Arts in Rome famous paintings. Michelangelo started the decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and executed the famous statue of the Moses for the tomb of Julius. Rome lost in part its religious character, becoming increasingly a true Renaissance city, with a great number of popular feasts, horse races, parties, intrigues and licentious episodes. The city's had a fruitful and thriving economy, with the presence of several Tuscan bankers, including Agostino Chigi, who was a friend of Raphael and a patron of arts. Before his early death, Raphael also promoted for the first time the preservation of the ancient ruins. Rome
Sistine Chapel Choir Thus the ""magister capellae"" came immediately after the cardinals, followed, in the order given, by the ""sacrista"", ""cantores"", ""capellani"" and ""clerici"". With the building by Sixtus IV (1471–84) of the church for the celebration of all papal functions since known as the Sistine Chapel, the original ""schola cantorum"" and subsequent ""capella pontificia"" or ""capella papale"" became the ""capella sistina"", or Sistine Choir. Up to this time the number of singers had varied considerably, there being sometimes as few as nine men and six boys. By a Bull dated November, 1483, Sixtus IV fixed the number at twenty-four, six for each