0:00:00.782,0:00:02.687
Imagine you're in Rome,

0:00:02.711,0:00:05.914
and you've made your way[br]to the Vatican Museums.

0:00:06.301,0:00:09.544
And you've been shuffling[br]down long corridors,

0:00:09.568,0:00:14.008
past statues, frescoes,[br]lots and lots of stuff.

0:00:14.380,0:00:16.725
You're heading towards the Sistine Chapel.

0:00:16.749,0:00:22.125
At last -- a long corridor,[br]a stair and a door.

0:00:22.149,0:00:25.147
You're at the threshold[br]of the Sistine Chapel.

0:00:25.171,0:00:26.935
So what are you expecting?

0:00:26.959,0:00:29.483
Soaring domes? Choirs of angels?

0:00:29.507,0:00:31.665
We don't really have any of that there.

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Instead, you may ask yourself,[br]what do we have?

0:00:36.022,0:00:38.646
Well, curtains up on the Sistine Chapel.

0:00:38.670,0:00:41.625
And I mean literally, you're surrounded[br]by painted curtains,

0:00:41.649,0:00:44.064
the original decoration of this chapel.

0:00:44.088,0:00:48.632
Churches used tapestries not just[br]to keep out cold during long masses,

0:00:48.656,0:00:52.111
but as a way to represent[br]the great theater of life.

0:00:52.631,0:00:57.762
The human drama in which each one of us[br]plays a part is a great story,

0:00:57.786,0:01:00.595
a story that encompasses the whole world

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and that came to unfold[br]in the three stages

0:01:03.708,0:01:05.950
of the painting in the Sistine Chapel.

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

0:01:09.767,0:01:12.109
of wealthy, educated Christian priests.

0:01:12.528,0:01:15.205
They prayed there.[br]They elected their pope there.

0:01:15.229,0:01:16.381
Five hundred years ago,

0:01:16.405,0:01:18.912
it was the ultimate[br]ecclesiastical man cave.

0:01:19.548,0:01:25.419
So, you may ask, how can it be[br]that today it attracts and delights

0:01:25.443,0:01:28.109
five million people a year,

0:01:28.133,0:01:30.372
from all different backgrounds?

0:01:30.396,0:01:34.932
Because in that compressed space,[br]there was a creative explosion,

0:01:34.956,0:01:39.788
ignited by the electric excitement[br]of new geopolitical frontiers,

0:01:39.812,0:01:44.107
which set on fire the ancient[br]missionary tradition of the Church

0:01:44.131,0:01:47.409
and produced one of the greatest[br]works of art in history.

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Now, this development took place[br]as a great evolution,

0:01:52.602,0:01:55.337
moving from the beginning of a few elite,

0:01:55.361,0:01:58.792
and eventually able to speak[br]to audiences of people

0:01:58.816,0:02:00.838
that come from all over the world.

0:02:01.222,0:02:03.976
This evolution took place in three stages,

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each one linked[br]to a historical circumstance.

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The first one was rather limited in scope.

0:02:09.190,0:02:11.723
It reflected the rather[br]parochial perspective.

0:02:12.096,0:02:16.350
The second one took place after[br]worldviews were dramatically altered

0:02:16.374,0:02:19.065
after Columbus's historical voyage;

0:02:19.089,0:02:20.496
and the third,

0:02:20.520,0:02:23.496
when the Age of Discovery[br]was well under way

0:02:23.520,0:02:26.029
and the Church rose to the challenge

0:02:26.053,0:02:27.456
of going global.

0:02:28.330,0:02:32.342
The original decoration of this church[br]reflected a smaller world.

0:02:32.366,0:02:33.680
There were busy scenes

0:02:33.704,0:02:37.561
that told the stories of the lives[br]of Jesus and Moses,

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reflecting the development[br]of the Jewish and Christian people.

0:02:41.646,0:02:43.983
The man who commissioned this,[br]Pope Sixtus IV,

0:02:44.007,0:02:47.326
assembled a dream team of Florentine art,

0:02:47.350,0:02:50.249
including men like Sandro Botticelli

0:02:50.273,0:02:53.850
and the man who would become[br]Michelangelo's future painting teacher,

0:02:53.874,0:02:55.412
Ghirlandaio.

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These men, they blanketed the walls[br]with a frieze of pure color,

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and in these stories you'll notice[br]familiar landscapes,

0:03:04.130,0:03:07.996
the artists using Roman monuments[br]or a Tuscan landscape

0:03:08.020,0:03:11.448
to render a faraway story,[br]something much more familiar.

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With the addition of images[br]of the Pope's friends and family,

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this was a perfect decoration[br]for a small court

0:03:17.998,0:03:19.767
limited to the European continent.

0:03:20.244,0:03:25.114
But in 1492, the New World was discovered,

0:03:25.138,0:03:27.082
horizons were expanding,

0:03:27.106,0:03:33.462
and this little 133 by 46-foot[br]microcosm had to expand as well.

0:03:33.486,0:03:34.806
And it did,

0:03:34.830,0:03:36.782
thanks to a creative genius,

0:03:36.806,0:03:39.623
a visionary and an awesome story.

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Now, the creative genius[br]was Michelangelo Buonarroti,

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33 years old when he was tapped[br]to decorate 12,000 square feet of ceiling,

0:03:47.195,0:03:49.076
and the deck was stacked against him --

0:03:49.100,0:03:51.996
he had trained in painting[br]but had left to pursue sculpture.

0:03:52.020,0:03:55.478
There were angry patrons in Florence[br]because he had left a stack

0:03:55.502,0:03:57.176
of incomplete commissions,

0:03:57.200,0:04:00.863
lured to Rome by the prospect[br]of a great sculptural project,

0:04:00.887,0:04:03.468
and that project had fallen through.

0:04:03.492,0:04:06.621
And he had been left with a commission[br]to paint 12 apostles

0:04:06.645,0:04:09.566
against a decorative background[br]in the Sistine Chapel ceiling,

0:04:09.590,0:04:13.128
which would look like[br]every other ceiling in Italy.

0:04:13.615,0:04:15.446
But genius rose to the challenge.

0:04:15.470,0:04:18.968
In an age when a man dared[br]to sail across the Atlantic Ocean,

0:04:18.992,0:04:22.520
Michelangelo dared to chart[br]new artistic waters.

0:04:23.027,0:04:25.263
He, too, would tell a story --

0:04:25.287,0:04:28.819
no Apostles -- but a story[br]of great beginnings,

0:04:28.843,0:04:30.515
the story of Genesis.

0:04:31.087,0:04:34.018
Not really an easy sell,[br]stories on a ceiling.

0:04:34.042,0:04:38.850
How would you be able to read[br]a busy scene from 62 feet below?

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The painting technique that had been[br]handed on for 200 years

0:04:41.753,0:04:45.067
in Florentine studios was not equipped[br]for this kind of a narrative.

0:04:45.694,0:04:48.662
But Michelangelo wasn't really a painter,

0:04:48.686,0:04:50.970
and so he played to his strengths.

0:04:50.994,0:04:54.476
Instead of being accustomed[br]to filling space with busyness,

0:04:54.500,0:04:58.299
he took a hammer and chisel[br]and hacked away at a piece of marble

0:04:58.323,0:05:00.753
to reveal the figure within.

0:05:00.777,0:05:02.945
Michelangelo was an essentialist;

0:05:02.969,0:05:07.355
he would tell his story[br]in massive, dynamic bodies.

0:05:07.379,0:05:12.146
This plan was embraced[br]by the larger-than-life Pope Julius II,

0:05:12.170,0:05:15.791
a man who was unafraid[br]of Michelangelo's brazen genius.

0:05:15.815,0:05:17.697
He was nephew to Pope Sixtus IV,

0:05:17.721,0:05:21.828
and he had been steeped in art[br]for 30 years and he knew its power.

0:05:21.852,0:05:24.916
And history has handed down the moniker[br]of the Warrior Pope,

0:05:24.940,0:05:28.730
but this man's legacy to the Vatican --[br]it wasn't fortresses and artillery,

0:05:28.754,0:05:30.070
it was art.

0:05:30.094,0:05:32.673
He left us the Raphael Rooms,[br]the Sistine Chapel.

0:05:32.697,0:05:34.342
He left St. Peter's Basilica

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as well as an extraordinary collection[br]of Greco-Roman sculptures --

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decidedly un-Christian works[br]that would become the seedbed

0:05:44.257,0:05:48.142
of the world's first modern museum,[br]the Vatican Museums.

0:05:48.847,0:05:50.271
Julius was a man

0:05:50.295,0:05:54.079
who envisioned a Vatican[br]that would be eternally relevant

0:05:54.103,0:05:56.192
through grandeur and through beauty,

0:05:56.216,0:05:57.588
and he was right:

0:05:57.612,0:06:02.600
the encounter between these two giants,[br]Michelangelo and Julius II,

0:06:02.624,0:06:05.061
that's what gave us the Sistine Chapel.

0:06:05.641,0:06:08.428
Michelangelo was so committed[br]to this project,

0:06:08.452,0:06:12.835
that he succeeded in getting the job done[br]in three and a half years,

0:06:12.859,0:06:17.128
using a skeleton crew and spending[br]most of the time, hours on end,

0:06:17.152,0:06:20.843
reaching up above his head[br]to paint the stories on the ceiling.

0:06:21.424,0:06:23.474
So let's look at this ceiling

0:06:23.498,0:06:26.329
and see storytelling gone global.

0:06:26.353,0:06:30.765
No more familiar artistic references[br]to the world around you.

0:06:30.789,0:06:35.432
There's just space[br]and structure and energy;

0:06:35.456,0:06:40.053
a monumental painted framework[br]which opens onto nine panels,

0:06:40.077,0:06:44.010
more driven by sculptural form[br]than painterly color.

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And we stand in the far end[br]by the entrance,

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far from the altar and from the gated[br]enclosure intended for the clergy

0:06:51.965,0:06:57.212
and we peer into the distance,[br]looking for a beginning.

0:06:57.236,0:07:01.252
And whether in scientific inquiry[br]or in biblical tradition,

0:07:01.276,0:07:04.596
we think in terms of a primal spark.

0:07:04.620,0:07:06.753
Michelangelo gave us an initial energy

0:07:06.777,0:07:09.518
when he gave us the separation[br]of light and dark,

0:07:09.542,0:07:12.931
a churning figure blurry in the distance,

0:07:12.955,0:07:15.439
compressed into a tight space.

0:07:15.463,0:07:17.792
The next figure looms larger,

0:07:17.816,0:07:21.243
and you see a figure hurtling[br]from one side to the next.

0:07:21.267,0:07:26.253
He leaves in his wake[br]the sun, the moon, vegetation.

0:07:26.277,0:07:30.284
Michelangelo didn't focus[br]on the stuff that was being created,

0:07:30.308,0:07:32.352
unlike all the other artists.

0:07:32.376,0:07:35.719
He focused on the act of creation.

0:07:35.743,0:07:40.117
And then the movement stops,[br]like a caesura in poetry

0:07:40.141,0:07:41.393
and the Creator hovers.

0:07:41.417,0:07:42.696
So what's He doing?

0:07:42.720,0:07:45.575
Is He creating land? Is He creating sea?

0:07:45.599,0:07:50.290
Or is He looking back over His handiwork,[br]the Universe and His treasures,

0:07:50.314,0:07:52.045
just like Michelangelo must have,

0:07:52.069,0:07:54.666
looking back over his work in the ceiling

0:07:54.690,0:07:57.484
and proclaiming, "It is good."

0:07:58.388,0:08:00.493
So now the scene is set,

0:08:00.517,0:08:04.195
and you get to the culmination[br]of creation, which is man.

0:08:04.219,0:08:08.549
Adam leaps to the eye, a light figure[br]against a dark background.

0:08:08.573,0:08:10.331
But looking closer,

0:08:10.355,0:08:13.007
that leg is pretty languid on the ground,

0:08:13.031,0:08:15.321
the arm is heavy on the knee.

0:08:15.345,0:08:19.022
Adam lacks that interior spark

0:08:19.046,0:08:21.334
that will impel him to greatness.

0:08:21.358,0:08:26.123
That spark is about to be conferred[br]by the Creator in that finger,

0:08:26.147,0:08:28.818
which is one millimeter[br]from the hand of Adam.

0:08:28.842,0:08:30.787
It puts us at the edge of our seats,

0:08:30.811,0:08:33.826
because we're one moment[br]from that contact,

0:08:33.850,0:08:36.751
through which that man[br]will discover his purpose,

0:08:36.775,0:08:39.759
leap up and take his place[br]at the pinnacle of Creation.

0:08:39.783,0:08:43.044
And then Michelangelo threw a curveball.

0:08:43.068,0:08:44.896
Who is in that other arm?

0:08:45.531,0:08:47.227
Eve, first woman.

0:08:47.251,0:08:50.160
No, she's not an afterthought.[br]She's part of the plan.

0:08:50.184,0:08:52.657
She's always been in His mind.

0:08:52.681,0:08:56.886
Look at her, so intimate with God[br]that her hand curls around his arm.

0:08:57.329,0:09:02.737
And for me, an American art historian[br]from the 21st century,

0:09:02.761,0:09:05.613
this was the moment[br]that the painting spoke to me,

0:09:05.637,0:09:08.985
because I realized that this[br]representation of the human drama

0:09:09.009,0:09:11.922
was always about men and women --

0:09:11.946,0:09:15.736
so much so, that the dead center,[br]the heart of the ceiling,

0:09:15.760,0:09:18.174
is the creation of woman, not Adam.

0:09:18.198,0:09:22.122
And the fact is, that when you see them[br]together in the Garden of Eden,

0:09:22.146,0:09:23.683
they fall together,

0:09:23.707,0:09:28.099
and together their proud posture[br]turns into folded shame.

0:09:28.647,0:09:31.316
You are at critical juncture[br]now in the ceiling.

0:09:31.340,0:09:34.423
You are exactly at the point[br]where you and I can go

0:09:34.447,0:09:35.902
no further into the church.

0:09:35.926,0:09:39.282
The gated enclosure keeps us[br]out of the inner sanctum,

0:09:39.306,0:09:41.819
and we are cast out[br]much like Adam and Eve.

0:09:41.843,0:09:43.599
The remaining scenes in the ceiling,

0:09:43.623,0:09:46.467
they mirror the crowded chaos[br]of the world around us.

0:09:46.491,0:09:48.715
You have Noah and his Ark and the flood.

0:09:48.739,0:09:52.329
You have Noah. He's making a sacrifice[br]and a covenant with God.

0:09:52.353,0:09:53.639
Maybe he's the Savior.

0:09:54.031,0:09:57.763
Oh, but no, Noah is the one[br]who grew grapes, invented wine,

0:09:57.787,0:09:59.945
got drunk, and passed out[br]naked in his barn.

0:10:00.385,0:10:02.759
It is a curious way to design the ceiling,

0:10:02.783,0:10:04.707
now starting out with God creating life,

0:10:04.731,0:10:07.226
ending up with some guy[br]blind drunk in a barn.

0:10:07.250,0:10:09.706
And so, compared with Adam,

0:10:09.730,0:10:12.248
you might think Michelangelo[br]is making fun of us.

0:10:12.693,0:10:14.736
But he's about to dispel the gloom

0:10:14.760,0:10:18.278
by using those bright colors[br]right underneath Noah:

0:10:18.302,0:10:21.692
emerald, topaz, scarlet[br]on the Prophet Zechariah.

0:10:21.716,0:10:24.695
Zechariah foresees a light[br]coming from the east,

0:10:24.719,0:10:28.407
and we are turned at this juncture[br]to a new destination,

0:10:28.431,0:10:32.306
with sibyls and prophets[br]who will lead us on a parade.

0:10:32.330,0:10:35.628
You have the heroes and heroines[br]who make safe the way,

0:10:35.652,0:10:38.136
and we follow the mothers and fathers.

0:10:38.160,0:10:42.245
They are the motors of this great[br]human engine, driving it forward.

0:10:42.269,0:10:45.176
And now we're at the keystone[br]of the ceiling,

0:10:45.200,0:10:47.379
the culmination of the whole thing,

0:10:47.403,0:10:50.633
with a figure that looks like[br]he's about to fall out of his space

0:10:50.657,0:10:51.997
into our space,

0:10:52.021,0:10:53.304
encroaching our space.

0:10:53.328,0:10:55.869
This is the most important juncture.

0:10:55.893,0:10:57.765
Past meets present.

0:10:57.789,0:11:01.005
This figure, Jonah, who spent[br]three days in the belly of the whale,

0:11:01.029,0:11:03.882
for the Christians, is the symbol[br]of the renewal of humanity

0:11:03.906,0:11:05.169
through Jesus's sacrifice,

0:11:05.193,0:11:07.941
but for the multitudes[br]of visitors to that museum

0:11:07.965,0:11:10.735
from all faiths who visit there every day,

0:11:10.759,0:11:17.345
he is the moment the distant past[br]encounters and meets immediate reality.

0:11:18.091,0:11:22.684
All of this brings us to the yawning[br]archway of the altar wall,

0:11:22.708,0:11:25.471
where we see Michelangelo's Last Judgment,

0:11:25.495,0:11:29.361
painted in 1534 after the world[br]had changed again.

0:11:29.385,0:11:31.409
The Reformation had splintered the Church,

0:11:31.433,0:11:34.301
the Ottoman Empire had made[br]Islam a household word

0:11:34.325,0:11:37.819
and Magellan had found a route[br]into the Pacific Ocean.

0:11:37.843,0:11:42.505
How is a 59-year-old artist who has never[br]been any further than Venice

0:11:42.529,0:11:44.723
going to speak to this new world?

0:11:44.747,0:11:47.790
Michelangelo chose to paint destiny,

0:11:47.814,0:11:49.634
that universal desire,

0:11:49.658,0:11:51.278
common to all of us,

0:11:51.302,0:11:54.471
to leave a legacy of excellence.

0:11:54.495,0:11:57.426
Told in terms of the Christian vision[br]of the Last Judgment,

0:11:57.450,0:11:58.762
the end of the world,

0:11:58.786,0:12:01.924
Michelangelo gave you a series of figures

0:12:01.948,0:12:05.103
who are wearing these[br]strikingly beautiful bodies.

0:12:05.127,0:12:07.849
They have no more covers,[br]no more portraits

0:12:07.873,0:12:09.110
except for a couple.

0:12:09.134,0:12:11.852
It's a composition only out of bodies,

0:12:11.876,0:12:15.262
391, no two alike,

0:12:15.286,0:12:17.740
unique like each and every one of us.

0:12:17.764,0:12:21.506
They start in the lower corner,[br]breaking away from the ground,

0:12:21.530,0:12:24.252
struggling and trying to rise.

0:12:24.276,0:12:26.732
Those who have risen[br]reach back to help others,

0:12:26.756,0:12:28.593
and in one amazing vignette,

0:12:28.617,0:12:31.709
you have a black man and a white man[br]pulled up together

0:12:31.733,0:12:34.455
in an incredible vision of human unity

0:12:34.479,0:12:35.921
in this new world.

0:12:35.945,0:12:39.452
The lion's share of the space[br]goes to the winner's circle.

0:12:39.476,0:12:44.312
There you find men and women[br]completely nude like athletes.

0:12:44.336,0:12:46.648
They are the ones[br]who have overcome adversity,

0:12:46.672,0:12:50.386
and Michelangelo's vision[br]of people who combat adversity,

0:12:50.410,0:12:51.684
overcome obstacles --

0:12:51.708,0:12:53.602
they're just like athletes.

0:12:53.626,0:12:57.055
So you have men and women[br]flexing and posing

0:12:57.079,0:12:59.163
in this extraordinary spotlight.

0:12:59.555,0:13:02.100
Presiding over this assembly is Jesus,

0:13:02.124,0:13:04.142
first a suffering man on the cross,

0:13:04.166,0:13:06.570
now a glorious ruler in Heaven.

0:13:06.594,0:13:09.612
And as Michelangelo[br]proved in his painting,

0:13:09.636,0:13:12.214
hardship, setbacks and obstacles,

0:13:12.238,0:13:15.472
they don't limit excellence,[br]they forge it.

0:13:16.276,0:13:18.864
Now, this does lead us to one odd thing.

0:13:18.888,0:13:20.705
This is the Pope's private chapel,

0:13:20.729,0:13:23.886
and the best way you can describe that[br]is indeed a stew of nudes.

0:13:23.910,0:13:27.673
But Michelangelo was trying to use[br]only the best artistic language,

0:13:27.697,0:13:30.285
the most universal artistic language[br]he could think of:

0:13:30.309,0:13:32.069
that of the human body.

0:13:32.093,0:13:37.899
And so instead of the way of showing[br]virtue such as fortitude or self-mastery,

0:13:37.923,0:13:42.188
he borrowed from Julius II's[br]wonderful collection of sculptures

0:13:42.212,0:13:46.463
in order to show inner strength[br]as external power.

0:13:47.368,0:13:50.733
Now, one contemporary did write

0:13:50.757,0:13:54.615
that the chapel was too beautiful[br]to not cause controversy.

0:13:54.639,0:13:55.988
And so it did.

0:13:56.012,0:13:59.550
Michelangelo soon found[br]that thanks to the printing press,

0:13:59.574,0:14:02.696
complaints about the nudity[br]spread all over the place,

0:14:02.720,0:14:07.016
and soon his masterpiece of human drama[br]was labeled pornography,

0:14:07.040,0:14:09.215
at which point he added[br]two more portraits,

0:14:09.239,0:14:11.723
one of the man who criticized him,[br]a papal courtier,

0:14:11.747,0:14:15.879
and the other one of himself[br]as a dried up husk, no athlete,

0:14:15.903,0:14:18.324
in the hands of a long-suffering martyr.

0:14:18.348,0:14:22.016
The year he died he saw[br]several of these figures covered over,

0:14:22.040,0:14:27.659
a triumph for trivial distractions[br]over his great exhortation to glory.

0:14:28.167,0:14:29.931
And so now we stand

0:14:29.955,0:14:31.685
in the here and now.

0:14:31.709,0:14:34.029
We are caught in that space

0:14:34.053,0:14:36.318
between beginnings and endings,

0:14:36.342,0:14:40.574
in the great, huge totality[br]of the human experience.

0:14:40.598,0:14:44.569
The Sistine Chapel forces us[br]to look around as if it were a mirror.

0:14:44.593,0:14:45.890
Who am I in this picture?

0:14:45.914,0:14:47.220
Am I one of the crowd?

0:14:47.244,0:14:48.617
Am I the drunk guy?

0:14:48.641,0:14:50.097
Am I the athlete?

0:14:50.121,0:14:52.381
And as we leave this haven[br]of uplifting beauty,

0:14:52.405,0:14:56.349
we are inspired to ask ourselves[br]life's biggest questions:

0:14:56.373,0:15:01.211
Who am I, and what role do I play[br]in this great theater of life?

0:15:01.549,0:15:02.720
Thank you.

0:15:02.744,0:15:06.192
(Applause)

0:15:06.216,0:15:09.187
Bruno Giussani: Elizabeth Lev, thank you.

0:15:09.211,0:15:13.067
Elizabeth, you mentioned[br]this whole issue of pornography,

0:15:13.091,0:15:17.904
too many nudes and too many[br]daily life scenes and improper things

0:15:18.555,0:15:20.420
in the eyes of the time.

0:15:20.444,0:15:22.050
But actually the story is bigger.

0:15:22.074,0:15:25.094
It's not just touching up[br]and covering up some of the figures.

0:15:25.118,0:15:27.742
This work of art was almost[br]destroyed because of that.

0:15:28.383,0:15:31.408
Elizabeth Lev: The effect[br]of the Last Judgment was enormous.

0:15:31.432,0:15:34.382
The printing press made sure[br]that everybody saw it.

0:15:34.406,0:15:37.691
And so, this wasn't something[br]that happened within a couple of weeks.

0:15:37.715,0:15:42.183
It was something that happened[br]over the space of 20 years

0:15:42.207,0:15:44.131
of editorials and complaints,

0:15:44.155,0:15:45.323
saying to the Church,

0:15:45.347,0:15:47.922
"You can't possibly tell us[br]how to live our lives.

0:15:47.946,0:15:51.286
Did you notice you have[br]pornography in the Pope's chapel?"

0:15:51.310,0:15:53.770
And so after complaints and insistence

0:15:53.794,0:15:56.510
of trying to get this work destroyed,

0:15:56.534,0:15:58.695
it was finally the year[br]that Michelangelo died

0:15:58.719,0:16:00.800
that the Church finally[br]found a compromise,

0:16:00.824,0:16:02.355
a way to save the painting,

0:16:02.379,0:16:05.696
and that was in putting up[br]these extra 30 covers,

0:16:05.720,0:16:08.467
and that happens to be[br]the origin of fig-leafing.

0:16:08.491,0:16:10.079
That's where it all came about,

0:16:10.103,0:16:14.233
and it came about from a church[br]that was trying to save a work of art,

0:16:14.257,0:16:16.428
not indeed deface or destroyed it.

0:16:16.888,0:16:19.675
BG: This, what you just gave us,[br]is not the classic tour

0:16:19.699,0:16:22.673
that people get today[br]when they go to the Sistine Chapel.

0:16:22.697,0:16:24.800
(Laughter)

0:16:24.824,0:16:26.605
EL: I don't know, is that an ad?

0:16:26.629,0:16:28.306
(Laughter)

0:16:28.330,0:16:31.318
BG: No, no, no, not necessarily,[br]it is a statement.

0:16:31.342,0:16:35.256
The experience of art today[br]is encountering problems.

0:16:35.280,0:16:38.155
Too many people want to see this there,

0:16:38.179,0:16:41.306
and the result is five million people[br]going through that tiny door

0:16:41.330,0:16:43.647
and experiencing it[br]in a completely different way

0:16:43.671,0:16:44.837
than we just did.

0:16:44.861,0:16:48.390
EL: Right. I agree. I think it's really[br]nice to be able to pause and look.

0:16:48.414,0:16:50.715
But also realize,[br]even when you're in those days,

0:16:50.739,0:16:52.751
with 28,000 people a day,

0:16:52.775,0:16:55.885
even those days when you're in there[br]with all those other people,

0:16:55.909,0:16:58.314
look around you and think[br]how amazing it is

0:16:58.338,0:17:01.934
that some painted plaster[br]from 500 years ago

0:17:01.958,0:17:05.066
can still draw all those people[br]standing side by side with you,

0:17:05.090,0:17:07.065
looking upwards with their jaws dropped.

0:17:07.089,0:17:12.014
It's a great statement about how beauty[br]truly can speak to us all

0:17:12.038,0:17:14.725
through time and through geographic space.

0:17:14.749,0:17:15.943
BG: Liz, grazie.

0:17:15.967,0:17:17.174
EL: Grazie a te.

0:17:17.198,0:17:18.374
BG: Thank you.

0:17:18.398,0:17:20.261
(Applause)