I understand the Sistine Chapel is Surprisingly Smaller than one expects. -- True?

Question

Is it tiny enough to be a big dissapointment?....

Is it possible to make your voice echo if you shout something like :

......."I paid my good MONEY to get here and went through all this TROUBLE...

Bruised my shin on the bus door....and...and THIS is all there is?

I thought it would be WAY bigger than THIS!!

WHAT an Italian RIP OFF Job!!

DON’T tell me to be QUIET! GAWDAMMIT

I’m not leaving until I get my MONEY back!

okay...alright, ....but I’m never coming back here again".

Answer 1

Actually the ceiling was much higher than I had expected. It's so high it was hard to see the whole ET finger touching action.

Answer 2

Have you ever seen La Jaconde (Mona Lisa)? That is something that you don't expect to be as small as it is. The Sistine Chapel isn't very large, but you have to understand its purpose. It isn't a cathedral so it shouldn't be overly large, it's a chapel. A chapel is a private church, usually small and often attached to a larger institution such as a college, a hospital, a palace, or a prison. Though it isn't grandiose in size, it is well worth seeing. I've been twice at different stages of the cleaning (It had years worth of smoke damage on the frescoes). The entire cieling was completed in four years and Michelangelo insisted that he do the whole thing himself, it highlights nine stories from genesis, including the famed "God giving life to Adam."  He was only commisioned to do the 12 apostles, but the cieling ended up having more than 300 figures.

The Last Judgment takes up the whole wall behind the altar. The Last Judgment was an object of a heavy dispute between Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused of immorality and intolerable obscenity, having depicted naked figures, with genitals in evidence, so a censorship campaign (known as the "Fig-Leaf Campaign") was organized by Carafa and Monsignor Sernini to remove the frescoes. When the Pope's own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, said "it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns," Michelangelo worked da Cesena's semblance into the scene as Minos, judge of the underworld. It is said that when he complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to h**l, so the portrait would have to remain.

The genitalia in the fresco were later covered by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom history remembers by the derogatory nickname "Il Braghettone" ("the breeches-painter"). They have worked to remove the covers off the genitalia. The Last Judgment is an amazing work of art.

Overall the Sistine Chapel is an amazing piece of art and in its own right a museum to enthrone Michelangelo's greatest masterpiece.

I wouldn't try shouting in there... you WILL get kicked out. They don't take kindly to people whispering, so I think that yelling is a bit too much. And your entrance into the Capela Sistina is included in the tour of the Vatican which in its own right is amazing. I hope that you enjoy seeing all the other wonderful things that Rome has to offer!

Buon Viaggio! Divertirti!

Answer 3

I have been there about five times and I think it is fairly sized.  There is always a huge crowd in there so it makes it seem smaller.  You have to be quiet when you are in there and also if you go on the last Sunday of a month it is free.  I think it is truly beautiful.

Answer 4

It is smaller than one expects from the photographs but it's not tiny. You will be deterred from raising your voice in there by lots of Italian staff going Shhhhhhhhhh all the time. Italians take their religion and their art very seriously so be respectful or be ejected. It is a marvel and I'm sure you won't be disappointed. For your money you get to see all the other marvels of the Vatican museums so I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Answer 5

when i saw it as an 18 yr old i was massively impressed with it.  it was everything i thought it would be.  some people are just never happy in italy.  i remember one guy on my tour was irked cause we had pasta with every dinner.  (there were other things too, but pasta was always a side dish.)  i wanted to scream, well DUH!!