The Sistine Chapel: Revelations immersive exhibition now standing outside St Mary’s Cathedral is an ambitious cultural undertaking which will hopefully also be a blessing for the city. It also poses a challenge: how well can we moderns still truly contemplate something?
Launching the exhibition a couple of weeks ago, Archbishop Fisher invited visitors to “let the painted stories reveal themselves to you anew.” In an age of endless scrolling and shrinking attention spans, that may require more discipline than we think.
The Roman chapel’s frescoes by Michelangelo and other Renaissance masters were never intended to be glanced at on the way to doing something else. The scenes of creation, sin, judgement and redemption unfolding across the ceiling were surely meant to impress viewers, but also to draw them into contemplation. Sacred art seeks our patience. It can teach us and lead us to pray.
Christian tradition has long understood that beauty can pierce the soul and awaken wonder, longing and transcendence. St Bonaventure, St Thomas Aquinas and St John of the Cross each taught that created beauty can point beyond itself to God.
So the church has always cared about beauty as essential in proclaiming the Gospel. A fresco, a piece of sacred music, or the way sunlight is permitted to fall into a cathedral or quiet chapel can often reach people more deeply than discourse alone.
The Sistine Chapel installation is an incredible technological feat and will attract tourists, parishioners, art and history lovers, school groups and curious passers-by. But its greatest value is in the opportunity offers to slow down, look, and allow its beauty to tell us something of God’s love for us.
