The Sistine Chapel



Architecture
The Sistine Chapel is rectangular and measures 40,93 meters (134,28 feet) long by 13,41 meters (44 feet) wide (the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old). It is 20,70 meters (67,91 feet) high and is roofed by a flattened barrel vault, with small side vaults over the 6 centered windows. The pavement (15th century) is in opus alexandrinum.
The architectural plans were made by Baccio Pontelli and the construction work was supervised by Giovannino de Dolci between 1473 and 1484, at the orders of Sixtus IV.
The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 9 August 1483, as a ceremony by which it was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary.


Wall Frescos
The wall painting were executed by premier painters of the Quattrocento: Perugino, Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Rosellini, Signorelli and their respective workshops, wich included Pinturicchio, Piero di Cosimo and Bartolomeo della Gata. The subjects were historical religious themes, selected and divided according to the medieval concept of the partition of the world history into there epochs: before the Ten Commandments were given to Moses, between Moses and Christ’s birth, and the Christian era thereafter. They underline the continuity between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, or the transition from the Mosaic law to the Christian religion.
The walls were painted over an astonishingly short period of time, barely eleven months, from July, 1481 to May, 482. The painters were each required first to execute a sample fresco; these were to be officially examined and evaluated in January, 1482. However, it was so evident at such an early stage that the frescoes would be satisfactory that by October 1481, the artists were given the commission to execute the remaining ten stories.
The pictorial programme for the chapel was comprised of a cycle each from the Old and New Testament of scenes from the lives of Moses and Christ. The narratives began