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Imagine you're in Rome

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and you've made your way
to the Vatican Museums,

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and you've been shuffling
down long corridors,

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past statues, frescoes,
lots and lots of stuff.

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You're heading towards the Sistine Chapel.

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At last, a long corridor,
a stair, and a door.

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You're at the threshold
of the Sistine Chapel.

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So what are you expecting?

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Soaring domes? Choirs of angels?

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We don't really have any of that there.

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Instead, you may ask yourself,
what do we have?

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Well, curtains up on the Sistine Chapel.

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And I mean literally, you're surrounded
by painted curtains,

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the original decoration of this chapel.

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Churches used tapestries not just
to keep out cold during long masses,

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but as a way to represent
the great theater of life.

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The human drama in which each one of us
plays a part is a great story,

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a story that encompasses the whole world,

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and that came to unfold
in the three stages

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of the painting in the Sistine Chapel.

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Now, this building started out
as a space for a small group

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of wealthy, educated Christian priests.

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They prayed there.
They elected their Pope there.

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Five hundred years ago, it was the ultimate
ecclesiastical man cave.

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So, you may ask, how can it be
that today it attracts and delights

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five million people a year,

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from all different backgrounds?

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Because in that compressed space,
there was a creative explosion,

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ignited by the electric excitement
of new geopolitical frontiers

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which set on fire the ancient
missionary tradition of the Church

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and produced one of the greatest
works of art in history.

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Now, this development took place
as a great evolution,

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moving from the beginning of a few elite

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and eventually able to speak
to audiences of people

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that come from all over the world.

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This evolution took place in three stages,

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each one linked
to a historical circumstance.

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The first one was rather limited in scope.

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It reflected the rather
parochial perspective.

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The second one took place after
worldviews were dramatically altered

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after Columbus's historical voyage.

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And the third,

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when the Age of Discovery
was well under way

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and the Church rose to the challenge
of going global.

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The original decoration of this church
reflected a smaller world.

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There were busy scenes

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that told the stories of the lives
of Jesus and Moses,

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reflecting the development
of the Jewish and Christian people.

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The man who commissioned this,
Pope Sixtus IV,

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assembled a dream team
of Florentine art,

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including men like Sandro Botticelli,

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and the man who would become
Michelangelo's future painting teacher,

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Ghirlandaio.

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These men, they blanked the walls
with a frieze of pure color,

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and in these stories you'll notice
familiar landscapes,

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the artists using Roman monuments
or a Tuscan landscape

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to render a faraway story,
something much more familiar,

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with the addition of images
of the Pope's friends and family.

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This was a perfect decoration
for a smart court

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limited to the European continent,

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but in 1492, the New World was discovered,

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horizons were expanding,

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and this little 133 x 46 foot microcosm
had to expand as well.

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And it did,

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thanks to a creative genius,

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a visionary, and an awesome story.

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Now, the creative genius
was Michelangelo Buonarroti,

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33 years old when he was tapped
to decorate 12,000 square foot of ceiling,

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and the deck was stacked against him.

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He had trained in painting,
but had left to pursue sculpture.

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There were angry patrons in Florence
because he had left a stack

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of incomplete commissions,

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lured to Rome by the prospect
of a great sculptural project,

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and that project had fallen through,

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and he had been left with a commission
to paint 12 apostles

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against a decorative background
in the Sistine Chapel ceiling

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which would look like
every other ceiling in Italy.

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But genius rose to the challenge.

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In an age when a man dared
to sail across the Atlantic Ocean,

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Michelangelo dared to chart
new artistic waters.

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He too would tell a story,

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no apostles, but a story
of great beginnings,

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the story of Genesis.

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Not really an easy sell,
stories on a ceiling.

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How would you be able to read
a busy scene from 62 feet below?

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The painting technique that had been
handed on for 200 years

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in Florentine studios was not equipped
for this kind of a narrative.

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But Michelangelo wasn't really a painter,

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and so he played to his strengths.

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Instead of being accustomed
to filling space with busyness,

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he took a hammer and chisel
and hacked away at a piece of marble

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to reveal the figure within.

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Michelangelo was an essentialist.

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He would tell his story
in massive, dynamic bodies.

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This plan was embraced
by the larger-than-life Pope Julius II,

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a man who was unafraid
of Michelangelo's brazen genius.

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He was nephew to Pope Sixtus IV,
and he had been steeped in art

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for 30 years, and he knew its power.

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And history has handed down the moniker
of the Warrior Pope,

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but this man's legacy to the Vatican,
it wasn't fortresses and artillery,

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it was art.

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He left us the Raphael Rooms,
the Sistine Chapel.

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He left St. Peter's Basilica as well as

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an extraordinary collection
of Greco-Roman sculptures,

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decidedly un-Christian works
that would become the seedbed

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of the world's first modern museum,
the Vatican Museums.

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Julius was a man

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who envisioned a Vatican
that would be eternally relevant

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through grandeur and through beauty,

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and he was right:

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the encounter between these two giants,
Michelangelo and Julius II,

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that's what gave us the Sistine Chapel.

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Michelangelo was so committed
to this project

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that he succeeded in getting the job done
in three and a half years

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using a skeleton crew

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and spending most of the time,
hours on end,

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reaching up above his head
to paint the stories on the ceiling.

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So let's look at this ceiling

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and see storytelling gone global.

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No more familiar artistic references
to the world around you.

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There's just space
and structure and energy,

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and a monumental painted framework
which opens onto nine panels,

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more driven by sculptural form
than painterly color,

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and we stand in the far end

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by the entrance, far from the altar

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and from the gated enclosure
intended for the clergy,

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and we peer into the distance
looking for a beginning.

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And whether in scientific inquiry
or in Biblical tradition,

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we think in terms of a primal spark.

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Michelangelo gave us an initial energy
when he gave us

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the separation of light and dark,

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a churning figure blurry in the distance

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compressed into a tight space.

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The next figure looms larger,

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and you see a figure hurtling
from one side to the next.

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He leaves in his wake
the sun, the moon, vegetation.

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Michelangelo didn't focus
on the stuff that was being created,

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unlike all the other artists.

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He focused on the act of Creation.

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And then the movement stops,

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like a caesura in poetry,
and the Creator hovers.

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So what's He doing?

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Is he creating land? Is He creating sea?

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Or is He looking back over His handiwork,
the Universe and His treasures,

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just like Michelangelo must have looking
back over his work in the ceiling

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and proclaiming, "It is good."

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So now the scene is set,

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and you get to the culmination
of Creation which is Man.

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Adam leaps to the eye,
a light figure against a dark background,

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but looking closer,

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that leg is pretty languid on the ground,

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the arm is heavy on the knee.

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Adam lacks that interior spark

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that will impel him to greatness.

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That spark is about to be conferred
by the Creator in that finger,

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which is one millimeter
from the hand of Adam.

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It puts us at the edge of our seats,
because we're one moment

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from that contact,

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through which that man
will discover his purpose,

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leap up and take his place
at the pinnacle of Creation.

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And then Michelangelo threw a curveball.

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Who is in that other arm?

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Eve, first woman.

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No, she's not an afterthought.
She's part of a plan.

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She's always been in His mind.

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Look at her, so intimate with God
that her hand curls

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around his arm,

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and for me, an American art historian

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from the 21st century,

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this was the moment
that the painting spoke to me,

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because I realized that this representation
of the human drama

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was always about men
and women, so much so

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that the dead center,
the heart of the ceiling

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is the creation of Woman, not Adam,

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and the fact is, and when you see them
together in the Garden of Eden,

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they fall together,

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and together their proud posture

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turns into folded shame.

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You art a critical juncture
now in the ceiling.

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You are exactly at the point
where you and I can go

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no further into the church.

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The gated enclosure
keeps us out of the inner sanctum,

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and we are cast out
much like Adam and Eve.

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The remaining scenes in the ceiling,

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they mirror the crowded chaos
of the world around us.

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You have Noah and his Ark and the flood.

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You have Noah. He's making a sacrifice
and a covenant with God.

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Maybe he's the Savior?

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Oh, but no, Noah is the one
who grew grapes, invented wine,

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got drunk, and passed out
naked in his barn.

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It is a curious way to design the ceiling,

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now starting out with God creating life,

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ending up with some guy
blind drunk in a barn.

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And so, compared with Adam,

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you might think Michelangelo
is making fun of us.

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But he's about to dispel the gloom

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by using those bright colors
right underneath Noah:

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emerald, taupe, and scarlet
on the Prophet Zechariah.

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Zechariah foresees a light
coming from the east,

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and we are turned at this juncture
to a new destination,

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with sibyls and prophets
who will lead us on a parade.

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You have the heroes and heroines
who make safe the way,

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and we follow the mothers and fathers.

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They are the motors of this great
human engine, driving it forward.

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And now we're at the keystone
of the ceiling,

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the culmination of the whole thing,

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with a figure that looks like
he's about to fall out of his space

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into our space,

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encroaching our space.

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This is the most important juncture.

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Past meets present.

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This figure, Jonah, who spent three days
in the belly of the whale,

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for the Christians is the symbol
of the renewal of humanity

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through Jesus's sacrifice,
but for the multitudes

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of visitors to that museum
from all faiths who visit there every day,

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he is the moment the distant past

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encounters and meets immediate reality.

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All of this brings us to the yawning
archway of the altar wall,

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where we see Michelangelo's Last Judgment,

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painted in 1534 after the world
had changed again.

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The Reformation had splintered the Church.

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The Ottoman Empire had made
Islam a household word,

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and Magellan had found a route
into the Pacific Ocean.

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How is a 59-year old artist who has never
been any further than Venice

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going to speak to this new world?

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Michelangelo chose to paint destiny,

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that universal desire,

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common to all of us,

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to leave a legacy of excellence.

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Told in terms of the Christian vision
of the Last Judgment,

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the end of the world,

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Michelangelo gave you
a series of figures

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who are wearing these
strikingly beautiful bodies.

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They have no more covers,
no more portraits

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except for a couple.

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It's a composition
only out of bodies,

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391, no two alike,

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unique like each
and every one of us.

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They start in the lower corner,
breaking away from the ground,

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struggling and trying to rise.

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Those who have risen
reach back to help others,

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and in one amazing vignette,

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you have a black man and a white man
pulled up together

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in an incredible vision of human unity
in this new world.

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The lion's share of the space
goes to the winner's circle.

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There you find men and women
completely nude like athletes.

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They are the ones
who have overcome adversity,

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and Michelangelo's vision
of people who combat adversity,

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overcome obstacles,

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they're just like athletes.

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So you have men and women
flexing and posing

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in this extraordinary spotlight.

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Presiding over this assembly is Jesus,

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first a suffering man on the cross,

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now a glorious ruler in Heaven.

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And as Michelangelo
proved in his painting,

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hardship, setbacks, and obstacles,

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they don't limit excellence,
they forge it.

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Now, this does lead us
to one odd thing.

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This is the Pope's private chapel,

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and the best way you can describe that
is indeed a stew of nudes.

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But Michelangelo was trying to use
only the best artistic language,

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the most universal artistic language
he could think of,

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that of the human body.

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And so instead of the way of showing
virtue such as fortitude or self-mastery,

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he borrowed from Julius II's
wonderful collection of sculptures

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in order to show inner strength
as external power.

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Now, one contemporary did write

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that the chapel was too beautiful
to not cause controversy,

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and so it did.

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Michelangelo soon found
that thanks to the printing press,

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complaints about the nudity
spread all over the place,

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and soon his masterpiece of human drama
was labeled pornography,

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at which point he added
two more portraits,

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one of the man who criticized him,
a papal courtier,

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and the other one of himself
as a dried up husk, no athlete,

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in the hands of a long-suffering martyr.

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The year he died he saw
several of these figures covered over,

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a triumph for trivial distractions
over his great exhortation to glory.

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And so now we stand

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in the here and now.

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We are caught in that space

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between beginnings and endings,

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in the great, huge totality
of the human experience.

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The Sistine Chapel forces us
to look around as if it were a mirror.

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Who am I in this picture?

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Am I one of the crowd?
Am I the drunk guy?

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Am I the athlete?

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And as we leave this haven
of uplifting beauty,

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we are inspired to ask ourselves
life's biggest questions.

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Who am I and what role do I play
in this great theater of life?

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Bruno Giussani: Elizabeth Lev, thank you.

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Elizabeth, you mentioned
this whole issue of pornography,

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too many nudes and too many
daily life scenes and improper things

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in the eyes of the time.

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But actually the story is bigger.

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It's not just touching up
and covering up some of the figures.

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This work of art was almost
destroyed because of that.

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Elizabeth Lev: The effect
of the Last Judgment was enormous.

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The printing press made sure
that everybody saw it,

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and so this wasn't something
that happened within a couple of weeks.

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It was something that happened
over the space of 20 years

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of editorials and complaints,

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saying to the Church,

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"You can't possibly tell us
how to live our lives.

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Did you notice you have
pornography in the Pope's chapel?"

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And so after complaints and insistence

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of trying to get this work destroyed,

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it was finally the year
that Michelangelo died

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that the Church finally found
a compromise,

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a way to save the painting,

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and that was in putting up
these extra 30 covers,

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and that happens to be
the origin of fig-leafing.

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That's where it all came about,

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and it came about from a church
that was trying to save a work of art,

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not indeed deface or destroyed it.

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BG: This, what you just gave us,
is not the classic tour

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that people get today
when they go to the Sistine Chapel.

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(Laughter)

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EL: I don't know, is that an ad?

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BG: No, no, no, not necessarily,
it is a statement.

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It is, the experience of art today
is encountering problems.

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Too many people want to see this there,

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and the result is five million people
going through that tiny door

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and experiencing it
in a completely different way

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than we just did in the last 15 minutes.

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EL: Right. I agree. I think it's really nice
to be able to pause and look,

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but also realize,
even when you're in those days,

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with 20,000 people a day,

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even those days when you're in there
with all those other people,

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look around you and think
how amazing it is

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that some painted plaster
from 500 years ago

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can still draw all those people
standing side by side with you

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looking upwards with their jaws dropped.

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It's a great statement about how beauty

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truly can speak to us all

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through time and through
geographic space.

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BG: Liz, grazie.
EL: Grazie a te.

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BG: Thank you.
(Applause)