Cosimo Rosselli was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento, active mainly in his birthplace of Florence, but also in Pisa earlier in his career and in 1481–82 in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, where he painted some of the large frescoes on the side walls.
Cosimo Rosselli, Portrait of a Man c. 1481–82,
Nativity, 1490s. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.
Handing over the Tablets of the Law, Sistine Chapel
Madonna and Child with Angels, ca 1481. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, it takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and 1481. Since that time, it has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today, it is the site of the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The chapel's fame lies mainly in the frescoes that decorate its interior, most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment, both by Michelangelo.
East side of the Chapel, from the altar end
The Sistine Chapel as it may have appeared in the 15th century (19th-century drawing)
Exterior of the Sistine Chapel
A reconstruction of the appearance of the west Wall chapel in the 1480s, prior to the painting of the ceiling
