Creative Writing #4

I was chatting with a friend as we walked hurriedly through the brightly lit staircase. We did not see the signs that the group was following. Instead, we talked about our schedule for the next day and the church that we visited early that morning. We walked quickly through the small door that the rest of the group quickly passed through. I walked through this portal into a room and I was slightly surprised at the abrupt drop in temperature. Suddenly, I was overwhelmed by a wave of color that surrounded me. Royal blues, deep crimson and sparkling gold shone from the hundreds of paintings on the walls and the ceiling, surrounding me in a treasure chest of color. I instinctively looked up and saw images that I have seen a thousand times crowded together with thousands of figures across the length of the small chapel. I was standing alone under one of the most celebrated artistic masterpieces in the world: Michelangelo’s ceiling of the Sistine chapel.

I walked into the chapel, still straining my neck to see some of the panels above me: the Creation of Adam, the Creation of Eve, and the Flood. These scenes were smaller and closer together than I expected, which made the entire chapel look smaller than I imagined it would be. I heard the burly guard who accompanied us growling “no photo” but I was not bothered. How could I capture all of this art, color and light in a series of photos that could only record a small, flat image? I could not waste precious time in this room looking at all of the art through the small screen on my camera. I walked around the perimeter of the chapel, trying to comprehend the idea that I was seeing all of the paintings in the Sistine chapel without the interference of thousands of other people. I could stand in the center of the chapel and look up The Final Judgment without being jostled and pushed through to the exit by the constantly moving, noisy mass of visitors. In fact, the quiet murmur of a few students sharing their knowledge of the paintings was the only sound in the room. Some students stood together in small groups while others wandered around by themselves, all stopping every few minutes to study a painting on the wall or craning their necks to see all of the frescoes on the high ceiling. Walking backwards towards the benches that lined the walls, I stared up at the images on the ceiling, trying to identify the figures and subjects that I saw in different scenes. I sat on the plexiglass-covered stone bench and I decided to write about this experience in my journal while I was in the moment.

I pulled my journal out of my bag, which took a few minutes since I did not want to stop looking around while I attempted to open my purse, and I started to write. I wrote about the bright colors and the surreal feeling of being in the Sistine chapel, but I was not satisfied with this latest entry. As I looked down at the handwritten words on the white page, they seemed inadequate; too small and simple to convey my excitement and wonder. I could not describe the exact shade of the brightest blue or how the light brightened some paintings while others were left in darker shadow. I could not explain the feeling of looking up at the Creation of Adam and wondering if Michelangelo would ever know how iconic this work would become for generations centuries in the future.

Surprisingly, I was also overcome with a desire to pray in this beautiful chapel. I am not very religious, but as I looked up at all of the art commissioned by popes and completed by a pious artist who created the stunning art as an offering to God, I was motivated by the beauty around me to give thanks to God or at least the belief in Him that has inspired so many artists to decorate the many churches around Rome. At this moment, I knew that I could never describe the emotion that overwhelmed me when I looked up at the paintings around me because it was deeply personal and private. Although I do not have a detailed record of all that I saw in the Sistine chapel, I am satisfied with my own memories of the night that I finally understood how much beauty can inspire people to believe that there must be a power greater than man.