Sistine Chapel
A chapel in the Apostolic Palace of Vatican City, renowned for Renaissance frescoes by Michelangelo and other artists and for hosting papal conclaves.
Sistine Chapel ceiling: A cycle of frescoes painted by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel’s vaulted ceiling between 1508 and 1512. Its nine central scenes, including the Creation of Adam, define the chapel’s best-known interior.
Pope Sixtus IV: Pope from 1471 to 1484 who commissioned the chapel built in the Vatican. The chapel takes its name from the pope who ordered its construction.
Papal conclave: The gathering of cardinal electors that chooses a new pope under rules set by the Catholic Church. The chapel becomes the sealed voting venue during a papal election.
Michelangelo: An Italian Renaissance artist known for sculpture, painting, architecture, and poetry. His ceiling and altar-wall frescoes dominate the chapel’s artistic identity.
The Last Judgment (Michelangelo): A large fresco by Michelangelo covering the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, completed in 1541. The altar wall’s monumental scene transformed the chapel’s visual focus decades after the ceiling.
Giovannino de' Dolci: An Italian architect associated with the construction of the Sistine Chapel in the late fifteenth century. He is traditionally credited with designing the chapel commissioned by Sixtus IV.
Apostolic Palace: The official residence and administrative complex of the pope in Vatican City. The chapel is one space within the larger papal palace.
Renaissance art: European art produced from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, marked by renewed study of classical forms and human experience. The chapel’s decoration is among the most prominent achievements of Renaissance art.
Sistine Chapel frescoes: Renaissance wall paintings in the Sistine Chapel, including works by Botticelli, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio. The side-wall cycles place Michelangelo’s work within a broader program by leading artists.
Pietro Perugino: An Italian Renaissance painter whose workshop produced frescoes for the Sistine Chapel’s side walls. His work formed part of the chapel’s original decorative campaign.