Sistine Chapel

No photos, so I’ll write instead. There’s too much detail to describe. Shapes jut out whilst lying flat – a mixture of arches, triangles, rectangles. The colours are perhaps more muted than those which I had imagined, but no corner, section or patch has been missed. As though this room is all the world’s got, every bit of wall, ceiling and floor is covered. There is nowhere that design has not reached, except perhaps the steps. But even there, the marble’s veins pump streaks of life through the stone. Drapery and anatomy – it’s all on show. The figures go about their celestial lives, oblivious to the many gazes and the fussing they cause below. Sometimes a space clears on the floor as the covering of footwear shuffles away. The mosaic gets to breathe. Its tiny tiled pores are released and catch a glimpse of their ceiling relative. A fleeting greeting and then the feet come again. It’s a busy place, both flat and with form. A house of God and a house of art, filled with heavenly masterpieces – people.

*Photography is not allowed in the Sistine Chapel. This picture is actually of some more of Michelangelo's work in the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, which is just next door.