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The Italians were masters at creating beautiful art of intricate design with tiny mosaic tiles.  The reflected light on the photo below reveals this intricacy.

  Note the shrimp and squid in the basket.  It is hard to believe they are created with tiny pieces of colored tile.



  What caught my attention in this statue were the eyes.  I had not seen such life like eyes on a marble statue before.



  Walking down this very long corridor we saw many beautiful Renaissance paintings



They look so real, how could anyone NOT believe in the existence of angels, although I have yet to see one for myself.



Did I hear someone say pomp and ceremony?  It is nothing new.  The Egyptians were masters at it as well.  The more
ostentatious, the more powerful you appear.  It is an age old human device practiced by all those who seek power.



It seems strange that in the Old Testament, you were not even allowed to name the name of God.  In the Renaissance
they actually paint His picture, having never actually seen Him.  How cleaver of us, and how bold we have become.

Getting to the Sistine Chapel from the Museum proper was a very long and arduous trek through corridors, rooms, up and down stairs, and I was beginning to wonder if we were ever going to get there.  But we eventually did arrive, and it is a good thing that the art is on the ceiling, because we entered into a sea of bodies, all looking straight up.  The ceiling of the chapel is very high, and it was next to impossible to see the art in detail.  It is after all, six stories up.  The "Creation of Adam" was much smaller than I recalled from my first visit years ago.  No photography was allowed at all.  You would have needed to use your telephoto lens anyway.  Well, this is one thing you won't see when you visit the Sistine Chapel, the "before" and "after" the restoration.

The Creation of Adam―God and man take center stage in this Renaissance version of creation.  Adam, newly formed in
the image of God, lounges dreamily in perfect naked innocence.  God, with his entourage, swoops in with a swirl of activity
(which―with a little imagination―looks like a cross-section of a human brain...quite a strong humanist statement).

A little background about the Sistine Chapel is appropriate here.  It is the personal chapel of the pope, and the place where new popes are elected.  There is a small old-fashioned stove that burns the pope-vote ballots, and it sends out puffs of tell tail smoke.  Black smoke means that a new pope has not been elected.  White smoke singles that a new pope has been elected.  It is not a simple matter of black and white.  Sometimes the smoke is grey, as it was on October 26, 1958, and it caused confusion.  Pope John Paul II requested that the Vatican will ring bells in addition to sending up white smoke to single the election of his successor.  There are 115 Cardinals who assemble in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope. 

Normally the vote takes around 5 days, but it did once take 3 years.  It was also a tradition not to give the voting cardinals anything to eat, so that they would hurry up with their decision.  They also used to sleep on the floor of the chapel.

When Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to take on this important project, he said, "No, grazie."  Michelangelo insisted he was a sculptor, not a painter.  The Sistine ceiling was a vast undertaking, and he didn't want to do a half-vast job.  The pope pleaded, bribed, and threatened until Michelangelo finally consented, on the condition that he be able to do it all his own way.

Julius had asked for only 12 apostles along the sides of the ceiling, but Michelangelo had a grander vision―the entire history of the world until Jesus.  He spent the next four years (1508-1512) craning his neck on scaffolding six stories up, covering the ceiling with frescoes of biblical scenes.

In sheer physical terms, it's an astonishing achievement: 5,900 square feet, with the vast majority done by his own hand.  First he had to design and erect the scaffolding.  Any materials had to be hauled up on pulleys.  Then, a section of ceiling would be plastered.  With fresco―painting on wet plaster―if you don't get it right the first time, you have to scrape the whole thing off and start over.  And if you've ever struggled with a ceiling light fixture or worked underneath a car for even five minutes, you know how heavy your arms get.

The Basilica of Saint Peter was our next stop.  When you climb the steps and pass through the atrium, you enter the Holy Door on the right, and just inside, on the right is Michelangelo's Pietà.

The Pietà by Michelangelo, created in 1498-1499, is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture.  It is the first of a number
of works of the same theme by the artist.  This particular Pietà is the ONLY piece Michelangelo ever signed.

The most substantial damage inflicted on the Pietà occurred on May 21, 1972 (Pentecost Sunday) when a mentally disturbed geologist named Laszio Toth walked into the chapel and attacked the sculpture with a geologist's hammer while shouting "I am Jesus Christ."  Onlookers took many of the pieces of marble that flew off.  Later, some pieces were returned, but many were not, including Mary's nose, which had to be reconstructed from a block cut out of her back.

After the attack, the work was painstakingly restored and returned to its place in St. Peter's, just to the right of the entrance, between the Holy Door and the Altar of Saint Sebastian, and is now protected by a bullet-proof acrylic glass panel.

 The Chair (or Throne) of Saint Peter.  The chair of a bishop is a cathedra.  The cathedra of St. Peter's Basilica was once used by popes.  It was therefore often thought to have been used by Saint Peter himself but was in fact a gift from Charles the Bald to the Pope in 875.

esus' words to Peter in Matthew 16:18-19, "You are Peter, and upon this Rock, I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.  To you have I entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven", are inscribed in Latin in the apse, within which is placed Bernini's monument enclosing the wooden chair, both of which are seen as symbolic of the authority of the Bishop of Rome as the Vicar of Christ and successor of Saint Peter.

I'm sorry I did not make it to the top of the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica in this chapter as I promised, but for sure I will make it in the next chapter.  There are so many photos I have left out because I keep bumping up against that 5.0 MB barrier. I wish I could share more.