And with a sketch he begins to detail what they see to others.
The 9 scenes from Genesis occupy the central part of the altar up to the entrance to the door of the Chapel.
1. God separates the light from the darkness
2. Creation of the sun and the moon
3. Separation of land and water
4. Creation of Adam (the most famous scene)
5. Creation of Eve
6. Original sin
7. The Sacrifice of Noah
8. The universal flood
9. Drunkenness of noah
The representation of the Sibyls (prophets) and prophets alternates in the perimeter rectangles:
Prophets:
18. Jonas
19. Jeremias
20. Daniel
21. Ezekiel
22. Isaias
23. Joel
24. Zacharias
Sibyls:
25. Persian Sibyl
26. Persian Sibyl
27. Sibyl of Cuma
28. Sibyl Eritrea
29. Delphic Sibyl
In the 4 side corners are the scenes of the Salvation of the Old Testament:
30. Punishment of Amun
31. Moses and the Serpent
32. David and Goliath
33. Judith and Holofermes
And in the Triangles the Ancestors of Jesus are represented.
High Altar, The Last Judgment
Admiring the High Altar, with the Last Judgment, the representation of the Apocalypse of John is something unique, measuring 13.70 x 12.20 meters in which up to 400 figures are counted. Pope Clement VII commissioned Michelangelo to decorate the High Altar in 1536 and he finished it under the command of Pope Paul III in 1541.
In the center of the dynamic composition we see Christ, as judge, we can distinguish the Virgin Mary, next to him Saint Peter with the keys. The Last Judgment painting depicts the souls of the dead ascending to face God’s judgment. In which some ascend to heaven and others fall to hell. Below is Charon with his boat and the infernal judge Minos with serpents on his body, making references to Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.
Before the genius of Michelangelo made his masterpiece, great artists such as Sandro Botticelli, Luca Signorelli, Pietro Perugino, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli painted the side walls in 1480, under the papacy of Sixtus IV. Michelangelo’s work overshadows everything. To the right of the Main Altar you can see:
1 Baptism of Christ by Perugino
2 The Temptations of Christ by Botticellli
3 The call of San Pedro and San Andrés de Ghirlandaio
4 Rosselli’s Sermon on the Mount
5 Give the keys to Saint Peter of Perugino
6 Rosselli’s Last SupperTo the left of the High Altar:
7 Moses’ journey to Egypt by Perugino
8 Facts from the life of Moisés de Boticcelli
9 Rosselli Red Sea Pass
10 Delivery of tables of Rosselli’s law
11 Punishment of the Botticelli rebels
12 Last days of Moisés de Signorelli
An advisor tells them that this is where the Conclaves to elect the Popes are held, this is where the College of Cardinals meets, and they have been held in the Vatican since 1455 and in the Sistine Chapel since 1878.
They leave this sacred place where you cannot take photos, and return to the corridors to finish the tour of the Vatican Museum.
The Pinoteca is made up of 18 rooms with about 450 paintings, including artists such as:
- Saint Nicholas Saving the Ship by Fran Angélico
- Saint Jerome by Leonardo Da Vinci
- The Transfiguration of Raphael
- The Virgin with the Nuno and Saints by Titian
- Descent from the Cross by Caravaggio
- Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus de Poussin.
Jamil tells them that according to the map that the bishop gave them, there are still the Missionary Ethnological Museum, the pontifical missions, the Pavilion of Carriages, the Pio Cristiano Museum, the Profane Gregorian Museum, the Philatelic and Numismatic Museum.
Before leaving exhausted, they go to the toilets and fill their bottle with water in a fountain and go down the spectacular spiral staircase designed by Giuseppe Momo in 1932.
Anne leads Thomas to St. Peter’s Basilica, and they sneak down the stairs below the altar to get closer to the Tombs of St. Peter the Apostle.
Then they surprise Jamil contemplating Michelangelo’s La Piedad. Who asks where they were?
They walk out of the Basilica towards St. Peter’s Square and go to Castel Sant’Angelo to meet again with Cardinal Boticelli, Rome begins to get dark and to dress at night, to light up, the dome of the Basilica amazes with its beauty and the Castel Sant’Angelo appears golden when illuminated.
While they wait, Thomas takes the opportunity to do a little history of the Castle and the bridge over the Tiber river. Sant’Angelo Castle was started by Emperor Hadrian in the year 135 for his personal and family mausoleum; it was completed by Antonino Pio in 139. In later centuries XVI century.
The bridge has a history in the city, the pilgrims used it to enter the Vatican City, in later centuries the 16th century, the bridge was used to expose the bodies of those executed. In the year 1535, Pope Clement VII destined the income from the toll that they had to pay to cross the bridge to erect the statues of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, to which the four evangelists (Matthew, Luke, Mark and John) and four patriaras representing Adam, Noah, Abraham and Moses.
Yes, I didn’t have these Angels that we see now, says Thomas. It was in 1669 that Pope Clement IX commissioned the replacement of the stucco statues of Raffaello de Montelupo, commissioned by Paul III. It was Bernini himself who began the construction of ten angels who held the instruments of the Passion. He in person finished two of them, the other his disciples, the originals that had the inscription “INRI” and the crown of Thorns, were later removed by Clement IX, because he considered they were too beautiful to be out in the open and he replaced them with a copies, Bernini’s originals are currently in the church of Sant’Andrea della Fratte, here in Rome near the Spanish Steps.
The list of angels is as follows:
1 Angel with the column (Antonio Raggi, inscription “Tronus meus in column”).
2 Angel with the whips (Lazzaro Morelli inscription “In flagella paratus sum”).
3 Angel with the Crown of Thorns