michelangelo : sistine chapel: the last judgement

8/10/2019 Michelangelo : Sistine Chapel: THE LAST JUDGEMENT

1/7

11/9/14, 3:43 PMMichelangelo / Sistine Chapel: THE LAST JUDGEMENT | maItaly

Page 1 of 7http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/

maItaly

All sorts of cool stuff about Italy meant to enhance the experience of seeing it first hand this June-

Michelangelo / Sistine Chapel: THE LAST JUDGEMENT

Filed under: Italian History and Art 3 CommentsApril 4, 2011

i5 Votes

When most visitors visit the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, they immediately gaze upon theworld-famous ceiling painted by Michelangelo. When the ceiling was painted, Michelangelobecame something of a god among artists, divine in his talents for sculpture (as seen in hisDavid and Pieta) as well as painting. It could be argued however, that the front wall of thechapel, which he painted 30 yearslater, is his greatest masterpiece among many masterpieces. Itshis depiction of The Last Judgement, a commonly commissioned subject seen over and overacross many painted churches and chapels of the time. Its also one of the craziest paintings ever,crammed with symbolism a metaphor, all at once stunningly beautiful and disturbing. Its soloaded with images and meanings that books could easily be written about it. Ill attempt here to

give the basic keys to understanding this astounding painting.
http://maitaly.wordpress.com/category/italian-history-and-art/http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/#commentshttp://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/michelangelos-pieta/http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/01/26/michelangelos-david/http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/01/27/the-vatican-museum-and-the-sistine-chapelcapella-sistina/http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/#commentshttp://maitaly.wordpress.com/category/italian-history-and-art/http://maitaly.wordpress.com/


2/7


http://maitaly.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/michangello-lastjudgment-b.jpg


3/7



The scene depicts Christ at his second coming,bringing judgement upon the world. He is in thecenter, seated on a cloud with Mary to his right. Younotice right away that this is not a normal lookingChrist figure. He is not brown-haired, bearded ordressed in flowing robes. Instead, he is clean-shaven

with defined facial features and bulging muscles. Heis very much a roman Apollo, certainly a surprise forthe Popes chapel.

This was a complex time for the church, and muchhad happened since last Michelangelo was workingat the Vatican. Pope Clement VII was the one whocommissioned the painting, and he was the second ofthe Medici popes. Michelangelo, being from Florence,

had a long history with the Medici, the ruling family of Florence. They were the greatest patrons ofthe arts, but they also abused power and eventually bought the papacy, leading to the greatuprising we call the Reformation. 1537 was a tough time with much uncertainty. Protestant armies,fueled by religious hatred of the Catholic church, sacked Rome ten years before, killing, burningand looting. It was a huge turning point, and the church faced crisis. Michelangelo was certainlyconflicted, and it shows in the painting. Its pretty clear though, that Pope Clement VII hadhumanistic sensibilites and gave Michelangelo creative control. Christ himself is an Apollo figure,while the many other figures are larger-than-life nudes. Its a complete mash-up of mythologicalvisual language with Biblical subjects, a continuation of what Michelangelo began with on theceiling as a young man pushed to the extreme.

Christ raises and lowers his arms, giving the entire painting aclockwise swirl motion, and you can read the painting that way.On level with Christ and larger in the image, are saints andmartyrs of the Christian faith, seen holding the tools of theirmartyrdom as in medieval paintings. A shroud of people awaitjudgement, and are either sent to Hell (on the bottom right), orHeaven at the peak. The dead are also raised out of the groundand redeemed in the bottom left.

Lets start with the saints and martyrs. There are many across thecenter of the painting strangely holding the objects of theirmartyrdom. St. Catherine is seen with a large spiked wheel onthe center right, and St. Lawrence is below Christ on the leftholding the grate on which he was roasted alive. The strangest isSt. Bartholomew, seen here, who according to tradition wasskinned alive. Bartholomew sits perched on a cloud, holding inone hand a knife and in the other, a rubbery, flayed human skin. Stranger still, Michelangelo hasapparently painted a self portrait on the skin, perhaps revealing in some way his own creative

torment and anguish.
http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/the-medici-part-3-pope-leo-x/


4/7



The lower right is Michelangelos depiction of Hell, and is one of thestrangest, darkest and most fascinating works in art. In the space betweenHell at the bottom and the saints above, poor souls sent to Hell are beingpulled down by demons. Michelangelos devils muscular and human inappearance, but grotesque with animal ears, horns and green, grey and blueskin. Whats worse is that they very much seem to enjoy the pain and

torment they are inflicting. One of the most striking is this scene called thedamned soul, which shows a condemned man at the moment of fullknowledge and grief of his upcoming punishment. He cowers in in shame,even as 2 demons drag him downward and a third reptilian creature bitesinto his thigh. Perhaps one of the few mistakes by the artist is the demonshand around the other thigh, which is not colored gray as the rest of thecreature is.

Michelangelos depiction of Hell also deviatesfrom a strict Biblical view. He borrows the

visual language of Dante from the Divine Comedy. We seeCharon, the mythological ferryman of the underworld in his largeboat. He ferries the newly condemned souls across the river styx tothe land of the dead. The souls are terrified as they scramble out ofthe boat, and Charon raises his paddle like a baseball bat to makethem get out a little faster. Demons await the poor souls, draggingthem out out and pulling them down. Two demons violently grab aman around the neck with a gaff. In behind the demons are manydifferent small details and demonic faces.

The other figure from Dante isMinos, the mythological king ofHell, seen as the most prominentfigure in the bottom right. Its welldocumented that Michelangelo faced opposition surrounding hisartistic interpretation of the scene and the many nudes, whichwere all completely nude at the time with the loincloths paintedyears later (the fresco was restored in 1993, with some of the

loincloths removed and others left- just look back at St.Bartholomew to see the convenient piece of cloth). One ofMichelangelos most vocal enemies was the Popes master ofceremonies Biagio da Cesena, who was constantly onMichelangelo about the nudes. Michelangelo responded bypainting his likeness as that of Minos, with large donkeys earsand a snake wrapped around and biting him in a precarious spot.Better yet, it is right above the side door, the most visible spot from

ground level. Cesena complained directly to the Pope, who supposedly joked that he had nopower over Hell so it would have to remain.


5/7



Hell is contrasted on the left of the huge wall with theResurrection of the Dead. A patch of earth opens upas many dead souls return to their earthly bodiesand await Christs judgement. The deceased figures sit,some shrouded in burial cloths or as ghostly skeletons,between the forces of heaven and hell. In the center of

the painting is a large open pit which looks directlyinto the center of hell. Fire is visible behind the outlineof human figures. From underground beside the pit,demons dig their way up to drag the souls down. Twoof the figures towards the center, are caught betweenangels and demons in a tug of war. Those raised torighteousness are pulled upwards by the angelstowards the center of the painting and the saints.

Michelangelos Last Judgement is a work that alwaysreveals something new. The figures are so dynamic and so complex in their movements, the entirepainting appears to be pulsating with action and energy. Michelangelo was an old man when hemade the painting, aware of his own shortcomings and mindful of his own judgement. One of thedetails I was struck with in seeing the painting with my own eyes was the hellish pit in the bottomcenter. It is dark and unassuming, but based on its placement within the painting the high alterfits directly in front. On top of the alter at the exact center of the front wall and the floor of Sistinechapel was a simple golden cross, which appeared super-imposed over the pit of hell. As atheological parallel, its a perfect fit for a theme of judgement. The cross holds victory over the pitof hell and destruction, yet another of Michelangelos genius details.

I have only begun to pick apart this amazing painting. Ill include a great video from Smarthistoryhere. The video uses a virtual recreation in second life to look at the painting, which I find reallydumb. However, the analysis of the painting is really great and the detail images they show arereally helpful. Enjoy-


6/7


7/7



ReplysherswankDecember 3, 2012 at 10:04 pmWhats also interesting about the damned soul is that when they restored the fresco, theyremoved the painted on loin cloth look closer at the figure where the cloth was removed. Ijust learned about this and was looking for a good picture to prove it. Very interesting I think

Reply

1 Trackback or Pingback for this entry:

April 17 Method to the madness Little facts about science[...] that he could see. But, being a Jesuit, he had to include a little joke in the names. Just asMichelangelo painted his enemies in Hell, Giovanni used the names of those who supportedthe heliocentric universe for the craters nearest [...]

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. | The Motion Theme.Follow

Follow maItaly

Build a website with WordPress.com
https://wordpress.com/?ref=lofhttp://void%280%29/https://wordpress.com/themes/motion/https://wordpress.com/?ref=footer_websitehttp://factismals.com/2013/04/17/april-17-method-to-the-madness/http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/?replytocom=195#respondhttp://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/#comment-195http://gravatar.com/sherswankhttp://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/michelangelo-sistine-chapel-the-last-judgement/?replytocom=182#respond

michelangelo : sistine chapel: the last judgement

Documents