switch readily between chest and head voice for such
parts. It was in the second half of the 16th century that
castrati (men who had been castrated before puberty, to
retain a soprano range) began to appear, mainly at Italian
centers; only in the 17th and 18th centuries, however, did
these singers made a significant impact on musical cul-
ture. Women and girls had opportunities to learn to sing,
both in convents and in secular contexts, and could
achieve occasional success as professional singers even in
the 15th century.
Indeed, female singers were associated with a number
of important developments in late 16th-century musical
style, in connection with the rise of solo virtuoso perfor-
mance. Highly elaborate ornamentation had been prac-
ticed regularly by singers as well as instrumentalists at
earlier periods, and examples in embellishment manuals
offer a glimpse of these practices; likewise, solo singing
and amateur singing by noblewomen were known in the
middle of the 16th century. However, the formation of a
group of three to four professional singing ladies at the
court of Ferrara in 1580–1581 (the famous concerto delle
donne) impacted on later musical practice in significant
ways. The works that the leading composers of the day
wrote for the Ferrarese ladies made use of their consider-
able capabilities, and theorists looking for new modes of
musical expression were affected by their performance
style. The characteristic elements of this style—highly
dramatic delivery of the text, speechlike recitation, and
skillful ornamentation, for example—were cornerstones
of the music in early opera and oratorio, the new forms
born during these years.
Further reading: Rob C. Wegman, “From maker to
composer: Improvisation and musical authorship in the
Low Countries, 1450–1500,” Journal of the American Mu-
sicological Society 49 (1996), pp. 409–79; Anthony New-
comb, The Madrigal at Ferrara, 1579–1597, 2 vols
(Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980).
Sistine Chapel The papal chapel in the Vatican Palace,
Rome. Commissioned by Pope Sixtus IV, the chapel was
built (1473–81) under the supervision of Giovanni de
Dolci and is famous as the meeting place of the Sacred
College of Cardinals. The chapel is also celebrated for its
series of 14 frescoes, commissioned between 1481 and
1483 and painted by leading artists of the day. The south
wall is decorated with frescoes by PINTURICCHIO, BOTTI-
CELLI, ROSSELLI, PIERO DI COSIMO, Luca SIGNORELLI, and
Bartolommeo della Gatta (1448–c. 1502). The north wall
has frescoes by PERUGINO, Pinturicchio, Botticelli,
GHIRLANDAIO, Rosselli, and Piero di Cosimo. Most re-
markable of all the paintings in the chapel, however, are
those by MICHELANGELO. The west wall is covered by
Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment (1533–41), while the
barrel-vaulted ceiling was also decorated by him with
scenes from Genesis (see Plate IX). On ceremonial occa-
sions parts of the side walls are covered by tapestries de-
picting biblical scenes, designed by RAPHAELand woven in
Brussels (1515–19). The chapel also contains a marble
screen and cantoria probably made in the Roman work-
shop of Andrea BREGNO.
Further reading: Leopold D. Ettlinger, The Sistine
Chapel Before Michelangelo (Oxford, U.K.: Clarendon
Press, 1965); Ross King, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceil-
ing (New York: Random House, 2003); Fabrizio
Mancinelli, The Sistine Chapel (Rome: Vatican Museum,
rev. ed. 1996).Six Articles, Act of (1539) Act of Parliament by which
HENRY VIIIreaffirmed traditional Catholic doctrines after
his break with Rome. The Articles upheld TRANSUBSTANTI-
ATIONand communion in one kind, clerical celibacy and
the permanence of monastic vows, and the use of private
Masses and auricular CONFESSION. Denial of any of these
became punishable by imprisonment for a first offense
and death for a second.
Drawn up by Henry himself, the Articles had two
main purposes: to stop the religious ferment of the imme-
diate past and to deflect threats from the European
Catholic powers. English reformers, who referred bitterly
to the “whip with six strings,” reacted with deep anger
and dismay. Two bishops resigned in protest and the bill
was opposed in the Lords by Archbishop CRANMER, who
was obliged to send his own wife abroad when it passed.
In practice, however, it proved much less draconian than
its opponents had feared.Sixtus IV (1414–1484) Pope (1471–84)
Born Francesco della Rovere of a poor family near Savona,
he became a Franciscan friar and teacher. He was made
minister-general of the Franciscans (1464) and cardinal
(1467). As pope, Sixtus initially campaigned unsuccess-
fully for a crusade against the Turks, but later concen-
trated more on Italian politics and the aggrandizement of
the DELLA ROVERE FAMILY. Like other Italian princes he
ruled his domains firmly and became involved in Italian
quarrels, notably wars against Florence (1478–79) and
Venice (1482–84).
In foreign affairs, relations with France were strained
over the Pragmatic Sanction of BOURGES, in which the
French Church claimed the right to regulate its own af-
fairs; somewhat inconsistently, he allowed FERDINAND(II)
AND ISABELLA Iof Spain to establish the SPANISH INQUISI-
TION(1478) and to make ecclesiastical appointments in
Spain and the New World. Although a great nepotist who
made five nephews and one grand-nephew cardinals (one
of them was later Pope JULIUS II), Sixtus IV administered
the church and its domains well. He was personally de-
voted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and instituted (1476) the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception. As a patron of letters
and the arts, Sixtus IV repaired Roman churches, had theSSiixxttuuss IIVV 4 44433