{"id":27526,"date":"2012-10-31T16:43:07","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T14:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=27526"},"modified":"2012-10-31T16:43:07","modified_gmt":"2012-10-31T14:43:07","slug":"sistine-chapel-fresco-the-vatican-is-preparing-to-celebrate-the-500th-anniversary-of-michelangelos-fresco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/sistine-chapel-fresco-the-vatican-is-preparing-to-celebrate-the-500th-anniversary-of-michelangelos-fresco\/","title":{"rendered":"Sistine Chapel Fresco: The Vatican is preparing to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo’s fresco"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Michelangelo’s artistic masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was opened to the public 500 years ago this week.<\/h1>\n

The painting of the world-famous fresco – one of the Vatican’s most dramatic offerings – took five years.<\/p>\n

It was commissioned by Pope Julius II and Michelangelo was initially reluctant to take the project on.<\/p>\n

When he did agree he put his heart and soul into it, depicting more than 300 figures rather than just the 12 apostles originally sought.<\/p>\n

The artist’s work covers 12,000 square feet of the chapel ceiling and is believed by many to be his best work.<\/p>\n

The ceiling mural was considered a marvel from the moment it went on show on All Saints Day (November 1), 1512.<\/p>\n

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It now attracts up to 25,000 visitors a day – more than five million people a year.<\/p>\n

But the amount of pollution they bring with them is now a major worry for the Vatican.<\/p>\n

Museum experts there are now considering crowd control and a filter system to cut down the dust and pollutants which, long term, could damage the artwork.<\/p>\n

One suggestion is to limit visitors to 25 every 15 minutes – a move that Vatican Museums director Antonio Paolucci accepts is likely to meet fierce criticism.<\/p>\n

This is because the chapel is seen as a place for religious worshippers as well as art lovers, something the Roman Catholic Church is keen to retain.<\/p>\n

“So far we’ve tried to avoid this because the Sistine Chapel for those who visit the Vatican is not only a place of art but also a spiritual, religious place,” Mr Paolucci told the BBC.<\/p>\n

His comments come a few weeks after he denied visitors would be limited, suggesting to do so would be as “unthinkable” as limiting access to the shrine of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelangelo’s artistic masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was opened to the public 500 years ago this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":702,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,63,17,1,118,14],"tags":[37093,37097,4074,37091,12005,37089,37096,37087,37088,6692,6003,37092,37094,37095],"class_list":["post-27526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-daily","category-europe","category-general","category-hot","category-world","tag-500-years-ago-chapel","tag-all-saints-day-sistine-chapel","tag-catholic-church","tag-masterpiece-michelangelo","tag-michelangelo","tag-michelangelo-sistine-chapel","tag-pope-julius-ii-michelangelo","tag-sistine-chapel","tag-sistine-chapel-fresco","tag-the-vatican","tag-vatican","tag-vatican-preparing-500th-anniversry","tag-vatican-sistine-chapel-fresco","tag-world-famous-fresco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/702"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27526\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}