“Behold, the majesty of the Sistine Ceiling…”
The World Showcase’s Italian Pavilion shop Ii Bel Cristallo may pay homage to the Sistine Chapel, but Walter Cronkite’s delivery of the quote above resonates in my brain three decades later. It was always my favorite scene in Spaceship Earth, even more so than the turn into the planetarium cupola (now I’m using Italian architecture terms – so snobby!). This scene alone led me through a life in high school art classes where, through some typical mental teenage suppressed blocking, I have failed to retain as much knowledge as I should have. I did manage, as a final senior year self-portrait art project, paint my image on Adam’s in the God’s creation portion of Michelangelo’s work.
It didn’t go over as well as it sounds… And it doesn’t sound good.
Twenty-one years later, I finally made it to the Sistine Ceiling (you can read the 1st part of my Italian excursion here). I had twenty some odd years of expectations, all based on the words of a famed CBS journalist.
That’s pretty high.
Touring The Vatican Museum is a themed experience in its own right. You can think of how much art you will see, and then you can quintuple it. You are ensconced in it. It is hours of over stimulation at its renaissance meets Catholicism finest.
When I took those last steps towards the chapel, I found my high expectations being tainted…
‘oh, it’s really crowded’
‘why is it so dark’
‘oh no, it’s going to be disappointing’
And then you are in the midst of that crowd.
And then you look up.
And you literally be-freaking-hold the majesty of the Sistine Ceiling.
I can’t describe it. My arm had to be tugged so that I could catch up to my tour. That’s how lost in it I was.
Next Blog: quello che avrebbe potuto (What could have been)….
Brother Dillo
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