The Pauline Chapel was built by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger in 1537 to replace the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament which was destroyed by the widening of the Scala del Maresciallo.  Adjacent to the Sistine Chapel and accessible through the Sala Regia, the Pauline Chapel was meant to link the Apostolic Palace with the basilica of St. Peter’s; it served as both the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament and as the Chapel of the Conclave for the Cardinals.  The Inauguration Mass, at which Pope Paul III (Farnese 1534-1549) presided, was held on January 25, 1540 the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Pope Paul III, for whom the Chapel is named, requested Michelangelo to execute the decoration of the new chapel, even before the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel was unveiled. At the time, Michelangelo was still tormented by the Della Rovere family’s demand for the completion of Pope Julius II’s tomb. Pope Paul III intervened, and Michelangelo was free to begin decorating the Pauline Chapel. Although Michelangelo began working on the chapel in 1542, he did not complete the frescoes until December 1549. He was detained by a brief illness in 1544; and further complications arose in 1546 when he was appointed architect of the new St. Peter’s. According to Vasari, Michelangelo had initially planned a stucco ceiling,  wall panels, and a lunette over the entrance, which were to be executed by Perino del Vaga and Marcello Venusti, respectively. However, these works were never completed due to the outbreak of a fire in 1546, which destroyed del Vaga’s ceiling, and perhaps also due to the death of Pope Paul III in 1549. The existing frescoes by Lorenzo Sabbatini and Federico Zuccari were painted in the late sixteenth century and thus do not correspond with Michelangelo’s primary intentions. In fact, despite the numerous drawings furnished by the artist, the only decoration which is part of the Chapel’s original scheme is Michelangelo’s two frescoes of the Conversion of St. Paul and the Crucifixion of St. Peter. Bernini’s works—originally present within the chapel—were mostly temporary and thus have not been conserved.  The last intervention took place during the pontificate of Paul VI (1963-1978) who modified the sanctuary according to the liturgical norms formulated during Vatican Councill II.  At this time the heavy decorative relief-work on the entrance wall was also reduced. Many popes have altered the chapel during the last 450 years.  Not many of the interventions can be reconstructed through documentation, but by the presence of various decorative elements and papal coat-of-arms present throughout the Chapel.  The Pauline Chapel thus serves as a “visual history” of the papacy and the differing modes of restoration and renovation throughout the centuries. The restoration of the Pauline Chapel must take into consideration the totality of its complex history.  The singular elements with their own particular problems can only be understood in the complete context of the entire Chapel, including the presence of Michelangelo’s last two frescoes.

The Ceiling

Originally, Michelangelo provided designs for the ceiling decoration and entrusted them to his contemporary, the painter and stuccoist,  Perino del Vaga. However, the work by del Vaga, who served as Raphael’s assistant during the creation of his famous Loggie in the Vatican, was destroyed by fire in 1545.  The existing stucco-reliefs, which date back to the papacy of Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585), are quite elaborate, but unfortunately do not compare with the splendid lost work of del Vaga. The paintings on the ceiling, fifteen scenes from the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul, were executed during the third phase of decoration at the end of the 16th century by Federico Zuccari and his assistants

The Stucco Decoration

The refacing of the stucco-work on the ceiling was probably finished by the fall of 1580, while the stuccoed angels in the chapel and the original altar were completed in late 1583. The group of stucco artists who worked collectively in the chapel included: Iacopo Casignola, Giovanni D’Andrea Svolgi da Castel Durante, the Cesari masters, the Ottavianos, Bartolomeo, Cesare Finichi, Battista da Castello, and Domenico di Michele da Passignano.

The Wall Panels

In 1573, Giorgio Vasari was summoned by Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) for the selection of an iconographic program for the panels which were to flank Michelangelo’s frescoes. Although this task was never finished, Lorenzo Sabbatini began the second phase of decoration later that same year. He contributed the Stoning of St. Stephen, Saint Paul Healed in the House of Ananias, and The Fall of Simon Magus. Following Sabbatini’s death, Federico Zuccari worked in the chapel from 1580 to 1584, completing The Baptism of the Centurion and the works on the ceiling.

The Artist’s Changing Style

Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Pauline Chapel—executed with lighter hues and a cooler palette than that of the Sistine Chapel—appear to be somewhat restrained, lacking the dynamic contrasts of his earlier work. The figures demonstrate the same musculature and twisted poses seen in The Last Judgement but are flatter and more generalized.  Michelangelo also complicates the composition by using foreshortened figures and elements which extend beyond the limits of the pictorial plane (as in a cropped photograph); creating a space that is visually inaccessible to the viewer. Perhaps Michelangelo’s changing style can be explained by an idea expressed in his letter to Mons. Vigerio, bishop of Senigallia voicing his own personal preoccupations and how they affected his work in this time period: “one paints with the head and not with the hands; anyone who does not have his own thoughts dishonors himself, because of this I can do nothing while I have these concerns!”

Iconography
Although the iconography of these frescoes clearly alludes to the Pope’s devotion to St. Paul, his namesake, and protector; it also presents two of the most common themes employed by the art of the Counter-Reformation: a saint in ecstasy and a martyrdom. Michelangelo may have chosen such subjects in anticipation of the Catholic response to Martin Luther’s charges. Church reformers explicitly stressed the importance of grace, illustrated by a fall and subsequent renewal through illumination (St. Paul); and of faith, represented by the sacrifice of the martyrs (St. Peter). Thus, the frescoes’ iconography became a sort of pictorial reaffirmation of Catholic values during a time in which the very doctrine of the Church was under attack.

The Conversion of St. Paul
(6.25m x 6.61m) Acts of the Apostles 9, 22, 26
The Conversion of St. Paul, executed between the end of 1542 and July 1545, depicts a fallen Saul struck by a ray of light that descends from the hand of Christ.  The style of the painting recalls several elements from The Last Judgement and incorporates many unusual compositional and iconographical devices.  Although the principal action of the scene occurs along the left side of the painting, the composition is balanced by Saul’s rearing horse and a group of terrified observers.  Saul, blinded and recumbent in the lower left, is wearing the ordinary clothing of medieval depictions, rather than the armor in which he is ordinarily depicted in Renaissance images. He is bearded and elderly, which contradicts the Biblical account of a youthful man in the prime of his life. Thus, many scholars interpret the aged figure as a self-portrait of Michelangelo’s mental and physical state at the time, while others see it as an idealized tribute to Pope Paul III who wore a long white beard. Additionally, Michelangelo used dramatic foreshortening in his depiction of Christ, a technique that was traditionally reserved for the dead and the defeated. In this case, however, it lends energy and ethereality to the figure of Christ.

The Crucifixion of St. Peter
(6.25m x 6.61m) Apocryphal Acts of Peter, Voragine’s Golden Legend, St. Jerome’s Lives of Illustrious Men
The fresco, painted between 1546 and 1550, is centrally arranged around the figure of a dignified and exceptionally powerful St. Peter as he suffers the torture of his martyrdom. According to the Golden Legend by Jacopo da Voraigne and St. Jerome’s Lives of Illustrious Men, Peter requested that he be hung upside down when he was condemned to be crucified because he was unworthy to die in the same manner as Christ. A dark sky hangs heavily above the figure of Peter who turns defiantly on the cross, looking upward and out at the viewer. The inverted cross leans diagonally and is about to be hoisted upright on a large rock at the center of the composition, perhaps alluding to St. Peter’s vocation as “the rock” upon which Christ would build His Church. Several groups of soldiers, executioners, mourners, and random observers surround Peter and respond to the drama with a variety of attitudes and emotions.

The two frescoes were characterized by two different conservation states. The first is evident in the scene of the “Conversion of Saul,” which presented some damages that were the result of salt formation. In fact, before the construction of the St. Peter’s Basilica façade, for about half of century, the wall was externally exposed to different types of climatic change; therefore, the changes in the rain and sun has produced, inevitably, a heavy concentration of salts, which consequently have left an enormous quantity of colored micro-fragments visible beneath the plaster. Second, the works constructed for St. Peters’ Basilica façade created remarkable stress to the wall structures with the result being cracked in the wall and therefore large areas of plaster fell and also parts of color, which belonged to some characters that were completely redone during previous restorations. In examining the “Crucifixion of St. Peter,” it is evident that the damages were caused mainly by a large number of different size nails, some of which were still found inside the painting – and holes were made by staples being removed without any attention or care for the original painting; these staples remained in the wall and were reclosed and repainted. In 1934 restorations were carried out on both of the scenes, mainly with the purpose to consolidate the large and serious damages caused by flaking to the plaster.  To fill the gaps of the plaster, a large number of consolidated substances were injected through syringes; in order to do so, almost 347 holes were on the fresco of Saul and 262 holes on the one depicting Peter, each of them measuring approximately one centimeter in diameter. The cleaning was done through the use of solvents, which were produced by the industries of that time, and was often very corrosive, as it is visible from the drops that have damaged the original painting. The restoration ended with the application of “fiele di bue (gall/ bile of ox),” which is an organic substance used to make the frescoes shine, but over time it became darker and produced a series of micro-tears on the pictorial layer. As for the Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel, along with the frescoes of the Pauline Chapel, this received criticism regarding the depiction of body structure and positioning of the characters which surround Christ in the scene of Saul: these censorships were removed during the restoration of 1934, which made our work easier during the cleaning phase.

 

From January 1, 2005 cleaning was carried out on the stucco decorations of the vaults, reaching the original layer, removing various strata of glues and repainted surface. This was carried out with case-specific methods which, depended on the sequence of the layering to remove. This initial cleaning was carried out with the help of mechanical instruments due to the thickness of some of the layers and then using treatments of ammonium carbonate. Final cleaning was achieved using a light pulse laser (Erbium Yag). Furthermore, it was decided to maintain the chromatic traces on the Presbytery’s vault of the so-called ‘Macchina Delle Quarant’ore,’ (Forty-hour Machine) a machine developed to hold large candles to be used during the period of Lent or other special celebrations. This way the Chapel could be lit during the entire liturgical celebration. This machine was later removed, which allowed deciphering the parts of the vault that were covered by the draperies of the machine and those that remained visible, yet optically well-incorporated, aesthetically speaking. The recovery work of the vault stuccoing should be concluded by the end of 2007 (without estimating potential delays).

Lateral Walls  
Scientific analyses have been conducted on the pigments of the Michelangelo frescoes through Fluorescence testing, and ultraviolet and infrared photographic documentation. Sample cleaning tests have been conducted on small areas of the frescoes of particular conservative interests. After this, the same scientific analyses as above will be carried out. The upper frame of the frescoes still needs to undergo restoration, however, the faux marble painted in the 18th century, the plaster, the cleaning, and the relative color reintegrations have been completed.  What remains in question is the historical context of the faux marble.

Vault Frescoes
All necessary scientific analyses relative to the vault frescoes of the vault have been conducted. Preliminary cleaning tests, beginning with the “Ignudi” painted by Zuccari, which are in a homogenous state of conservation have also been conducted. The recovery work of the frescoes carried out up to now has made it possible to attribute the decoration of the vault to the Gregorian-Pauline era of the Chapel.

 

The restoration started with a single series of photographic analysis using infrared and ultraviolet light. Each one allowed for the analysis of foreign substances at different levels, as well as differences in the original pictorial layers. Moreover, a preliminary study was completed on the colour compositions through the use of non destructive examinations such as; XRF, using X fluorescence which can give information on the chemical elements that compose the colours without removing a single fragment. All this preliminary research is necessary when work has to be done on a very articulate and at the same time very refined painting. The work has begun with a first removal of the loose deposits/sediments with a soft sponge (the ones used for babies) soaked with distilled water that allowed to remove the first layer of non – permanent dust. The second phase required the removal of the ox’s bile. This was done through the use of small pieces of Japanese paper previously soaked in a saturated ammonium bicarbonate solution in order to swell and soften what has been removed. The final touches of the cleaning began with the removal – thanks to laser technology - of the numerous stains and wax splashes which, over the centuries, have accumulated on the two frescoes; the laser technology allowed to remove the wax without heat, which would have melted the wax inside the painting, thus, staining and damaging the fresco permanently; Besides, old and anesthetic stuccoes have been removed in order to extract some nails using micro-drills and ultrasound ablation. During this restoration, as it has been for other previous restoration projects, original blue fragments which are of the same shade of blue and colour quality that resulted from the cleaning were found under the painting level. This fragment has been found in a lacuna in the lower part of the fresco, which had been restored last and was hidden by stucco.

 

Analyzation of the Scenes

Among the varied news which came out after the cleaning, some are more interesting than others, especially considering the fact that Michelangelo rarely executed self-portraits to insert into his scenes. The analyzation of the head could verify how the same peculiar elements of this character - fair hair, a band on his head and the blue armor – are the same for one of the soldiers in the background; Michelangelo only had a few trusted friends and among these, especially one, his factotum, the one that grinds the colors, was nicknamed Urbino: could it be him? Unfortunately, we do not know because we don’t have any other representation of his friend. Another theory is that maybe Michelangelo made a self-portrait of himself, younger, in this character on the horse where he wears the same turban in which his Florentine friend, Giuliano Bugiardini, depicted him. Also, in these frescoes – which have not been photographed after restoration – Michelangelo does not betray his artistic Florentine origins, which are based on drawing and color. The colors of the scenes are bright although the strong spiritual meaning of the events would have requested more dramatic and warm tones. The scene of the conversion could be characterized only by sounds which are a temporary sequence, given by the thunder’s roar and the screaming of frightened soldiers who try to avoid the kicking off the restless horse, and fall one onto the other, similar to a “dominos game.” A horse is hardly kept by a squire, from which seems to listen to the shouted commands/orders to calm him down. Listen! We can hear his neigh full of terror and the nervous pawing of the ground from the hoofs; someone plugs their ears from the deafening noise, while others protect themselves with a shield and plan an ambush, during which they instinctively unsheathe their swords. A person protects their eyes from a strong light, which is like “a bolt out of the blue.” A blue lapis lazuli is depicted in the sky as across, but it’s only Saul, blinded by the divine light, who hears Christ’s voice: Saul, Saul, why are persecuting me? To the excitement of gestures, sounds, and moving images, on the opposite wall, there are various and different emotions. Such as Indifference, respect, dismay, fear, resignation, and emotion. The features of Peter belong to the canonic inventory used, for example, in the fifteenth century by Perugino in the Consignment of the Keys and by Michelangelo in the Last Judgment, when he depicts Peter in the gesture of giving back the keys after his duty to Christ, which are now useless, for his hand is on the cup. The nails are not original – as we can verify from some prints circa sixteenth century by the painter Lelio Orso were made a few years afterward, in which Peter is represented exactly without nails. If Michelangelo had not foreseen the nails, this means that he wanted to represent the moment in which Peter offers himself to martyrdom laying on the cross before he is crucified and expressed his desire to be crucified head down, as a sign of humility in front of Christ. This request was given by one of the executioners. In this area, one of the most famous repentances has been found. Michelangelo decided to change the position of the horizontal arm of the cross, thus rotating it towards the upper level and modifying consequently the prospected vision; the cross’ correction also means the creation of a new left hand for St. Peter. The painter does this with a technique called “a secco,” in which the previous hand was covered through cross coloring.  All the changes and repentances of the cross are possibly motivated by Michelangelo’s intention to lift up St. Peter’s head; in fact, the original head of the saint was originally painted with another orientation, thus not allowing the artist to make it so dramatic and expressive as the one he painted in a second scene. There is no sign of grief or pain on his face as he lifts up his head in the last effort before he is crucified. This gives the last warning sign to those who enter into the Chapel and seems to communicate his last thought: “All my successors should serve Christ this way”. On the 12th of July 1545, Michelangelo completed the first fresco for Pope Paul III. The Master of Ceremonies noted that the Pope went to the Chapel to oversee the stage of the restorations and from what we can learn from written chronicles of that time, in October of 1549, at 82 years of age went back to the chapel and climbed on a ladder of ten or twelve steps and saw the frescoes of the scene of St. Peter still incomplete: Pope Paul III would not see the competed Chapel because he died on the 10th of  November in 1549; Of this event, we have testimony from an inscription on a fresco in one of the rooms in the Vatican Museums, which says: “Pope Paul III died on the 10th day of November in 1549,” and it is signed as “Giovanni from Parma.”