Page 246 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Rome

244  ROME AREA B Y AREA

Sistine Chapel: The Ceiling

Michelangelo frescoed the ceiling for Pope
Julius II between 1508 and 1512, working Libyan Sibyl
on specially designed scaffolding. The main The pagan
prophetess reaches
panels, which chart the Creation of the World for the Book of
and Fall of Man, are surrounded by subjects Knowledge. Like
from the Old and New Testaments – except most female
figures Michel­
for the Classical Sibyls, who are said to have angelo painted,
foreseen the birth of Christ. In the 1980s the the beautiful Libyan
ceiling was restored, revealing colors of an Sibyl was probably
unsuspected vibrancy. modeled on a man.

Creation of the Sun
and Moon
Michelangelo depicts
God as a dynamic but
terrifying figure
commanding the
sun to shed light
on the earth.
Key to Ceiling Panels
Genesis: 1 God Dividing Light from
KEY Darkness; 2 Creation of the Sun and
Moon; 3 Separating Waters from
1 Illusionistic architecture Land; 4 Creation of Adam; 5 Creation Prophets: 18 Jonah; 19 Jeremiah;
of Eve; 6 Original Sin; 7 Sacrifice of 20 Daniel; 21 Ezekiel; 22 Isaiah;
2 The lunettes are devoted to Noah; 8 The Deluge; 9 Drunkenness 23 Joel; 24 Zechariah.
frescoes of the ancestors of Christ, of Noah. Sibyls: 25 Libyan Sibyl; 26 Persian
like Hezekiah. Ancestors of Christ: 10 Solomon Sibyl; 27 Cumaean Sibyl; 28 Erythrean
with Mother; 11 Parents of Jesse; Sibyl; 29 Delphic Sibyl.
3 The Ignudi are athletic male 12 Rehoboam with Mother; 13 Asa
nudes whose significance with Parents; 14 Uzziah with Parents; Old Testament Scenes of Salvation:
30 Punishment of Haman; 31 Moses
15 Hezekiah with Parents; 16
is uncertain. Zerubbabel with Parents; 17 Josiah and the Brazen Serpent; 32 David and
with Parents. Goliath; 33 Judith and Holofernes.
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