A three volume tome dedicated to the Sistine Chapel brings the latest technology to bear on Michelangelo’s masterpiece, writes Jason Osborne
Anyone seeking to capture an artwork of the profundity, immensity and timelessness of the Sistine Chapel should expect to encounter unprecedented challenges, and that’s exactly what Nicholas Callaway and Manuela Roosevelt of Callaway Arts & Entertainment described.
“This could not have been done five years ago. The technology curve is ascending rapidly, and so this really does represent something that could only have been done starting in the last few years,” Mr Callaway, Founder and CEO of Callaway Arts & Entertainment, told The Irish Catholic.
Coming in at 24 inches by 17, 822 pages, and weighing 25lbs per volume, the three volume set costs a staggering £16,500 (€19,088), but Mr Callaway sees this as “a book for the ages, a publication for the ages and for the world” – thus justifying its price. Upon hearing of the process and the technical details involved in its production, it’s hard to disagree.
“This project is a partnership between the Vatican Museums, Callaway Arts & Entertainment and Scripta Maneant, an Italian artbook publisher,” Mr Callaway explains.
“What we share with Scripta is that both companies have been pioneering the usage of what we’ve referred to as ‘gigapixel’ photography, which is ultra-high resolution, which is at the forefront of digital imaging technology and which is revolutionising the capture and transmission of art. Callaway has always been a company that marries art and technology, or shall we say, the use of advanced technology in the service of art.”
While the capture of the images of the Sistine Chapel was a technological marvel, it also required old-fashioned, strenuous physical labour.
Technical challenges
“There were many technical challenges as you can imagine,” Mr Callaway says, continuing, “many challenges, starting with convincing the Vatican Museums to allow this to be done. It was done with a team of three Italian photographers across 67 nights.
“The Vatican would not allow the Sistine Chapel to be closed during the daytime because there were 20-25,000 people coming through every day. This is of course pre-pandemic. It had to be done at night, and so a 33-foot tall rig was assembled every night. The photography took place all night and then the rig was disassembled every day, so that’s a challenge right in and of itself.”
Securing permission and achieving the right set-up were difficult, but the process of collecting the images themselves was to require a Herculean effort, with hidden difficulties most of us wouldn’t foresee.
“One of the amazing things about it is that in order to achieve the highest resolution files, each individual photographic frame or capture is only two and a half centimetres, or one inch – one inch of the chapel. And so there needed to be a tracking system so that, think of it as a giant puzzle with 270,000 pieces, that is what this represents,” Mr Callaway says.
“Many issues of, not only of resolution, clarity, colour fidelity – but the curve of some of the surfaces, such as the ceiling and parallax correction – stitching together each frame, one inch frames, stitching them together, which was done each night, whatever section was completed was then taken to the studio and the frames were stitched together in post-production software.”
Rendering
“[This was all done] with the goal of rendering the painting, the frescoes, with the maximum amount of sharpness or resolution, clarity, detail and colour accuracy,” Mr Callaway says.
Why go to so much trouble? Three main reasons, according to Mr Callaway: preservation, communication (or “revelation” as Mr Callaway sees it) and inspiration.
Mr Callaway elucidates each reason with appeals to what their production could contribute to the world; the Sistine Chapel is now captured in ultra-high fidelity, making it “as accurate a blueprint as technology allows today” in Ms Roosevelt’s words, safeguarding it “for as long as books or digital files might last”.
On it’s communicative or “revelatory” function, Mr Callaway says, “This enables us to see the Sistine Chapel for the first time, for the world to see it for the first time, as it has never been seen. Because of course when you go, unless you are an especial part of the art conservation programme, no one gets to go up and see it with that kind of proximity, so it’s a great example of artworks that the world thinks that it knows, but in fact it doesn’t.”
And finally, he believes its potential for inspiration speaks for itself – deep calls to deep, as Scripture says. None of it would have been possible without Ms Roosevelt, the Editorial Director, however, who has accomplished “quite a few miracles” in Mr Callaway’s own words.
“I think as a company, as a team, Nicholas and I were very, very excited about the possibilities of technology today and their application, particularly with these world treasures of sacred art or any other art,” Ms Roosevelt explains.
“There are of course repositories of art and archives that have seldom opened, and I have known for a lifetime that the Vatican Museums hold incredible treasures. The possibility of collaborating very closely with the archive and the direction of the Vatican Museums was, I think, a once in a lifetime opportunity for us as a company, as creators, as art publishers.
Involved
“They were involved. All the texts have been written by Antonio Paolucci, who is the former director of the Vatican museums. This is his last project. The texts of course tell the stories, so volume one – the walls of the chapel, and those are both Old Testament and New Testament stories. It’s the life of Christ and the life of Moses,” she says.
Volumes two and three depict the ceiling (Michelangelo’s masterpiece) and the Last Judgement in striking detail, with Ms Roosevelt describing the Last Judgement scene as “frightening”, “the faces, the colours, the mood, the moment of spiritual reckoning for humankind” – all combining in something akin to a spiritual experience.
On the practicalities of the project, Ms Roosevelt says that, although pricey, “I think it’s a world achievement… what went into it is extraordinary, never to be repeated”.
Those who do brave the fee, which has so far included a “variety of people and economic means” become patrons of the Vatican Museums and receive a certificate to say so. Not only this, but once the Covid crisis has elapsed, “we will be able to organise VIP tours for the collectors who have purchased the set, to visit the Chapel,” Ms Roosevelt says.
“There’s 822 pages in three volumes of discoveries. What I find, even as the publisher is, you can open to any page and there are astonishing discoveries. And every time that you look at it, you see other things, and of course, that is the true mark of a masterpiece and of genius,” Mr Callaway says.
Surprises
“But there are all kinds of surprises, starting with the grandeur of scale of the achievement. I mean it was clearly intended to be the most spectacular artwork ever created, on a monumental scale. Because of that, that was one of the reasons we decided, once we were engaged in this, we had to go to the ‘nth’ degree. That also meant, well, if we have this kind of ability to show something that’s never been seen, why not do it in one-to-one scale? Which is kind of a crazy idea,” he laughs.
“We realised that we could, and so that’s the other thing, is when you are in front of the pages, it’s as if you are at the same arm’s-length distance as Michelangelo when he was painting. It’s like being a little bird on Michelangelo’s shoulder so that you see it in actual scale.”
Aesthetic
Describing the effect of such an aesthetic wave, Mr Callaway says, “That is overwhelming. His palette is so astonishingly radical and modern and unconventional, which of course we, in our times, first got a sense of when the Chapel was restored in the 1980s and 90s. That was literally like, the scales falling from your eyes because centuries of grime and candle soot and pollution had obscured the work. So that restoration did almost literally lift the veil on it. In other words, if it had not been restored, it wouldn’t be the same thing at all.”
Asked whether the newfound proximity to the work that the set offers revealed anything surprising to him, Mr Callaway pointed out some of Michelangelo’s artistic flourishes that go unnoticed from the ground of the Chapel.
“There are things that you literally cannot see from ground level. In between the vaults – between the major paintings and ceilings he painted, essentially, decorative medallions that were painted in a two-tone, two colours. Bright yellow and a deep bronze colour because they were trompe-l’oeil oval medallions to imitate the look of a hammered, bronze shield.
“They look like postage stamps from the ground, you just can’t see them at all, but in the book, you can see one-to-one size, when they’re about two feet high. There are, I think, over a dozen, well over a dozen of those. Even for a renaissance art historian, they would not have seen those in that kind of detail. So in other words, it’s the kind of thing that, if you have it, you can open to a different page and contemplate one page a day and see something new each time.”
Ms Roosevelt takes up that sense of contemplation and elaborates on it, describing the artwork as revealed in all its glory by the volumes as “prayerful”, saying it “renews your sense of wonder”.
The images themselves draw the mind to the nearly-unimaginable work that Michelangelo himself put in, with Ms Roosevelt explaining some aspects of his task.
Devise
“First of all, Michelangelo had to devise the scenes, then prepare cartoons on the floor, then somehow transpose those cartoons into the ceiling. Now, you know, this is hundreds of years ago, and then because the fresco technique is you have to paint very quickly– it dries within six hours, or in the summer it’s probably three hours – so buckets of paint and brushes, and you literally can see the brush strokes done very, very quickly.”
Mr Callaway also comments on this, saying that the immense detail the volumes provide will offer insights into his artistry for years to come.
“It’s renaissance action-painting. It really is, I mean, you could do a comparison between Michelangelo and Jackson Pollock because the gestural quality of both is quite similar, actually. In the pages you can see he is racing. You can see the speed and the energy that had to go in because, as Manuela says, it’s all a race against time.
“And you can’t make any mistakes, that’s the other incredible part of it. Not only that, but of course it took him, I think, just under three years, two and a half years, to do the ceiling and so he’s racing the whole time. It’s miserable. Remember, there’s also only natural light and candlelight, there’s no lighting system. Except God’s lighting system,” he laughs.
“We hope there will be many books that will come as a result of these books, but you could devote an entire volume just to the technique, and how he did it.”
When attempting to convey what is arguably the world’s finest artistic achievement in volumes that are “never to be repeated”, a reasonable concern might be that the volumes themselves overshadow the art they seek to convey. When asked about this, Mr Callaway relayed the reactions they’ve received so far, suggesting that time and familiarity with their production may be what’s needed to allow the art itself room to breathe.
“When people see it, those who have purchased it and those whom we have sent sets to – some of the journalists – so that they can see it in person…it tends to exceed people’s expectations,” he says.
“I have had quite a number of people who have just…tears come to their eyes upon witnessing it. So that is great because all of this technology and all this craftsmanship and all of this scholarship is in service of conveying the art as eloquently as we can.
“But the fact of the publication, so far, is in itself an astonishment, that people tend to focus on the ‘how’ more than the ‘what’ and we are looking forward to people who are going to go beyond. I mean, all that we’re describing is simply a vehicle for conveying the art and the meaning of it. That’s why we did it. And so we look forward to more journalists, scholars, historians really talking about the ‘what’; what it is, what the art is,” he says.
With that said, the volumes themselves cannot be overstated, with Mr Callaway describing them as “the quintessential Italian production, starting with what Michelangelo did”.
“We felt it had to be done in Italy, and uniquely so – there’s a tradition of making beautiful things and of hand-craftsmanship that we can see whether it’s an automobile, a Ferrari, a Prada dress, a Valentino oud couture, or a book, so it’s in the culture.
Italians
“It’s in the blood of Italians. We were able to bring together, whether it’s the photographic team, the pre-press team, the printer and the binder, just the best of Italian craftsmanship and that’s one of the glories of this. Everyone was so devoted. Everyone gave it their all, you know, it’s just a matter of national and cultural pride. That is a wonderful thing, when everyone is working toward a greater purpose together. That’s the most satisfying kind of collaboration.”
Printed in six colours on a 62-inch press, with the optimal digital files employed, hand bound and sewn, using Italian silk, calf leather and metallic inks of gold, silver and platinum, and a year spent on the design of the packaging alone – the set is guaranteed to draw its own share of appreciative gasps.
Keen not to intimidate anyone, Mr Callaway insisted that the book has so far proven itself for a surprising range of people, saying “there are ultra-high net worth individuals, but there are also people for whom this is so meaningful, either because they’ve visited the Sistine Chapel or they’ve recognised what this represents as a treasure, that they have spent a large percentage of their annual income on it, and everything in between”.
With a set for our own Hodges Figgis in Dublin city centre, perhaps it won’t be long before it finds an Irish home.
For more information, or to reserve a copy go to callaway.com/sistinechapel.