The Sistine Chapel

Entrance Wall

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East Wall

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On Christmas Eve 1522, as Pope Adrian VI (r. 1522-23) was making his way into the Sistine chapel, the lintel of the door suddenly collapsed killing one of his Swiss Guards. By some miracle, the pope was not injured, but two of the frescoes were destroyed.

The two frescoes were the final scenes of the cycles of Moses and Christ: The Resurrection of Christ by Domenico Ghirlandaio and The Archangel Michael Defending the Body of Moses by Luca Signorelli. The two frescoes were replaced, fifty years later, during the reign of Gregory XIII (r. 1572-85) by works depicting the same subjects, executed, respectively, by Hendrik van den Broeck and Matteo da Lecce.

The fictive curtains at the lower level were also repainted, but without the coat of arms of Pope Sixtus IV. 

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