Sistina Chapel

The paintings of the Sistina Chapel witness a revolution not only in the forms of painting, but also in the attitude of "reading" of a piece of art, but also in the meaning. The painting by Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Signorelli, Biagio d'Antonio, Cosimo Rosselli, and soprattutto Botticelli are in fact narrative: they represent a story without words – at the beginning this way of painting was addressed at illustrating the histories of Bible for the illiterate, the “Biblia Pauperum”. For instance, in the "temptation of Christ" (left) the story of reconciliation of Medici with the Pope after the Pazzi conjuration (where the Pope had a role) is represented with all the details and people involvede in the story are represented. This political story is blendend with the theological meaning.
Michelangelo’s, in the vault, and even more in the “Final Judgment”, are instead symbolic paintings: no story is narrated, but a complex web of meanings is suggested by the colours, the attitudes, the characters. For instance, the "Drunkness of Noah" (right) is framed among (and related conceptually to) the "Four Seasons"; with the end of the diluvio the seasons begin. The Vault is still strongly influenced by traditional theology, probably supervised by pontifical theologicans; in tht “Judgment" instead, the symbolism is still less nararative and more concveptual.