Since the pope first came to worldwide prominence in the late Middle Ages, he has been recognized as both a political and spiritual leader. His religious clout alone demands that the Vatican, the papal state fully under his control, would be filled with breathtaking structures and artwork. As visitors to the Vatican progress through St Peter's Square, into the famed basilica, and perhaps to the Sistine Chapel, they are surrounded with art and architecture created to play very specific roles, ranging from the practical to the symbolic.
The Vatican is located on the left bank of the Tiber River in Rome, where, according to tradition, Saint Peter, the first pope and the apostle to whom Christ had left in charge of his ministry, was martyred in 67 A.D. In 320–27 A.D. the emperor Constantine built a five-aisled basilica atop the early Christian necropolis that was Peter's resting place, with a shrine in the apse of the church to mark the location of Peter's tomb.
During the medieval decline of Rome and frequent barbarian invasions, popes had to protect the basilica and in the 800s Pope Leo IV began surrounding the future Vatican City with thick walls. The transfer of the papacy to Avignon in 1309 left the Vatican Hill unattended for 70 years, and St. Peter’s was abandoned and left subject to elements. When the popes returned, their top priority was to repair the church. The second was to build a permanent home for the Pope. Due to the lack of resources these changes were not going to be easy and would take time. In the mid-15th century it was decided that the old basilica should be rebuilt. Pope Nicholas V asked architect Bernardo Rossellino to start adding to the old church but this was quickly abandoned.
Serious work on St. Peter’s Basilica began under Pope Julius II, who gathered the resources and the will to carry out the project. Julius soon decided to hire famed architect Donato Bramante to tear down the Constantinian basilica and rebuild Saint Peter's entirely, an idea that was met with a lot of opposition from parties who felt that the old church, which had existed basically since the dawn of Christianity, should be preserved.
Bramante carried through very wrecklessly, destroying mosaics, frescoes, statues and even relics with such abandon that he earned the nickname, Maestro Ruinante or “Master Wrecker.” In Rome Bramante created the “Tempietto” in the Cloister of San Pietro in Montorio. This small circular temple marks the spot where St Peter was martyred and is thus the most sacred site in Rome. The building adapts the style apparent in the remains of the Temple of Vesta, the most sacred site of Ancient Rome. After Bramante’s death and many changes of plan, Michelangelo, as chief architect, reverted to something closer to Bramante’s original proposal. Steadily, the jumbled Vatican skyline was beggining to take shape.
The Sistine Chapel, just to the north of St. Peter’s, was commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV and built according to the dimensions of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem. It was finally completed in 1481. It was designed to be ,and still is, the pope's chapel and the site of papal elections. In 1481 Sixtus IV called to Rome the Florentine painters Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli and the Perugian Pietro Perugino to decorate the walls with frescoes. Luca Signorelli may have also been involved in the decoration. The fresco project took only 11 months, from July 1481 to May 1482. The Sistine Chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin on August 15, 1483. The Sistine ceiling was originally painted by Piero Matteo d'Amelia, who included a star-spangled sky. But Nearly 30 years after it was built, an artist named Michelangelo would begin painting his most famous frescos on its ceiling. Michelangelo was called away from his work on the pope's own tomb and was not happy about the change. He had considered himself a sculptor and was contemptuous of fresco painting. The results were magnificent depictions of human bodies that could only be created by a sculptor, and the project Michelangelo had started off hating so ironically became his most well-known work. He was also asked to paint the Twelve Apostles and a few ornaments on the ceiling of the chapel. But as he began work on the project, Michelangelo conceived grander designs and ended up painting more than 300 figures.
He worked on the project between 1508 and October 31, 1512, in cramped conditions high on a scaffolding and under continous pressure from the pope to hurry up. The project would permanently damage the artist's eyesight.
Michelangelo was in his 60s when he was called back to the chapel, again against his wishes, to paint The Last Judgment (1535-1541) on the altar wall. The work was commissioned by Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) shortly before his death, and Clement's successor, Pope Paul III Farnese (1534-1549), forced Michelangelo to complete it quickly. It was the largest fresco of the century and is still an unquestioned masterpiece.
In recent decades, the Sistine Chapel has been carefully cleaned and restored, beginning with the 15th-century wall frescoes in 1965. The cleaning and restoration of the lunettes, the ceiling and the Last Judgment, a painstaking process using computer analysis, lasted from 1980 to 1994. The restoration included removing several of the "modesty" drapes that had been added over some of the nude figures. The end result of the restoration has been controversial: Critics say a vital second layer of paint was removed, and argue that many of the restored figures seem flat compared with the originals, which had more shadow and detail. Others have hailed the project for saving Michelangelo's masterpiece for future generations to appreciate and for revealing the vibrancy of his color palette.