As Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes turn 500, critics warn the dust and dirt being dragged in by thousands of tourists are damaging the works of art
Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes turned 500 on Wednesday, with the Vatican warning it may eventually limit visitors to protect them.
On October 31, 1512, only 20 years after the discovery of America, Pope Julius II said an evening vespers service to inaugurate the room where Michelangelo had toiled for four years, most of them on his back, to finish his ceiling frescoes.
They immediately became the talk of the town and have since become the talk of the world. The problem is that it sometimes feels that they have also become the walk of the world. The Sistine Chapel is arguably the most visited room in the world.
With mass tourism growing, every year some five million people, as many as 20,000 a day in summer, enter the chapel and crane their necks upwards. Most are left awestruck.
The ceiling of the chapel where cardinals meet in secret conclaves to elect the new Pope includes one of the most famous scenes in the history of art – the arm of a gentle bearded God reaching out to give life to Adam in the Creation panel.
Earlier this month, Italian literary critic Pietro Citati sparked a storm by writing an open letter in a major Italian newspaper denouncing the behaviour of crowds visiting what is technically a sacred place.
Tourists, he said, “resemble drunken herds” as they unwittingly risk damaging the frescoes with their breath, perspiration, dust on their shoes and body heat.
The atmosphere, Citati wrote, was anything but contemplative as the tourists ignored the Vatican’s requests for silence, composure and a ban on taking photos.
Citati became the latest critic to demand that the Vatican severely limit the number of visitors to the Sistine, a must-see for visitors to the Eternal City.
At vespers on Wednesday night to commemorate the event in the same room 500 years ago, Pope Benedict seemed to agree on the need for more contemplation.
“When contemplated in prayer, the Sistine Chapel is even more beautiful, more authentic. It reveals itself in all its richness,” he said.
Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums, said he did not foresee limiting the number of visitors “in the short and medium terms”, but the museums might not have any choice after that.
“Pressure caused by humans such as dust, body humidity and carbon dioxide from perspiration can cause unease for the visitors and possible damage to the paintings,” Paolucci said in an article in the Vatican newspaper. “We might limit access if tourism grows beyond tolerance and we are unable to respond to the problem.”