A SUPER-DELUXE
THREE-VOLUME
COLLECTOR’S LIMITED EDITION
© Vatican Museums
The Definitive Rendition of the Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo’s Renaissance Masterpieces Presented in 1:1 Life Size With 99% Color Fidelity
The Complete Sistine Chapel
in Book Form
“The Museum Without Walls”
An Unprecedented Technological Achievement
A Must-Have Collectible For Connoisseurs of The Finest in Life
Donation Incentive Program
Offered to Benefactors
© Vatican Museums
Now more than ever, when travel is limited and the immense amount of digital imagery fatigues the eye, these magnificent volumes can serve as a tonic for the soul. Whether seen as a triumph of photography, a monument of scholarship, or a luxurious asset, this is a work to covet and, for the fortunate, to own.
—Robert Simon, Art Historian and Art Dealer, who discovered Leonardo da Vinci’s lost masterpiece Salvator Mundi in 2005 and first exhibited it in 2011
© Vatican Museums
We are proud to present this extraordinary three-volume set on the Sistine Chapel, the result of a five-year collaboration between Callaway, the Vatican Museums, and the Italian art publisher Scripta Maneant of Bologna, Italy.
© Vatican Museums
Employing ultra-high-resolution digital photography of every centimeter of the Sistine Chapel, along with the finest Italian bookmaking craftsmanship, it is also the culmination of Callaway’s 40 years of publishing the world’s finest
art books.
This giant, 24x17 inch, 822-page magnum opus features state-of-the-art color accuracy and printing fidelity, color-matched against the actual frescoes, to produce a 1:1 life-scale rendition of masterworks by Michelangelo, Botticelli, Perugino, and other Renaissance artists as the world has never seen them.
© Vatican Museums
© Vatican Museums
© Vatican Museums
This monumental project dovetails with the ongoing conservation program of the Vatican Museums, who have never authorized a publication of this kind.
It creates a state-of-the-art permanent archive through the most advanced digital technology. The worldwide publication is limited to 1,999 copies, with only 600 sets available in English language for the world. The work will never be reprinted.
A portion of proceeds from sales is given to the Vatican Museums.
© Vatican Museums
The publication of The Sistine Chapel trilogy is a pioneering technological breakthrough. To create the ultimate book of these masterpieces, a team of photographers made more than 270,000 digital images over the course of 67 consecutive nights, while the Sistine Chapel was closed to the public. Using a 33-foot-tall scaffold and rig to capture every inch of the chapel in gigapixel digital photography, the team utilized imaging software to stitch together seamlessly all 270,000 individual frames. The Sistine Chapel can be experienced through the pages with a precision, color, detail, and proximity not possible to see in person. The result is the first opportunity in history for viewers to appreciate the frescoes as Michelangelo and the other artists painted them, with images so clear, sharp, and immersive that the viewers feel as if they are side by side with the artist. We can observe in extreme close-up the artists’ precise colors and textures down to individual brush strokes.
© Vatican Museums
© Vatican Museums
© Vatican Museums
The words of Antonio Paolucci, former Director of the Vatican Museums, guide the reader on a journey through the Sistine Chapel: the iconography and stories behind the masterpieces; heretofore-unseen details; the subtly nuanced palette; the energy of brushstrokes applied in the race against time that is inherent in the fresco painting technique; and the mesmerizing expression in the eyes and gestures of the figures portrayed. Readers are left with an indelible experience of overwhelming grandeur.
The Sistine Chapel is an art treasure for the ages, to acquire or to give as the heirloom of a lifetime.
© Vatican Museums
ISBN: 9780935112917
US Price: $25,000.00
plus $1500 for shipping and handling and applicable taxes, if any.
Each set will be expedited via air courier to the final destination
in a bespoke, reusable, locked shipping case that perfectly
safeguards the ensemble in transit and in storage
SPECIFICATIONS:
Three Volumes
Page count: 822 total pages for the three volumes
Trim size of each volume: 24 x 17 inches (portrait)
Weight: 25 lbs. for each volume; 75 lbs. total
Gigapixel photography color-matched against the original frescoes
with 99.4% accuracyPrinted and bound in Italy in six-color offset lithography,
including 220, 24 x 51-inch gatefoldsPrinted on Fedrigoni Symbol Tatami paper
Each signature is hand-gathered and each volume is hand-bound in three-piece Bodoniana sewn binding in silk printed with metallic ink. The spines in white calf leather from matched hides are debossed in silver, gold, and platinum foil stamping
Typographic design by Jerry Kelly
Debossed handmade Italian endpapers featuring Cosmati mosaic tile floor
patterns in the Sistine ChapelEach volume is protected in a custom cotton sleeve and a pair of white
cotton gloves is provided for archival handlingBespoke handmade gift box for each volume and for the boxed ensemble, printed in white and silver ink with matte film lamination with reclosable fasteners
Custom-designed viewing stand and cabinet available upon special order