Papal conclave to take place in majestic Sistine Chapel
* Named after Pope Sixtus IV and built from 1473-81, it is 40 metres long, 13m wide and 21m high, lit on either side by high windows.
* Michelangelo was commissioned by Julius II to paint the ceiling frescoes, completed between 1508 and 1512. The frescoes show scenes from the Bible's Old and New Testaments, most famously "The Creation of Adam" in which God reaches with his finger to touch the outstretched hand of the first man.
* More than 20 years later, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint the awe-inspiring "Last Judgement" on the wall behind the altar, which was unveiled in 1541.
* Michelangelo was immediately accused of immorality and obscenity for depicting naked figures in a church. After his death, a law was passed to cover up the offending genitalia with "modesty breeches", which were added by an apprentice.
* The side walls are decorated by other artists, including Pietro Perugino, Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio.
* From 1980 to 1994 specialists conducted one of the most ambitious art restoration projects in the world, stripping away centuries of accumulated dirt and soot that had darkened the frescoes. The results divided experts and amateurs, with some criticising the dazzling colours as too bright.
* The Sistine Chapel was first used for a conclave after the death of Sixtus IV in 1484. A number of conclaves have been held elsewhere, including several in the 19th century at the Quirinale Palace, formerly a summer palace for the popes and now the official residence of the Italian president.
* Some 6.8 million people visited the Vatican Museum, which includes the Sistine Chapel, in 2023 - the second most visited museum in the world after the Louvre, according to data site Statista.com.
* German writer Goethe once remarked: "Without having seen the Sistine Chapel, one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving".
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Early this morning, white smoke from the Sistine Chapel signalled to the world Cardinal Robert Prevost's election as Pope Leo XIV. As an Augustinian friar, Prevost spent decades in Peru working with poor communities. His dual citizenship status gives him the special honour of simultaneously being the first American and the first Peruvian pope. The college of cardinals who elected him represent dioceses from Asia, Oceania, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas — a truly global conclave. Such global representation and the expedience of the decision to appoint this uniquely global citizen sends the world a subtle message: that Pope Francis's legacy will live on . The Arch of Constantine with the Roman Colosseum in the background, located east of the Roman Forum. (Photo by VW Pics / Universal Images Group via Getty Images) A significant aspect of this legacy was Francis's promotion of inter-faith dialogue and an inclusive vision of the Church — seeking the inspiration of the Holy Spirit from the peripheries. Many might be surprised to learn that Michelangelo's frescoes, under which the cardinals made their decision, contain similar themes, reflecting central tenets of Renaissance theology. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–1512), St Peter's Basilica, Vatican City. (Photo by Prisma / UIG / Getty Images) The dizzying scale and complexity of Michelangelo's composition is awe inspiring, and perhaps, a little overwhelming. His elaborate painted architecture was a groundbreaking masterpiece in its own right. Some have compared its structure with Rome's triumphal Arch of Constantine, through which conquering generals would lead their legions, bestowing glory on their return from successful military campaigns. Others have described it as an ancient temenos , a designated space where priests would watch for auspices in antiquity. Perched on stone thrones at the precipice of his painted architecture, and flanking his central scenes on all sides, are a collection of towering figures testifying to Michelangelo's spectacular mastery of gestural variance — these are the Hebrew prophets and pagan sibyls. Erythraean Sibyl on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508–1512), by Michelangelo. (Photo by Fine Art Images / Heritage Images via Getty Images). Mirroring the cosmopolitan composition of the current college of cardinals, Michelangelo's Sistine sibyls include the Libyan and Erythraean from Africa, the Delphic (Greek) and Cumaean (Roman) from Europe, and the Persian (Iranian) from West Asia. During the Italian Renaissance, sibyls were often understood to represent the three continents of the known world at the time: Africa, Asia and Europe. Michelangelo's tutor, Ghirlandaio, was among the first to include depictions of sibyls in a Catholic chapel in the 1480s, in Santa Trinita in Florence. At the same time, the clergy of Siena Cathedral were introduced to a prominent depiction of Hermes Trismegistus accompanied by ten sibyls on the mosaic pavement, which Michelangelo would have seen when he was visiting the duomo ahead of his commission for the Piccolomini altar. Aby Warburg called these appearances a 'secular incursion' in Catholic art, which reflected a contemporary exploration of interfaith dialogue and promotion of religious universalism during the Renaissance. The Delphic Sibyl on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (Photo by Fine Art Images / Heritage Images / Getty Images) Nicholas of Cusa (1401–1464), cardinal, theologian and Vicar of Rome, provides a great example of this. He published On the Peace of Faith in 1453, the year Constantinople fell to the Ottomans. In it he described the universality of religion and discussed the need for interfaith dialogue: You are all in agreement, therefore, that there is one sole worship of God, which all of you presuppose in your various rites … It would be possible, through the experience of a few wise men who are well acquainted with all the diverse practices which are observed in religions across the world, to find a unique and propitious concordance. Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499), a priest, translator, musician, astrologer, doctor and prominent Renaissance theologian-philosopher, spoke of the universal religious impulse in his On the Christian Religion : 'The human soul, by its very nature, is inclined toward the divine, and this inclination is the root of all religion.' Returning to this theme again, later in his work, Ficino wrote: 'All religions, though they differ in their rites and names, are directed toward the one God, who is the source of all truth.' Alongside themes of interfaith dialogue, Renaissance theology involved investigations of doctrinal concordia (harmony), exploring and restoring divine truths contained in disparate religious and philosophical traditions. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494), who described himself as the 'Count of Concord', introduced themes of religious universalism in his Oration on the Dignity of Man , and his 900 conclusions contained a detailed exploration of different doctrines in search of concordia . Pico's claims even extended to a kind of divinisation of the human condition, enabled only by a proper understanding of universally concordant divine wisdom. Vault of the Sassetti Chapel (1482–1486) in the Church of Santa Trinita, by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Florence, Italy. The vault of the chapel is painted with four Sibyls — Cumaean, Eritrean, Agrippine and Cimmerian — placed on a starry blue background, between ribs decorated with garlands of flowers and fruits. (Antonio Quattrone / Archivio Antonio Quattrone / Mondadori Portfoliovia Getty Images) Pope Innocent VIII invoked canon law when he outlawed thirteen of Pico's claims as heretical, punishing him with excommunication. But this was overturned by Innocent's successor, Pope Alexander VI, who issued a papal brief in 1493 — a formal document with legal force — absolving Pico and nullifying his excommunication. This pendulum swing, expanding and contracting boundaries of Catholic orthodoxy, was a hallmark of Renaissance theological inquiry, reaching peak doctrinal flexibility around the time Michelangelo completed his Sistine ceiling commission. Many have proposed that Michelangelo's theological advisor on the program was Egidio da Viterbo, prior general of the Augustinian order at the time — a position that the new pope has likewise occupied. Marsilio Ficino had an enduring interest in a universal ancient theology he called the prisca theologia , which consisted entirely of wisdom derived from pre-Christian philosophers and seers, including the sibyls that appear in Michelangelo's frescoes. Ficino viewed the metaphysics he found there as a form of natural theology — divine truth derived from reason — and he felt that both natural philosophy (science) and divine theology (religion) could be explained and contained by Platonic metaphysics. Ficino wanted to inspire his generation to rekindle the combined practice of philosophy and theology: Therefore, the prophets of the Hebrew and Essenes were inclined to wisdom and priesthood simultaneously. The philosophers among the Persians, because they were in charge of sacred rites, were called Magi [which is to say, priests]. The Indians consulted the Brahmins on both the nature of things and the purification of souls. Among the Egyptians, mathematicians and metaphysicians took up the priesthood and the kingship. Among the Ethiopians, the gymnosophists were at once teachers of philosophy and prelates of religion. The same tradition prevailed in Greece under Orpheus and Pythagoras. Ficino sought to unite two groups of Renaissance thinkers who would often fail to engage with each other: 'I therefore exhort and implore all philosophers to reach out and embrace religion firmly, and all priests to devote themselves diligently to the study of legitimate wisdom.' Under the belief that natural philosophers would be convinced by the arguments of Plato, he hoped to redirect them away from the shadows of things and toward the underlying divine truth of incorporeality. Meanwhile, he was encouraging the priesthood to embrace the legitimate wisdom of philosophy, thus dissolving the boundary between theology and philosophy. Detail from the painting of Michelangelo that adorns the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (Photo by Fotopress / Getty Images) Prominent depictions of pagan sibyls in communion with Hebrew prophets are unique to the Italian High Renaissance and reflect a chapter in the history of religion that is not well understood. On the ceiling of the chapel where the cardinals elected Pope Leo XIV is Michelangelo's kaleidoscopic hieroglyphic, telling us about a time when Pope Francis's vision of the inclusive and synodal church would have seemed mainstream. A story about a time when universal concordia reigned supreme — a story told by a generation who believed in the arrival of a Golden Age, when the truth of unity would outlast the deceit of division. David Jackson has a postgraduate degree in Italian Studies from the University of Sydney, and is writing his thesis on the frescoes of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Daniel Canaris is Lecturer in Italian Studies at the University of Sydney. He is an intellectual historian who specialises in intercultural exchange in the early modern period.
