Here is a good looking version of the Sistine Chapel in SL, Sistine Chapel Re-Creation 188, 90, 25. One that is worth checking out for the beautiful artwork alone. Second Life URL. This is one virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel worth looking at.

Please Read:

All visitors to the Sistine Chapel must agree to a Code of Conduct.

When you approach the Sistine Chapel, you will be presented with an “NDE Agree Box” that will ask to take control of your avatar. This will allow us to present you with the Code of Conduct and freeze your avatar while you review it. During this process you will be given a notecard that you should KEEP so that you can read it. This notecard will contain the Code of Conduct.

If you agree with the terms, we will release control of your avatar and you will then be permitted to enter the Sistine Chapel.

If you do not let us take control of your avatar, or if you do not agree with the terms, you will not be permitted into the Sistine Chapel and your avatar will be relocated to another area of Vassar Island. However, you will still be allowed to visit the rest of the island. Note that the way in which Second Life removes you from an area is not very graceful, so we apologize in advance should you be “dropped” on another part of the island.

A record will be kept showing the date and time that you agreed to the terms. You will only be asked to agree to the terms once, unless the terms change.

We hope that you enjoy your visit to the Sistine Chapel on Vassar Island.

Please IM Bret Rydell with any questions.

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NOTE: Some problems with SL have caused the registration system to generate errors to those trying to register. If you get one, please IM Bret Rydell with a copy of the CHAT HISTORY that shows the error. We are trying to see how we can work around this problem in SL. Thank you.

More after the break.

Welcome to the Vassar College Re-Creation of the Sistine Chapel.

We have re-created the Sistine Chapel as a proof-of-concept for how the technology of virtual worlds can augment or enhance a tradtional liberal arts education.

TO VISIT THE SISTINE CHAPEL ON VASSAR ISLAND, YOU MUST AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING “CODE OF CONDUCT.” You will only be asked to do this once.

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CODE OF CONDUCT
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Visiting the Sistine Chapel creates a deeply moving experience for many people for a variety of reasons, including religious, artistic and educational.

To preserve this same experience for those visiting the Sistine Chapel in Second Life, we expect all visitors to conduct themselves here as they would in real life: with respect for the environment as well as for those visiting the environment. Further, the Sistine Chapel was created for non-profit, educational use. You may not use it, or images of it, for any commercial purpose.

Any misconduct will result in banishment from Vassar Island as well as in a report to Linden Labs. Please contact Bret Rydell or Stan Frangible to report any such misconduct.

YOU MUST AGREE TO CONDUCT YOURSELF BY THIS CODE OF CONDUCT IN ORDER TO CONTINUE.

If you elect to disagree, you will be removed from the Sistine Chapel area of our island. However, you will still be free to visit other parts of our island. Note: the system that is used to remove you from the Sistine Chapel is one built-in to Second Life (”eject from parcel”). It is not the most graceful system, and we apologize in advance for the way that it may “drop” you on another part of the island.

Please use the blue menu on the upper right side of the screen to indicate your agreement with our Code of Conduct.

–Bret Rydell
Images are used with permission.

The “Code of Conduct” agreement system was developed by Kenn Nilsson of NDE Enterprises.

Instructions and other Notecards from the Sistine Chapel.

How to look at things in the Sistine Chapel…

• Use Mouselook (in the View menu) for an easy way to look around.

• Hold your mouse pointer over any of the large paintings, to see the painting’s title and artist.

• Click on the sign (on the red signpost) to show Raphael’s tapestries. They will display for 30 seconds.

About the Sistine Chapel Recreation

The Sistine Chapel recreation was built by Steve Taylor, of Vassar College (AV: Stan Frangible.) It was built as a proof of concept, to explore how virtual reality might be used to learn about art and architecture, by experiencing the scale, context and social environment of a real-life space.

Everything is true to scale (pretty much).

The images are from photographs, used with permission from various distributors.

It is built of more than 500 prims and more than 200 different textures.

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) is located in the Vatican City. It was designed by Baccio Pontelli and built between 1473 and 1484.

The walls are divided into three main tiers. The lower is decorated with frescoed wall hangings in silver and gold. The central tier of the walls has two cycles of paintings, which complement each other, The Life of Moses and The Life of Christ. They were commissioned in 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV and executed by Ghirlandaio, Botticelli, Perugino and Cosimo Roselli and their workshops.

The upper tier is divided into two zones. At the lower level of the windows is a Gallery of Popes painted at the same time as the Lives. Around the arched tops of the windows are areas known as the lunettes which contain the Ancestors of Christ, painted by Michelangelo as part of the scheme for the ceiling.

The ceiling, commissioned by Pope Julius II and famously painted by Michelangelo from 1508 to 1511, has a series of nine paintings showing God’s Creation of the World, God’s relationship with Mankind and Mankind’s fall from God’s Grace. On the large pendentives that support the vault are painted twelve Biblical and Classical men and women who prophesied that God would send Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind.

Subsequently, Raphael was commissioned by Pope Leo X to design a series of tapestries to hang around the lower tier of the walls. These depict the lives of the two leaders among the Apostles who established the Christian church in Rome, Saints Peter and Paul.

The Last Judgment is a painting that spans the entire wall behind the altar. It was executed from 1535 to 1541. (Michelangelo began working on it three decades after finishing the ceiling of the Chapel). The Last Judgment is a depiction of the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse. The souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ and his Saintly entourage.

[from Wikipedia]

Images in this reconstruction are used with permission from the following sources:

The Bridgman Art Library

The Raphael Tapestry Cartoons, Scala Books (London)

The Web Gallery of Art

Second Life URL.

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