The main function of the chapel could be denoted as the venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, from which smoke arises as a signal. If white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election, a new Pope has been elected. If a candidate receives less than a two-thirds majority, the cardinals send up black smoke which means that no successful election has yet occurred. The conclave also provided for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time abetted by servants. Canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves as a sign of equal dignity. When a new pope is being elected, he gives his new name and at this, the other Cardinals would tug on a rope attached to their seats to lower their canopies.
The chapel’s exterior is unadorned by architectural or decorative details with no exterior facade or exterior processional doorways, as the ingress has always been from internal rooms within the Apostolic Palace and the exterior can be seen only from nearby windows and light-wells in the palace. The internal spaces are divided into three stories of which the lowest is huge, with a robustly vaulted basement with several utilitarian windows and a doorway giving onto the exterior court.
The internal measurements of main space are 40.9 metres (134 ft) long by 13.4 metres (44 ft) wide, the dimensions of the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament. The vaulted ceiling rises to 20.7 metres (68 ft). The building had six tall arched windows down each side and two at either end. Above are the wardrooms for guards which rise up to a third story. At this level, an open projecting gangway was constructed, which encircled the building supported on an arcade springing from the walls. The gangway has been roofed as it was a continual source of water leaking in to the vault of the Chapel.
Its absolute internal measurement is hard to determine. Anyhow, maintaining the ratio, there were six windows down each side and two at either end. The screen that divides the chapel was originally placed halfway from the altar wall, but this has changed. Clearly defined proportions were a feature of Renaissance architecture and reflected the growing interest in the Classical heritage of Rome. Ceiling is a flattened barrel vault springing from a course that encircles the walls at the level of the springing of the window arches. This is cut transversely by smaller vaults over each window, which divides the barrel vault at its lowest level into a series of large pendentives rising from shallow pilasters between each window. The barrel vault was originally painted brilliant-blue and dotted with gold stars, to the design of Piermatteo Lauro de' Manfredi da Amelia. The screen or transenna in marble by Mino da Fiesole, Andrea Bregno, and Giovanni Dalmata divides the chapel into two parts.
The side walls are covered when there is a special occasion by Raphel’s tapestries. They depict events from the Life of St. Peter and the Life of St. Paul as described in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Raphael's tapestries were looted during in the Sack of Rome in 1527 and were either burnt for their precious metal content or were scattered around Europe. In the late 20th century, a set was reassembled and displayed again in the Sistine Chapel in 1983.
Michelangelo's complex design for the ceiling is a famous component of Sistine Chapel, although it was not quite what his patron, Pope Julius II, had in mind when he commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Twelve Apostles, the scheme displayed a consistent iconographical pattern. However, this was disrupted by a further commission to Michelangelo to decorate the wall above the altar with The Last Judgement, 1537-1541. The painting of this scene necessitated the obliteration of two episodes from the Lives, several of the Popes and two sets of Ancestors.
If we talk about the frescoes, the southern wall is decorated with the Stories of Moses, painted in 1481-1482. The northern wall houses the Stories of Jesus, dating to 1481-1482. Eastern wall depicts frescoes of Resurrection of Christ by Hendrik Van den Broeck (1572) over Domenico Ghirlandaio's original and disputation over Moses' Body by Matteo da Lecce (1574) over Luca Signorelli's original. Apart from these there are of course Michelangelo’s frescoes. Michelangelo used bright colours, easily visible from the floor. On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section, Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis. After the work was finished, there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and the Great Flood.
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