There is an art exhibition in the Votivkirche cathedral in Vienna that shows replicas of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings. I was really interested to see it, so I packed up the kids and we headed to the cathedral.
To be clear, an art exhibition in a cathedral where one is expected to be silent, with four children is interesting. It is also a very short visit. James was sad because the unhelpful man who took our tickets did not tell us that audio guides were available, so James was complaining that he did not get “a phone thingie” to listen to. Marion wanted to jet through quickly and was quite exasperated to find out there were not one, but three sections of paintings to look at. Elora wanted to stay and get a good look at everything, read everything, take pictures of everything, and Oliver seemed mostly indifferent other than he didn’t like it when we did not follow the arrows properly.
The exhibition was really amazing. They are only prints, but to be able to see up close the many paintings that are on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was fascinating. I loved being able to look and read about each individual panel. When we got to the area with the Creation of Adam, Creation of Eve, and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden, the kids all sat for quite awhile. They were so interested in these paintings. Marion especially loved the Creation of Eve, and took the photos above. She asked lots of questions, a few that caused other patrons to giggle (“Why isn’t anyone wearing clothes?”). The kids also loved the large painting of the Day of Judgement.
James liked it when I pointed out various small background elements in the paintings of the ancestry of Christ. There were always little people or faces in the background that we would talk about. In one painting there was a little silly face peaking out from behind the main subject, so I asked James who he thought it was. “Jesus!” he replied.
“Really? You think the little face back there might be Jesus?” I asked.
His face lit up with excitement, “I know who it is! It must be Michelangelo!”
Elora took some great pictures while in the exhibition, here are a few of her pictures:
After about 30-40 minutes the younger kids were getting antsy and starting to whine, so we made a quick exit. They had seemed so anxious to leave that their next comments surprised me.
Oliver: “Wow, that was really neat. I can’t believe he painted all of that and spent so long working on it! That must have been hard. I really liked the Day of Judgement painting.”
Marion: “My favorite was the one of Adam and Eve.”
Elora got a program and spent a lot of time reading it and showing me all her pictures while we went to the nice playground outside the cathedral.
The kids had a great time running around at the playground until we got too cold and headed home for dinner. Elora took some more cute pictures of the kids playing. She really loves spending time with her camera.
On the way home, Marion threw a fit on the train so we hopped off and walked home. We don’t live that far, and in the end we actually had way more fun together while walking than we were having fighting on the train.
We walked by the Parliament building, which is always fun. The kids love the fountain and statues. Marion and Elora spent some time looking at this Austrian crest and noticed it was different than some others we have seen.
Elora took some photos on the way home:
When we got home we read about Michelangelo in our Usborne Book of Famous Artists. We learned that Michelangelo was really a sculptor more than a painter, he was always in high demand, and he was also a poet. He wrote several poems about his back pain while painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Then we taped paper to the bottom of chairs so the kids could try drawing above their heads.
At first they all said it was easy, then after a couple minutes there were complaints of arms hurting, heads hurting, and a few of them went to get pillows to lay on. Elora even wrote a poem.
“Hurting” by Elora
My arm hurts from painting
My head hurts from laying
And my ears hurt from people telling me to hurry up.
For the next few days Oliver taped everything I asked him to draw on the underside of chairs, and Elora began taping her drawings to the ceiling above her bed. Oliver has started a collection of drawings that will be a chapel ceiling on the bottom of his bookshelf.
I had no idea that 30 minutes in an art exhibition would lead to so many fun activities at home. I realized that even when I take the kids places that are more interesting for me, you never know when something will spark their interest. It is worth the time (and sometimes frustration) of showing them all the amazing sights in this beautiful city.
