# Sixtus IV’s Sistine Chapel programme includes Botticelli frescoes of Moses and Christ scenes

Date: 1481

## The fact

In 1481–82 Botticelli’s shop frescoed assigned bays of the Sistine Chapel for Sixtus IV, including Moses and Christ narratives still in the Vatican Museums’ chapel. This Fact is that papal-wall instrument, not Primavera and not a later ticket office.

It is one event.

## Context

A Vatican narrative cycle is a public teaching wall inside a papal chapel. Workshop execution is shared. Do not force a unique governance driver from lime plaster.

[Sandro Botticelli](/people/sandro-botticelli)’s documented role is bounded by other offices and collaborators named in the sources below. Sharing a field with them is not a reason to drop a documented act, and it is not a reason to assign later consequences done in the name after death.

Called to Rome 1481–82 with Ghirlandaio, Rosselli, and others. Surviving walls include the Temptation of Christ, Trials of Moses, and Punishment of the Rebels. Assistants gessoed. The pope paid. This is not [Michelangelo](/people/michelangelo)’s later ceiling.

Named person as heading of the dated public instrument. Later editors, museums, printers, or offices share publication. Complex where later carriers are the surviving public file.

## Evidence and sources

Vatican Museums Sistine pages and Met Heilbrunn independently describe Botticelli’s 1481–82 chapel frescoes.

Official or archival record: Vatican Museums — Sistine Chapel (https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina.html; Musei Vaticani).

## Significance

Standing papal frescoes are a knowledge-access path. Confidence high on the commission and survival.

## What is established and what is not

Established: 1481–82 Sistine narrative frescoes under his heading. Not established: a unique pilgrimage series from these three bays.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

Established here: a sourced, dated public instrument with a named contribution by Sandro Botticelli.

They are not a public rating.

Sandro Botticelli did not file a later UNESCO form, a later Loeb colophon, or a later museum label as a personal act. A portrait or conventional bust is not this mechanism. Allegation, reconstruction, and established occurrence stay distinct. A Sistine bay is not a stanze philosophy wall. Neighbouring Raphael rooms are a later shop. Keep the carrier date of later English distinct from the received historical year stored in the date field. Do not read a later English edition as a recovered autograph of Sandro Botticelli.

## People

- Sandro Botticelli: https://factrail.ai/people/sandro-botticelli

## Sources

- https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bott/hd_bott.htm
- https://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/cappella-sistina.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/sb-sistine-frescoes-1481