Filming the Sistine Chapel: the Multiple Michelangelos

The technique of visual reproductions of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel frescoes enjoyed an early interest in the XVIth-century by engravings, increasing up to the XIXth-century thanks to photography. The huge production of copies prompted an endless spread of Michelangelo's masterpiece, both as a complex iconographic set and some selected visual episodes. Throughout the XXth century photography, as well as films and an improved editing process, allowed a better understanding of Michelangelo's work. His myth was increased by documentaries and by several international TV programs broadcasted during the progressive stages of the restauration (see short filmography attached). This paper intends to outline some theoretical aspects of the conspicuous production of films and TV materials concerning Michelangelo, analyzed as historical sources revealing both critical and didactic methodologies within the context of their own time. The audio-visual and the new mobile technologies put the frescoes at an easier reach of spectators even before experiencing them, by actually conditioning their aesthetic perception, or even by producing a meta-Sistine on the basis of a contemporary hyper-Ersatz. If millions visit the Sistine, this happens not only because it represents a Western art omphalos, but also because viewers react to the flood of serial reproductions in a way that influences their perception by transforming biblical scenes like the Creation of Adam into a sort of ephemeral pop icon. In the Eighties and Nineties of the past century, after the Sistine Chapel's restoration, through the tools of the Japanese NTV television and the photo reportage by T. Okamura, an one 1:1 replica of the original frescoes was achieved for the Otsuka Museum, specialized in high definition replicas. Something similar happened to Lascaux painted caves, which for preservation reasons can be visited only by high definition replicas. The viewers' reactions in the presence of the real frescoes reflect this nowadays unavoidable comparison between reality and fictional images.The whole documentation available in Italian film archives dating from the first usage of the camera for learned purposes inside the Chapel will be considered as a precious background for some historical reflections on the contemporary methodological and critical language. The use of technical devices in the rendering of the frescoes, and the social impact of photography and audiovisual throughout the last century, are also relevant topics. They will be considered both from the viewpoint of the specialists and from that of popular audience. Finally, this paper will try to answer the question put in this Congress section: how did the rank of the Sistine Chapel change with the notion of reproduction and the early usage of photography and film?