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The Origins of Christian Art &
the Sistine Chapel |
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The fourth volume of the series mainly deals with the Pope Pius Christian
Museum and the Roman catacombs, two important sections of the Vatican
Palaces and Museums. Here the biographical fabric of thousands of men, women
and entire families are chronicled in marble inscriptions. "when I was a lad
staying in Rome... I used to go on Sundays to visit the Tombs of the
Apostles and Martyrs. We would enter the caverns hewn into the tufa rock,
completely filled with burial sites...dim lights coming from the ground
above alleviate the darkness a little, but the gleam was so weak that it
seemed to be coming from a pin point hole rather than a lantern. We would
make our way slowly, one step at a time, completely enshrouded in darkness."
Thus wrote St. Jerome in the IV century. The catacombs still maintain the
same fascination today. The persecution and the testimony of the martyrs
marked out the centuries for the early church. Through the extraordinary
finds of early Christian art in the sarcophagi and tombs, the message passed
down to us is that martyrdom is not just a dramatic and painful moment, but
rather a manifestation of the power of the Resurrection, for Christ
conquered death.
The catacombs and the funeral artifacts, as this episode shows, were more
than a testimony of martyrdom. More often, they were simple burial sites for
Christians who, having reached the end of their days on earth, wanted to
stay united with the community to which they belonged. In this sort of
funereal monuments, a recurrent figure is that of the Good Shepherd: the
point of reference, the Alfa and the Omega, for all creation. The focal
point of the Christian Museum is an important 3rd century statue of the Good
Shepherd. The Christian artist has taken a pagan image of a shepherd
offering the finest animal of his flock to a god. Yet the image also recalls
the gospel parable of the lost sheep saved from the wolf by the good
shepherd. Another recurrent image is the banquet, a symbol of the community
of the family around the figure of Christ, the Virgin and the Saints. The
numerous sarcophagi in the Vatican Museums are certainly very similar to
pagan ones, with their train of bas-relief figures along a continuous strip,
the sides divided into panels separated by arcades, strigils and a central
medallio. The sarcophagi were decorated with garlands, baskets and children,
but also with more Christian symbols such as sheep and vine-shoots. The
narrative content, however, reflects contemporary thought and is certainly
different. As Pope Gregory the Great wrote at the end of the 6th century,
the inscriptions offer explanations to those who can read, while the art
tells the story of God and his people to everyone.
The next part of this volume leads to the discovery of the Sistine Chapel
where in modern times the conclave for the election of the new Pope is held.
The dimensions of the Chapel (40.23 meters long, 13.41 wide and 20.70 high)
correspond exactly with those of the Temple of Solomon as described in the
Bible. The Sistine Chapel is perhaps the best known and admired monument in
the world. It is named after Pope Sixtus VI, a Franciscan of the noble Della
Rovere family. In 1477, Sixtus VI decided to rebuild an earlier chapel which
had become too small for the Papal court. A remarkable progression begins
from this decision, involving many artists and their disciples, from
Giovanni de' Dolci, Perugino, Mino da Fiesole, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio,
Signorelli to the majestic Michelangelo and his superlative Last Judgement.
The last space and the vault of the chapel, which had been painted in lapis
lazuli blue spangled with little golden stars, was covered by the fresco
work of Michelangelo who was only 33 at the time, had practically no
experience of painting and still less of the fresco technique. He first
painted nine scenes taken from the Biblical account of Genesis then, having
dismissed almost all his helpers, carried on alone. The Pope gave the great
Michelangelo a free hand. On this 520-meter surface, he created a sense of
powerful movement by painting statuesque human figures in which the creation
of the world and the history of the human race is recounted as in an epic
poem. Julius II impatiently asked Michelangelo when he would finish his
work, only to hear the reply from the top of the scaffolding: "when I can."
On 14 August 1511, bursting with impatience, the Pope demanded to see the
fresco and was awed by what he saw. More than twenty years later, at the
behest of Pope Paul III Farnese, Michelangelo began painting the Last
Judgement on the great vault. When, at the end of seven years of working
face upwards, Michelangelo showed his work to the Pope and his court, the
beholders were overwhelmed by astonishment and shock. The unique work, in
its expressive symbolization of anger and violence, displayed a disturbing,
profoundly new and extraordinary art. The criticisms of Michelangelo's work
were extremely harsh, partly owing to the nudity displayed. Few people could
understand that the powerful, vigorous and intensely life-like manner of
depicting the human body contained the essence of the Incarnation described
in the Gospel of St. John: The word of God was made flesh and dwelt amongst
us. It was only later that criticism gave way to admiration and consensus.
LENGTH: 1 x 60 Minutes
ORDER CODE: JM20058V
VHS
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