Michelangelo’s Old Testament frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican are some of the Western world’s most recognized and celebrated works of art: The Creation of Adam, The Fall of Man, images of the prophets and the ancestors of Christ.
But when you visit Rome to see them in person, you have to crane your neck and squint your eyes to get a good look at the 33 frescoes more than 60 feet above your head.
“There’s got to be a better way to enjoy this art,” thought Martin Biallas, who visited the Sistine Chapel in 2014. Biallas wasn’t just your average tourist; he was CEO of SEE Global Entertainment, a Los Angeles company that specializes in large-format “immersive” entertainment experiences.
Knowing that detailed photos had been taken after an extensive restoration of the frescoes in the 1980s and ’90s, the company licensed the images and began experimenting with ways to display them, said Eric Leong, SEE’s associate producer.
After a year of development, the company came up with the face-to-face experience Biallas craved, in the innovative traveling exhibit, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition, on display through March 20 at Tysons Corner Center in Tysons Corner.
Staged in a gallery-like space that used to house an upscale furniture store, the show brings the art down from the ceiling, offering up-close views of the frescoes — including their full frontal nudity. Michelangelo painted the ceiling frescoes from 1508 to 1512 and added The Last Judgment on the wall behind the chapel’s altar between 1535 and 1541.
What at first appear to be large painted canvases are actually high-resolution photos displayed as SEGs, or silicone-edge graphics, said Leong, who pointed out highlights before the exhibit opened to the public.
The SEG process involves printing high-resolution photos on a specialty fabric finished with a thin silicone strip sewn directly to the edge of the fabric. The strip is inserted into an aluminum frame with a recessed groove and stretched tight. When it’s time to break down the exhibit and move to a new city, the art can be quickly removed from the frames and rolled up for easy transport, Leong said.
After premiering in Montreal in 2015, the show has been all over the world, including China, Europe and South America, “but there’s been a lot more demand in the United States,” Leong said.
The company now has 10 sets of photographic reproductions in different sizes, which makes it possible to have exhibits in several cities at once, and to accommodate venues with varying ceiling heights. Three sets now on tour in the United States are 100 percent of the frescoes’ actual size, while others, including the set at Tysons, are 75 or 80 percent, Leong said.
Each image is accompanied by signage in English and Spanish, with background and a key showing each painting’s location on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Audio guides also are available.
Find out more
For more info and to buy tickets, go to chapelsistine.com.
