The Sistine Chapel of Vatican City
By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Recently, on the occasion of the election of the new Pope, there had been much talk about the temple in which the conclave of Cardinals gathered to elect him, namely the Capella Sistina or Sistine Chapel.
The Capella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) was renovated by Pope Sixtus IV from 1473 to 1477 in order to be used as the Papal Chapel (Cappella Pontificia), which was established in 1483 in honor of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. The Sistine Chapel is named after Pope Sixtus IV.
In order to paint the temple, many prominent painters were enlisted, such as Botticelli, Perugino, Signorelli, Cosimo Rosselli, Pinturicchio and others, but mainly the great painter Michelangelo, who constitutes the pinnacle of the Renaissance and heralds the Baroque.
The iconography of the Capella Sistina belongs to the Italian Renaissance and the style of the representations is linked to some principles that began to prevail after the Council of Frankfurt in 794 and were developed in the following centuries, however, it also has its own anthropological and ancient Greek elements. We know that Renaissance art was liberated from the theological framework established by the Seventh Ecumenical Synod.
The decoration of the ceiling of the Capella Sistina is interpreted as the history of salvation that promises eternal life, has liberated Rome from idolatry, making it an "eternal city", dominated by the Pope who assumed a hegemonic role in the spread of Christianity in the world.
An important book by Heinrich Pleiffer titled "The Sistine Chapel: A New Vision" proved, after many years of research, that under the artists who painted the Chapel, there were Papal theologians as advisors and guides.
Thus, the iconography of the Chapel reflects the theology of Scholasticism, as it developed from the 9th century onwards. The interpretation of the three heavens is presented, the first heaven is the knowledge of ourselves, the second heaven is the perfect knowledge of creation and the third heaven is the vision of God, the well-known contemplatio Dei. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Pope as the Bridegroom of the entire Church are also presented.
If one compares the iconography of the Sistine Chapel with the Church of the Protaton in Karyes of the Holy Mountain of Athos, which was painted by Manuel Panselinos, one sees the difference between Scholastic and Orthodox Theology, not only in Trinitarianism, but also in the representation of the Second Coming of Christ.
In general, the painting of the Papal Chapel expresses the entire mentality of Latin theology, both on the theoretical and practical levels, which differs as much as heaven from earth from the Orthodox theology of the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods and shows the existing great theological difference between the Orthodox Church and the Papacy.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
