Sistine Chapel Book Released with HD Images for Most Detailed Study to Date

The Sistine Chapel is now viewable in its most infinitesimal details thanks to high-definition photography, the Vatican Museums have announced. New computer-controlled digital technology and special LED lighting to simulate daylight enabled 220 details of the ceiling and the fresco of the Last Judgment by Michelangelo, as well as frescos by Perugino and Botticelli.

Three luxury coffee-table books (16 x 24 in.) with pages that fold out to almost 4 feet, have been printed with only 1,999 copies each by Italian art publisher Scripture Maneant. Gianni Grandi, the graphic artist, said that “The photographs allow Michelangelo’s work to be better understood, for instance through his use of striations or pointillism.” These three works are intended for major libraries, and are priced at 12,000 euros ($12,800) each, assembling 270,000 new digital photographs in 870 pages.

The shots were taken over five years, between 7 pm and 2 am (after visiting hours), under the direction of the former director of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci. “In the future, this will enable us to know the state of each centimeter of the chapel as it is today, in 2017,” in order to preserve it better, he stated. Giorgio Armaroli, director of publishing house Scripta Manean, said that in order to obtain the highest quality of reproduction, “we used a postproduction program to reproduce the depth, the intensity, the warmth and the nuance of colours, precise to 99.9%.”

More About the Sistine Chapel
 

The Sistine Chapel, named after Pope Sixtus IV della Rovere (1471–1484) who restored the Cappella Magna between 1477 and 1480, was redecorated several times in succession. Of the 15th-century frescoes, painted in 1481 and 1482, the trompe l’oeil hangings, the Stories of Moses (southern and entry walls) and of Christ (northern and entry walls), as well as the portraits of the popes (southern, northern and entry walls) have remained. On August 15, 1483, Sixtus IV consecrated the new chapel and dedicated it to Our Lady of the Assumption.

Then in 1507 Jules II della Rovere (1503–1513), nephew of Sixtus IV, entrusted improvements to Michelangelo Buonarroti, who painted the vaulted ceiling and the lunettes at the top of the walls, finishing in October 1512. The nine central scenes represent episodes from Genesis, from Creation to the fall of man, with the flood and the rebirth of humanity through Noe and his family. Finally in 1533, Clement VII de Medici (1523 – 1534) asked Michelangelo for a new painting for the wall behind the altar: the Last Judgement replaced the altar piece of Our Lady of the Assumption with the Apostles and the two first episodes of the Stories of Moses and of Christ, frescoes painted by Perugini (1448 – 1523). The work was finished in autumn of 1541. 

In our day, the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel were completely restored between 1979 and 1999.