Chapter 19-- Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
and the Sistine Chapel
Just to give us some perspective,
there were many great artists of the Renaissance both in Italy and
throughout Europe, but the three geniuses were in Italy about the
same time, all working and living around Florence and Rome.
They were: Leonardo da Vinci,
1452—1519; Michelangelo Buonarrotti, 1475—1564; and Raphael or
Raffaello Sanzio, 1483—1520.
Sorry, but Leonardo did not paint the
ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while on his back as portrayed by
Charlton Heston in the movie. But he did reported bad neck pains
from constantly bending back and looking up, and frequent paint
drippings into his eyes, and constant growling at his assistants who
mixed his water-based paints and his plaster.. History reports
Michelangelo had a gruff and grating personality and let's just say,
a less than handsome face.
Our trip into the Sistine Chapel was
at the end of the Vatican Museum tour. We were constantly reminded
that the room was a chapel, and that taking photos and talking were
not permitted.
Upon entering the chapel, the first
thing you notice is that everyone is taking pictures and talking.
The din is overwhelming.
Guards constantly clap for quiet.
Guards are ignored.
With all these people in the chapel,
it's really difficult to appreciate this wonder of the world. Like
Michelangelo, you are constantly craning your neck, looking up at the
ceiling, 60 feet above your feet. Luckily, no paint drips on you
from the ceiling.
You can get a better view of the
chapel by Googling it, clicking on “virtual view” and being able
to guide yourself all through the chapel at every angle. It's
amazing.
In the chapel, looking up, you see the
story of Creation, the famous portion of the ceiling where God
creates Adam, the near touching of the fingers. The main panels are
the scenes from the Book of Genesis, from Creation to the Fall, to
shortly after Noah's deluge.
The adjacent sides are portraits of
prefects and sibyls who foretold the coming of the Messiah. Along
the bottom run spandrels and lunettes of ancestors of Jesus and
stories of ancient Israel. Scattered throughout are cherubs and
nudes.
The ceiling is 131 feet by 43 feet,
there are 300 painted figures on the ceiling in 5000 square feet of
frescoes. It took Michelangelo from 1508 to 1512 to complete. While
all this was going on, Catholic Mass continued to be held below.
Michelangelo was trained as a
sculpture, had little training in painting itself, and less skills in
the art of frescoes -- painting on walls within and upon fresh
plaster. He also had to learn to deal with perspectives, because the
ceiling was not flat, but curved. Only true masters were able to
paint figures on curved surfaces.
You will also see the architectural
moldings on the ceiling, separating the panels. They too are
paintings. Michelangelo also allowed some of his assistants to paint
small figures and backgrounds and landscapes.
From 1534 to 1541, Michelangelo
returned to the Sistine Chapel to create the Last Judgement. The
fresco is on the wall above the altar of the chapel, and it is the
last artwork you see as you leave.
The figures here are different,
terrifying and ugly, as compared to the heroic creation figures on
the ceiling.
This is the artist's imaginative
vision of the Second Coming of Christ, here to send the sinners to
hell and the devout to heaven, Christ the judge, deciding the destiny
of the human race. He condemns large portions of humanity art to
hell. The action is so fierce, that the Madonna at his side seems to
cower at the scene.
The Archangel Michael reads from a
small book of souls of those who are to be saved, where at right,
there is a larger book of lists of the damned
The boatman appears in this judgement,
who also appears in Roman and Greek mythology who ferries the damned
into hell. The boatman also is part of Dante's Devine Comedy and
Virgil's Eneid, both part of Michelangelo's interpretation.
St. Peter holds silver and gold keys
to heaven, though the portrait is not St. Peter, but the likeness of
Pope Paul III who commission the work from Michelangelo.
Why naked figures?
It was called Mannerism, a distortion
of figures to make them more expressive and show movement. The
figures were classic gods and goddesses, who wore no clothes. You
see great battles where men fight out of uniform, so to speak, no
clothing to hide weapons, only strict heroic acts in dramatic poses.
A Cardinal, Baigio Cesena, was highly
critical of the painting showing nude figures in a sacred place such
as the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted the complaining cardinal
into the picture, showing him as Minos one of the three mythological
judges of the underworld. Michelangelo also showed his disdain for
the cardinal by having a snake bite his genitals.
When the cardinal complained to the
pope, the pope told him he had no jurisdiction over hell, and the
portrait would remain.
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| The Last Judgement by Michelangelo above the nave in the Sistine Chapel. |
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| The boatman of Greek and Roman mythology, sending the damned to hell. |
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| Christ judges who goes to hell, on his left, and who goes to heaven, on his right, from the book of lists. The Last Judgement, The Sistine Chapel. |
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| Cardinal Baigio Cesena depicted as Minos in the Last Judgement. The Cardinal criticized Michelangelo for all the nude figures, saying the painting belonged in a tavern instead in a holy chapel. |
