On Oct. 11 and 12, Pascack Valley and Pascack Hills students went on a field trip to the Up Close: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel exhibit at the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus. On Wednesday and Thursday, the field trip was attended by art and history students, respectively.

The trip involved a long period for the students to walk around the exhibit, accompanied by assistive audio guides which helped them learn in-depth about each individual piece. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel had displayed life-size and high-quality images of works from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, ranging from the iconic The Creation of Adam to the extremely detailed The Last Judgment.

Art history students were given a short packet to reflect on specific works in regards to their four-step analysis process of art: form, function, content, and context. Drawing paper and pencils were provided to all art students, with some bringing their personal sketchbooks as well, to express any inspiration or techniques they gathered from the exhibit.

Using state-of-the-art technology, each painting was projected onto multi-walled structures to scale with how they truly are in the Sistine Chapel. The quality of the images allowed you to see every stroke of the painting, every crack formed by the wear and tear of time, and every little detail that Michelangelo worked so strenuously to create hundreds of years ago. Though, instead of being up on a thirteen meter high ceiling, all the paintings were in plain sight directly in front of the viewer.