Sistine Chapel ceiling of the chapel, now closed, and those above the High Altar covered by the Last Judgement. Above each window is an arched shape, referred to as a lunette and above eight of the lunettes at the sides of the chapel are triangular "spandrels" filling the spaces between the side pendentives and the vault, the other eight lunettes each being below one of the corner pendentives. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint these areas as part of the work on the ceiling. The structures form visual bridges between the walls and the ceiling, and the figures which are painted on them are
Sistine Chapel Choir Michael's Cathedral Basilica. Sistine Chapel Choir The Sistine Chapel Choir, as it is generally called in English, or properly the "Coro della Cappella Musicale Pontificia" in Italian, is one of the oldest choirs in the world, having been formally active since 1471. Based in Vatican City, it normally comprises twenty men (tenors and basses) and thirty boys (sopranos and altos), the latter receiving free tuition. As early as in the pontificate of Sylvester I (314–35), a regularly constituted company of singers, under the name of "schola cantorum", lived together in a building devoted to their exclusive use. The word ""schola""