this sistine chapel book features high-definition frescoes in 1:1 scale and costs USD$22,000

callaway arts & entertainment has launched a super-deluxe three-volume collector’s limited edition of 1,999 numbered sets of the sistine chapel with the vatican museum’s authenticity seal. the book, which costs USD$20,000, features 822 pages with images highlighting state-of-the-art color accuracy and printing fidelity color-matched against the actual frescoes, to produce a 1:1 life-scale rendering of masterworks by michelangelo, botticelli, perugino, and other renaissance artists as the world has never seen them.

the sistine chapel book by callaway arts & entertainment, in collaboration with the vatican museums, and the italian art publisher scripta maneant, is the first authorized publication of this kind and will never be reprinted, making it even more exclusive. 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.

what’s so great about this book is that it allows readers to experience the sistine chapel through its pages with a precision, color, detail, and proximity that can’t be achieved in person. extreme details of the artwork’s colors and textures, as well as the individual brush strokes allow the viewer to immerse in the frescoes.

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,’ says robert simon, art historian and art dealer. ‘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.’