A Glimpse at the Gate

On my first trip to Italy I wandered into the Vatican as the Pope was saying mass. As he prayed he would look upward to the roof of the baldiccino and the dome. I chose this perspective to draw from, but was escorted out three days in a row for sliding under the velvet ropes to get my view. It was many years later that I felt i had the ability to tackle such a complicated painting.