration. Oak leaves and acorns abound, heraldic symbols of the family whose name
means literally "from the oak."
The decoration of the chapel was cleaned and restored in recent decades. The project started with the fif-
teenth century frescoes in 1965. The restoration of the lunettes, the vault and the Last Judgment started in 1980
and was terminated in 1994. The restoration produced a spectacular result.
The walls are divided into three orders by horizontal cornices; according to the decorative program, the
lower of the three orders was to be painted with "tapestries," the central one with two facing cycles – one relat-
ing the life of Moses (left wall) and the other the Life of Christ (right wall), starting from the end wall, where
the altar fresco, painted by Perugino, depicted the Assumption of the Virgin, to whom the chapel was dedicated.
The upper order is endowed with pilasters that support the pendentives of the vault. Above the upper cornice
lunettes are situated the. Between each window below the lunettes, in niches, run images of the first popes –
from Peter to Marcellus – who practiced their ministry in times of great persecution and were martyred.

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