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Sistine Chapel ceiling

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Art

   The iconic image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam.
   The iconic image of the Hand of God giving life to Adam.

   The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and
   1512, is one of the most renowned artworks of the High Renaissance. The
   ceiling is that of the large Sistine Chapel built within the Vatican by
   Pope Sixtus IV, begun in 1477 and finished by 1480.

   Its various painted elements comprise part of a larger scheme of
   decoration within the Sistine Chapel which includes the large fresco of
   the Last Judgement on the sanctuary wall, also by Michelangelo, wall
   paintings by several other artists and a set of large tapestries by
   Raphael, the whole illustrating much of the doctrine of the Catholic
   Church.

   Central to the ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of
   Genesis of which the Creation of Adam is the best known, having an
   iconic standing equalled only by Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, the
   hands of God and Adam being reproduced in countless imitations.
   The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
   The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
   Plan showing the pictorial elements.
   Plan showing the pictorial elements.

History

   Michelangelo was commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II to paint the
   ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Around the central area of the walls of
   the chapel there already existed a complex scheme of paintings
   illustrating the Life of Christ and the Life of Moses.
   Pope Julius II by Raphael
   Pope Julius II by Raphael

   It had been carried out by some of the most renowned Renaissance
   painters including Perugino, Botticelli and Ghirlandaio. Michelangelo,
   who was not primarily a painter but a sculptor, was reluctant to take
   on the work. Also, he was occupied with a very large sculptural
   commission for the Pope's own tomb.

   The Pope was adamant, leaving Michelangelo no choice but to accept. But
   a war with the French broke out, diverting the attention of the Pope
   who was a powerful military leader, and Michelangelo fled from Rome to
   continue sculpting. The tomb sculptures, however, were never to be
   finished because in 1508 the Pope returned to Rome victorious and
   summoned Michelangelo to begin work on the ceiling.

   The proposed scheme was for twelve large figures of the Apostles. But
   Michelangelo changed the scheme for a much more complex design which
   eventually comprised some three hundred figures and took four years,
   being completed in 1512.

   Contrary to popular belief, he painted in a standing position, not
   lying on his back. According to Vasari, "The work was carried out in
   extremely uncomfortable conditions, from his having to work with his
   head tilted upwards". Michelangelo described his physical discomfort in
   a humorous sonnet accompanied by a little sketch.
   The illustration accompanying Michelangelo's sonnet.
   The illustration accompanying Michelangelo's sonnet.

         “ Here like a cat in a Lombardy sewer! Swelter and toil!

                     With my neck puffed out like a pigeon,

                        belly hanging like an empty sack,

                   beard pointing at the ceiling, and my brain

                          fallen backwards in my head!

                       Breastbone bulging like a harpy’s

                      and my face, from drips and droplets,

                        patterned like a marble pavement.

                    Ribs are poking in my guts; the only way

                    to counterweight my shoulders is to stick

                  my butt out. Don’t know where my feet are-

                      they’re just dancing by themselves!

                  In front I’ve sagged and stretched; behind,

                    my back is tauter than an archer’s bow!
                                                                   ”

Method

   In order to reach the chapel's ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own
   scaffold, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in
   the wall near the top of the windows, rather than being built up from
   the floor which would have involved a massive structure. The
   scaffolding did not occupy the entire area of the ceiling. The painting
   was done in two stages.

   The reports of Michelangelo's pupil and biographer Condivi, indicate
   that the brackets and frame which supported the steps and flooring were
   all put in place at the beginning and some sort of light-weight screen,
   possibly of cloth, was suspended beneath them to catch plaster drips,
   dust and splashes of paint, but only half the building was scaffolded
   at a time.
   The evidence of the plaster laid for a day's work can be seen around
   the head and arm of this ignudo.
   The evidence of the plaster laid for a day's work can be seen around
   the head and arm of this ignudo.

   The painting technique employed was fresco, in which the paint is
   applied to damp plaster. Michelangelo was experienced with this method
   of painting, having been trained in the workshop of Ghirlandaio, one of
   the most competent and prolific of Florentine fresco painters, who
   completed several important fresco cycles in churches in Florence and
   whose work was represented on the walls of the Sistine Chapel.

   At the outset, the plaster began to grow mold because it was too wet.
   Michelangelo had to remove it and start again. He then tried a new
   formula created by one of his assistants, Jacopo l'Indaco. This
   resisted mold, and entering the Italian building tradition as intonaco
   is still in use today.

   It was customary for fresco painters to use a full-sized detailed
   drawing, a cartoon, to transfer a design onto a plaster surface -- many
   frescoes show little holes made with a stiletto, outlining the figures.
   Here Michelangelo broke with convention; once confident in the
   application of fresco, he drew directly onto the ceiling. His energetic
   sweeping outlines can be seen scraped into some of the surfaces, while
   on others a grid is evident, indicating that he enlarged directly onto
   the ceiling from a small drawing.
   Michelangelo never completed the parts of the lunettes which were
   covered by the scaffolding, as is evident in this picture, which also
   shows the brilliancy of colouration, the dress here having opaque
   yellow highlights and shadows of transparent green and mauve while the
   shadow on the sleeve is vermilion.
   Michelangelo never completed the parts of the lunettes which were
   covered by the scaffolding, as is evident in this picture, which also
   shows the brilliancy of colouration, the dress here having opaque
   yellow highlights and shadows of transparent green and mauve while the
   shadow on the sleeve is vermilion.

   Because he was painting fresco, the plaster was laid in a new section
   every day, called a giornata. At the beginning of each session, the
   edges would be scraped away and a new area laid down. This is more
   apparent in the Last Judgement than on the ceiling. The reason that
   Michelangelo employed the fresco technique is that if the artist worked
   onto completely dry plaster, then every brushstroke sank in immediately
   and the pigment could not be manipulated without removal of the
   plaster. The disadvantage of fresco painting is that the plaster
   becomes very hot while it is setting and gives off fumes.

   Michelangelo painted onto the damp plaster using a wash technique to
   apply broad areas of colour, then as the surface became drier, he
   revisited these areas with a more linear approach, adding shade and
   detail with a variety of brushes. For some textured surfaces, such as
   facial hair and woodgrain, he used a broad brush with bristles as
   sparse as a comb. Altogether, Michelangelo's techniques show the skill
   that one would expect of Ghirlandaio's greatest pupil. He employed all
   the finest workshop methods and best innovations, combining them with a
   diversity of brushwork and breadth of skill of which the meticulous and
   accurate Ghirlandaio was not capable.

   The work commenced at the end of the building furthest from the altar
   and coinciding with the latest of the narrative scenes, rather than the
   earliest. The first three scenes, from the story of Noah, contain a
   much larger number of small figures than the later panels. This is
   partly because of the subject matter, which deals with the fate of
   Humanity, but also because all the figures at that end of the ceiling,
   including the prophets and ignudi, are smaller than in the central
   section. The scale further increased in the third section. As the scale
   got larger, so did Michelangelo's style become broader, the final
   narrative scene of God in the act of Creation was painted in a single
   day.
   The biographer Vasari was full of praise for this image of God which
   was painted in a single day.
   The biographer Vasari was full of praise for this image of God which
   was painted in a single day.

   The bright colours and broad, cleanly-defined outlines make each
   subject easily visible from the floor. Despite the height of the
   ceiling the proportions of the Creation of Adam are such that when
   standing beneath it, "it appears as if the viewer could simply raise a
   finger and meet those of God and Adam". The colours, which now appear
   so fresh and spring-like with pale pink, apple green, vivid yellow and
   sky blue against a background of warm pearly grey, were so discoloured
   by candlesmoke as to make the pictures seem almost monochrome. The long
   restoration (1981 through 1994) has removed the filter of grime to
   reveal the colours again.

   Vasari tells us that the ceiling is "unfinished", that its unveiling
   occurred before it could be reworked with gold leaf and vivid blue
   lapis lazuli as was customary with frescoes and in order to better link
   the ceiling with the walls below it which were highlighted with a great
   deal of gold. But this never took place, in part because Michelangelo
   was reluctant to set up the scaffolding again, and probably also
   because the gold and particularly the intense blue would have
   distracted from his painterly conception.

   Some areas were, in fact, decorated with gold:- the shields between the
   ignudi and the columns between the prophets and sybils. It seems very
   likely that the gilding of the shields was part of Michelangelo's
   original scheme since they are painted to resemble a certain type of
   processional shield a number of which still exist.

   Section reference.

Content

   The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their Expulsion from the Garden of
   Eden.
   The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their Expulsion from the Garden of
   Eden.

   The subject matter of the ceiling is the doctrine of Humankind's need
   for Salvation as offered by God through Jesus.

   In other words, the ceiling illustrates that God made the World as a
   perfect creation and put Humankind into it, Humankind fell into
   disgrace and was punished by death, and by separation from God. God
   sent Prophets and Sybils to tell Humankind that the Saviour or Christ,
   Jesus, would bring them redemption. God prepared a lineage of people,
   all the way from Adam, through various characters written of in the Old
   Testament, such as King David, to the Virgin Mary through whom the
   Saviour of Humankind, Jesus, would come. The various components of the
   ceiling are linked to this doctrine.
   The Libyan Sibyl, with four others, represents the enlightenment of
   Classical and Humanist philosophy.
   The Libyan Sibyl, with four others, represents the enlightenment of
   Classical and Humanist philosophy.

   But there was another factor. During the 15th century in Italy, and in
   Florence in particular, there was a strong interest in Classical
   literature and the philosophy of Humanism. Michelangelo, as a young
   man, had spent time at the Humanist academy established by the Medici
   family in Florence. He was familiar with early Humanist-inspired
   sculptural works such as Donatello's bronze David, and had himself
   responded by carving the enormous nude marble David which was placed in
   the piazza near the Palazzo Vecchio, the home of Florence's council.
   The Humanist vision of Humankind was one in which people responded to
   other people, to social responsibility and to God in a direct way, not
   through intermediaries, such as the Church. This conflicted with the
   Church's emphasis. While the Church emphasised Humankind as essentially
   sinful and flawed, Humanism emphasised Humankind as potentially noble
   and beautiful. These two views were not necessarily irreconcilable to
   the Church, but only through a recognition that the unique way to
   achieve this "elevation of spirit, mind and body" was through the
   Church as the agent of God. To be outside the Church was to be beyond
   Salvation.
   An ancestor of Christ from the Ezechias lunette.
   An ancestor of Christ from the Ezechias lunette.

   In the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo has presented both
   Catholic and Humanist elements in a way that does not appear visually
   conflicting, but the inclusion of "non-Christian" figures can appear as
   an ideological conflict to those more familiar with the intensely
   "religious" works of the Counter Reformation and unfamiliar with the
   rationalising of Humanist and Christian thought of the Renaissance.

   The main components of the design are nine scenes from the Book of
   Genesis, of which five smaller ones are each framed and supported by
   four naked youths or "ignudi". At either end, and beneath the scenes
   are the figures of twelve men and women who prophesied the birth of
   Jesus. On the cresent-shaped areas, or "lunettes", above each of the
   chapel's windows are the Ancestors of Christ, identified by name. In
   the triangular spandrels above them are a further eight groups of
   figures, the identity of which is not known and which is subject to
   speculation. The scheme is completed by four large corner pendentives
   each showing a dramatic Biblical story. The iconography of the ceiling
   has had various interpretations in the past, some elements of which
   have been contradicted by modern scholarship and others of which
   continue to defy interpretation. Of interest to some modern scholars is
   the question of how Michelangelo's own spiritual and psychological
   state is reflected in the iconography and the artistic expression of
   the ceiling.

   Section reference

Architectural scheme

   See above: Plan of real and fictive architecture

Real

   The interior of the Sistine Chapel, looking from the Altar towards the
   main entrance, showing how Michelangelo's ceiling was part of a total
   scheme.
   The interior of the Sistine Chapel, looking from the Altar towards the
   main entrance, showing how Michelangelo's ceiling was part of a total
   scheme.

   The Sistine Chapel is 40.5 metres long and 14 metres wide. The ceiling
   rises to 20 metres above the main floor of the chapel. The vault is of
   quite a complex nature and it is unlikely that it was originally
   intended to have such complex decoration. Pier Matteo d'Amelia provided
   a plan for its decoration with the architectural elements picked out
   and the ceiling painted blue and dotted with gold stars, similar to
   that of the Arena Chapel decorated by Giotto at Padua.

   The chapel walls have three horizontal tiers with six windows in the
   upper tier down each side. There were also two windows at each end, but
   these have been closed up above the altar when Michelangelo's Last
   Judgement was painted. Between the windows are large pendentives which
   support the vault. Between the pendentives are triangularly shaped
   arches or spandrels cut into the vault above each window. Above the
   height of the pendentives, the ceiling slopes gently without much
   deviation from the horizontal. This is the real architecture.
   Michelangelo has elaborated it with illusionary or fictive
   architecture.

Illusionary

   The spandrel above the Ozias Lunette showing painted architectural
   details and monochrome figures
   The spandrel above the Ozias Lunette showing painted architectural
   details and monochrome figures

   The first element in the scheme of painted architecture is the defining
   of the real architectural elements by painted decorative courses that
   look like stone moldings. The decorative courses have two repeating
   motifs, a formula common to such decorations in Classical Roman
   buildings. In this case one motif is the acorn, the symbol of the
   Pope's family, the Rovere.. The other motif is the scallop shell, one
   of the symbols of the Blessed Virgin Mary to whom the chapel is
   dedicated.

   Part of Michelangelo's painted design are broad architectural ribs of
   travertine which appear to cross the ceiling from one pendentive to
   another, further supported by similar architectural bands at either end
   of the chapel. The ten painted cross-ribs divide the ceiling into
   alternately wide and narrow pictorial spaces. Above the level of the
   spandrels, where the ceiling flattens, is painted a strongly-projecting
   cornice that runs right around the ceiling, enclosing the main
   pictorial areas. These fictive architectural elements form a grid in
   which all the figures have defined spaces.
   God seperating the waters from the heavens, showing the architectural
   framework and ignudi.
   God seperating the waters from the heavens, showing the architectural
   framework and ignudi.

   Integrated with the painted architecture are a great number of small
   figures the purpose of which appears to be purely decorative. These
   include two seemingly-marble putti below the cornice on each rib, stone
   rams-heads above the spandrels, figures like animated book-ends hiding
   in the shadows of the ribs and little putti, both clothed and unclothed
   who strike a variey of poses as they support the name-plates of the
   prophets and sybils.

   Above the cornice and to either side of the smaller scenes are an array
   of round shields. They are in part supported by twenty more figures,
   not part of the architecture, but sitting on inlaid plinths, their feet
   planted convincingly on the fictive cornice. They are the so-called
   ignudi.

Pictorial scheme

Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis

   Along the central section of the ceiling, Michelangelo depicted nine
   scenes from the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The
   pictures fall into three groups of three.

   The first group shows God creating the Heavens and the Earth. The
   second group shows God creating the first man and woman, Adam and Eve,
   and their disobedience of God and consequent expulsion from the Garden
   of Eden where they have lived and where they walked with God. The third
   group of three pictures shows the plight of Humanity, and in particular
   the family of Noah.

   The pictures are not in strictly chronological order. If they are
   perceived as three groups, then the pictures in each of the three units
   inform upon each other, in the same way as was usual in Medieval
   paintings and stained glass.
   The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Earth
   The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Earth

   The scenes are painted so as to be viewed looking from the altar
   towards the main door and are ordered accordingly, as follows:
    1. The Separation of Light and Darkness
    2. The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Earth
    3. The Separation of Land and Water
    4. The Creation of Adam
    5. The Creation of Eve
    6. The Temptation and Expulsion
    7. The Sacrifice of Noah
    8. The Great Flood
    9. The Drunkenness of Noah

   Detail of the Face of God
   Detail of the Face of God

Creation

   The three Creation pictures show scenes from the first chapter of
   Genesis, which relates that God created the Earth and all that is in it
   in six days, resting on the seventh day. In the first scene, the First
   Day of Creation, God creates light and separates light from darkness.
   Chronologically, the next scene takes place in the third panel, in
   which, on the Second Day, God divides the waters from the heavens. In
   the central panel, the largest of the three, there are two
   representations of God. On the Third Day, God creates the Earth and
   makes it sprout plants. On the Fourth Day, God puts the Sun and the
   Moon in place to govern the night and the day, the time and the seasons
   of the year. On the Fifth Day, God created the birds of the air and
   fish and creatures of the deep, but we are not shown this. Neither do
   we see God's creation of the creatures of the earth on the Sixth Day.

   These three scenes, completed in the third stage of painting, are the
   most broadly conceived, the most broadly painted and the most dynamic
   of all the pictures. Of the first scene Vasari says "...Michelangelo
   depicted God dividing Light from Darkness, showing him in all his
   majesty as he rests self-sustained with arms outstretched, in a
   revelation of love and creative power."

Adam and Eve

   For the central section of the ceiling, Michelangelo has taken four
   episodes from the story of Adam and Eve as told in the first, second
   and third chapters of Genesis. In this sequence of three, two of the
   panels are large and one small.
   The Creation of Adam.
   The Creation of Adam.

   In the first of the pictures, and one of the most widely recognised
   images in the history of painting, Michelangelo shows God reaching out
   to touch Adam, who, in the words of Vasari, is "a figure whose beauty,
   pose and contours are such that it seems to have been fashioned that
   very moment by the first and supreme creator rather than by the drawing
   and brush of a mortal man."

   The central scene, of God creating Eve from the side of the sleeping
   Adam has been taken in its composition directly from another Creation
   sequence familiar to Michelangelo from his youth, the relief panels by
   Jacopo della Quercia that surround the door of the Basilica of San
   Petronio, Bologna.

   In the final panel of this sequence Michelangelo shows two contrasting
   scenes, that of Adam and Eve taking fruit from the forbidden tree, Eve
   trustingly taking it from the hand of the Serpent and Adam eagerly
   picking it for himself; and their banishment from the Garden of Eden,
   where they have lived in the company of God, to the world outside where
   they have to fend for themselves and experience death.

Story of Noah

   Detail from the scene of the Great Flood, showing how the earlier
   scenes that Michelangelo painted were crowded with figures.
   Detail from the scene of the Great Flood, showing how the earlier
   scenes that Michelangelo painted were crowded with figures.

   As with the first sequence of pictures, the three panels concerning
   Noah, taken from the sixth to ninth chapters of Genesis are thematic
   rather than chronological. In the first scene is shown the sacrifice of
   a sheep. There are two significant sacrifices written of in Genesis,
   and Vasari, in writing about this scene mistakes it for the sacrifices
   by Cain and Abel, in which Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God and
   Cain's was not. What this image almost certainly depicts is the
   sacrifice made by the family of Noah, after their safe deliverance from
   the Great Flood which destroyed the rest of Humankind. However, blood
   sacrifice was instigated at the sacrifice of Abel. Christ was called
   the "Lamb of God" with reference to his sacrificial death. So this
   episode has far greater doctrinal significance than a family
   thanksgiving.

   The central, larger, scene shows the Great Flood. The Ark in which
   Noah's family escaped floats at the rear of the picture while the rest
   of humanity tries frantically to scramble to some point of safety. This
   picture, which has a large number of figures, conforms the most closely
   to the format of the paintings that had been done around the walls.

   The final scene of Humankind's degredation is the story of Noah's
   drunkenness. After the Flood, Noah tills the soil and grows vines. He
   is shown doing so, in the background of the picture. He becomes drunk
   and inadvertently exposes himself. His youngest son, Ham, brings his
   two brothers Shem and Japheth to see the sight but they discreetly
   cover their father with a cloak. Ham is later cursed by Noah and told
   that he will serve his brothers forever.

   Taken together, these three pictures of death, destruction and
   degredation serve to show that Humankind, represented by Noah's family,
   had moved a long way from God's perfect creation.

Shields

   The Death of Uriah.
   The Death of Uriah.

   Adjacent to the smaller Biblical scenes and supported by the ignudi are
   ten circular pageant shields, painted to resemble bronze or leather and
   with their details picked out in gold leaf. Each is decorated with a
   picture drawn from the Old Testament or the Book of Maccabees. The
   subject in almost every case is one of the more gruesome or shameful of
   Biblical episodes, the only exception being that of Elijah being swept
   up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, leaving Elisha in a state of
   despair. In four of the five most highly finished medallions the space
   is crowded with figures in violent action, similar to Michelangelo's
   cartoon for the Battle of Cascina.

   The technique that Michelangelo has employed is unusual in fresco, and
   may be original in its employment on this scale, but is not unique. He
   has utilised the same technique that was employed for decorating
   shields used in pageants and is similar to that used when drawing in
   metal point and white chalk on a coloured ground. The ground colour (in
   this case red ochre streaked with black) makes the background and all
   the mid tones in the composition. The shadowed edges are then painted
   or rather, drawn with a brush and the shadows drawn in a highly linear
   manner that defines the contours of the forms. On coloured paper, the
   highlights and brightly lit contours would usually be drawn with white
   chalk or finely painted in white paint. But in this case, gold leaf
   entirely replaces the white and has been applied exactly as if it had
   been drawn on, using the same method of defining contour as the black
   lines.

   This application of gold serves to link the ceiling frescoes to some
   extent with those around the walls. In the latter, gold leaf has been
   applied lavishly to many details and in some of the frescoes, notable
   those by Perugino, has been most expertly used not just to detail the
   robes but to highlight the folds by subtle graduation in the density of
   golden flecks. It is this technique that Michelangelo has picked up on
   and carried a step further, inspired also perhaps by the medallions
   that appear on a Roman triumphal arch in Botticelli's episode from the
   Life of Moses, showing the punishment of the Sons of Corah.
   Detail of The Idol of Baal, showing the linear use of black paint and
   gold leaf defining forms.
   Detail of The Idol of Baal, showing the linear use of black paint and
   gold leaf defining forms.

   The medalions represent:-
     * Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac
     * The Destruction of the Statue of Baal
     * The worshippers of Baal being brutally slaughtered.
     * Uriah being beaten to death.
     * Nathan the priest condemning King David for murder and corruption.
     * King David's traitorous son Absalom caught by his hair in a tree
       while trying to escape and beheaded by David's troops.
     * Abner sneaking up on Joab to murder him
     * Joram being hurled from a chariot onto his head.
     * Elijah being carried up to Heaven
     * On one medalion the subject is either obliterated or incomplete.

   Section references

Twelve prophetic figures

   On the five pendentives along each side and the two at either,
   Michelangelo painted the largest figures on the ceiling: twelve people
   who prophesied or represented some aspect of the Coming of Christ. Of
   those twelve, seven were Prophets of Israel and were male. The
   remaining five were prophets of the Classical World, called Sibyls and
   were female. The prophet Jonah is placed above the altar and Zechariah
   at the further end. The other male and female figures alternate down
   each side, each being identified by an inscription on a painted marble
   panel supported by a putto.
   The Persian Sibyl
   The Persian Sibyl
   The prophet Isaiah
   The prophet Isaiah
     * Jonah (IONAS) - above the altar
     * Jeremiah (HIEREMIAS)
     * Persian Sibyl (PERSICHA)
     * Ezekiel (EZECHIEL)
     * Erythraean Sibyl. (ERITHRAEA)
     * Joel (IOEL)
     * Zechariah (ZACHERIAS) - above the main door of the chapel
     * Delphic Sibyl. (DELPHICA)
     * Isaiah (ESAIAS)
     * Cumaean Sibyl. (CVMAEA)
     * Daniel (DANIEL)
     * Libyan Sibyl (LIBICA)

Prophets

   The seven prophets of Israel chosen for depiction on the ceiling
   include the four so-called Major Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel
   and Daniel. Of the remaining twelve possibilities among the Minor
   Prophets, the three represented are Joel, Zechariah and Jonah.

   Although the prophets Joel and Zechariah are considered "minor" because
   of the comparatively small number of pages that their prophecy occupies
   in the Bible, each one produced prophesies of profound significance.
   They are often quoted, Joel for his "Your sons and your daughters shall
   prophesy, your elderly shall dream dreams and your youth shall see
   visions". These words are significant for Michelangelo's decorative
   scheme, where women take their place among men and the youthful Daniel
   sits across from the brooding Jeremiah with his long white beard.

   Zechariah prophesied "Behold! Your King comes to you, humble and riding
   on a donkey". His place in the chapel is directly above the door
   through which the Pope is carried in procession on Palm Sunday, the day
   on which Jesus fulfilled the prophecy by riding into Jerusalem on a
   donkey and being proclaimed King.
   The prophet Jonah
   The prophet Jonah

   Jonah's main prophesy concerned the downfall of the city of Nineveh.
   This alone does not seem to warrant him a place above the High Altar.
   But there is another factor involved. It is the person of Jonah himself
   that is of symbolic and prophetic significance, a significance which
   was commonly understood and had been represented in countless works of
   art including manuscripts and stained glass windows. Jonah, through his
   reluctance to obey God, was swallowed by a "mighty fish". He spent
   three days in its belly and was eventually spewed up on dry land where
   he went about God's business. Because of this, Jonah was seen as a
   forerunner of Jesus, who having died by crucifixion, spent a time which
   spanned part of three days in a tomb, and was resurrected on the third
   day. So, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Jonah, with the "great
   fish" beside him and his eyes turned towards God the Creator,
   represents a "portent" of the Resurrection of Christ.

   In Vasari's description of the prophets and sibyls he is particularly
   high in his praise of the portrayal of Isaiah: "Anyone who studies this
   figure, copied so faithfully from nature, the true mother of the art of
   painting, will find a beautifully composed work capable of teaching in
   full measure all the precepts to be followed by a good painter."

   Section references

Sibyls

   The Cumaean Sibyl.
   The Cumaean Sibyl.

   The sibyls were prophetic women who were resident at shrines or temples
   throughout the Classical World. The five depicted here are each said to
   have prophesied the birth of Christ. The Cumaean Sibyl, for example, is
   quoted by Virgil as declaring that "a new progeny of Heaven" would
   bring about a return of the " Golden Age". This was interpreted as
   referring to Jesus.

   In Christian doctrine, Christ came not just to the Jews but also to the
   Gentiles. It was understood that, prior to the Birth of Christ, God
   prepared the world for his coming. To this purpose, God used Jews and
   Gentiles alike. Jesus would not have been born in Bethlehem (where it
   had been prophesied that his birth would take place), except for the
   fact that the pagan Roman Emperor Augustus decreed that there should be
   a census. Likewise, when Jesus was born, the announcement of his birth
   was made to rich and to poor, to mighty and to humble, to Jew and to
   Gentile. The wise men or so-called " Magi" who sought out the infant
   King with precious gifts were pagan foreigners.
   The Delphic Sibyl.
   The Delphic Sibyl.

   In the Church of Rome, where there was an increasing interest in the
   remains of the city's pagan past, where scholars turned from reading
   Medieval Church Latin to Classical Latin and the philosophies of the
   Classical world were studied along with the writings of St Augustine,
   the presence, in the Sistine Chapel of five pagan prophets is not
   surprising.

   It is not known why Michelangelo selected the five particular sibyls
   that were depicted, given that, as with the Minor Prophets, there were
   ten or twelve possibilities. It is suggested by John O'Malley that the
   choice was made for a wide geographic coverage, with the sibyls coming
   from Africa, Asia, Greece and Ionia.

   Vasari says of the Erythraean sibyl "Many aspects of this figure are of
   exceptional loveliness: the expression of her face, her headdress and
   the arrangement of her draperies: and her arms, which are bared, are as
   beautiful as the rest."

   Section reference

Pendentives

   In each corner of the chapel is a triangular pendentive filling the
   space between the walls and the arch of the vault and forming the
   spandrel above the windows nearest the corners. On these curving shapes
   Michelangelo has painted four scenes from Biblical stories that are
   associated with the salvation of the Jewish people.
   The pendentive of the Brazen serpent with its crowded composition was
   imitated by Mannerist painters.
   The pendentive of the Brazen serpent with its crowded composition was
   imitated by Mannerist painters.
     * The Brazen Serpent
     * The Punishment of Haman
     * David and Goliath
     * Judith and Holofernes

   The first two stories were both seen in Medieval and Renaissance
   theology as prefiguring the Crucifixion of Jesus. In the story of the
   Brazen Serpent, the people of Israel become dissatisfied and grumble at
   God. As punishment they receive a plague of poisonous snakes. God
   offers the people relief by instructing Moses to make a snake of brass,
   set up on a pole, the sight of which gives miraculous healing.

   In the book of Esther it is related that Haman, a public servant, plots
   to get Esther's husband, the King of Persia, to slay all the Jewish
   people in his land. The King, who is going over his books during a
   sleepless night, realises something is amiss. Esther, discovering the
   plot, denounces Haman and her husband orders his execution on a
   scaffold he has built. The King's Eunuchs promptly carry this out.

   The other stories, those of David and Judith, while showing the
   Salvation of Israel, were both portrayed with great frequency in the
   art of Florence as they demonstrated the overthrow of tyrants, a
   popular subject in the Republic. In this image, the shepherd boy,
   David, has brought down the towering Goliath with his sling, but the
   giant is alive and is trying to rise as David forces his head down to
   chop it off.
   Judith and Holofernes. The four scenes are marked by brutal realism.
   Judith and Holofernes. The four scenes are marked by brutal realism.

   The depiction of Judith and Holofernes has an equally gruesome detail.
   As Judith loads the enemy's head onto a basket carried by her maid and
   covers it with a cloth, she is distracted by the limbs of the
   decapitated body threshing around.

   There are obvious connections in the design of the Slaying of
   Holofernes and the Slaying of Haman at the opposite end of the chapel.
   Although in the Holofernes picture the figures are smaller and the
   space less filled, both have the triangular space divided into two
   zones by a vertical wall, allowing us to see what is happening on both
   sides of it. There are actually three scenes in the Haman picture
   because as well as seeing Haman punished, we see him at the table with
   Esther and the King and get a view of the King on his bed. The servants
   who have done the ghastly deed are on the steps, making a link between
   the scenes.

   While the Slaying of Goliath is a relatively simple composition with
   the two protagonists centrally placed, the only other figures being
   dimly-seen observers, the Brazen Serpent picture is crowded with
   figures and separate incidents as the various individuals who have been
   attacked by snakes struggle and die or turn towards the icon that will
   save them. This is the most Mannerist of Michelangelo's earlier
   compositions at the Sistine Chapel, picking up the theme of human
   distress begun in the Great Flood scene and carrying it forward into
   the torment of lost souls in the Last Judgement which was later to be
   painted below.

Ancestors of Christ

   The lunette of Jacob and Joseph, the Earthly father of Jesus. The
   suspicious old man may represent Joseph.
   The lunette of Jacob and Joseph, the Earthly father of Jesus. The
   suspicious old man may represent Joseph.

Subject

   Between the large pendentives that support the vault are windows, six
   on each side of the chapel. There were two more windows in each end of
   the chapel, now closed, and those above the High Altar covered by the
   Last Judgement. Above each window is an arched shaped, referred to as a
   lunette and above eight of the lunettes at the sides of the chapel are
   triangular spandrels filling the spaces between the side pendentives
   and the vault, the other eight lunettes each being below one of the
   corner pendentives.

   Michelangelo was commissioned to paint these areas, as part of the work
   on the ceiling. the structures form visual bridges between the walls
   and the ceiling, and the figures that are painted on them are midway in
   size (approximately 2 metres high) between the very large prophets and
   the much smaller figures of Popes which had been painted to either side
   of each window in the 15th century. The subject of the pictures is the
   Genealogy of Christ.

   Centrally placed above each window is a painted marble tablet with a
   decorative frame. On each is painted the names of the male line by
   which Jesus, through his Earthly father, Joseph, is descended from
   Abraham, according to the Gospel of Matthew.
   The composition of most spandrels is similar to paintings of the Flight
   into Egypt.
   The composition of most spandrels is similar to paintings of the Flight
   into Egypt.

   The arrangement seems a little erratic as one plaque has four names,
   most have three or two, and two plaques have only one. Moreover, the
   progression moves from one side of the building to the other, but not
   consistently.

   On either side of each plaque and occupying the greater part of each
   lunette, are figures. In each case they seem to comprise some sort of a
   family, but it is extremely difficult to determine who the painted
   characters represent, as they do not coincide closely with the listed
   names. There are babies in most of the pictures suggesting a parental
   relationship between the males and females depicted, but not in every
   case.

   There is also an indeterminate relationship between the figures in the
   spandrels, which are predominantly women with babies, and the lunettes
   beneath them. Because of the constraints of the triangular shape in
   each picture the figures are seated on the ground. In six of the eight
   spandrels the compositions resemble traditional depictions of the
   Flight into Egypt.
   This figure above the Jesse lunette may represent the one who will bear
   the prophesied Messiah.
   This figure above the Jesse lunette may represent the one who will bear
   the prophesied Messiah.

   Of the two remaining, one shows a woman with shears trimming the neck
   of a garment she is making while her toddler looks on. The Biblical
   woman who is recorded as making a new garmet for her child is Hannah,
   the mother of Samuel, whose child went to live in the temple, and
   indeed, the male figure behind is wearing a distinctive hat that might
   suggest that of a priest. But the actual identity is unknown, and is
   possibly associated with the family on the lunette.

   The other figure who differs from the rest is a young woman who sits
   staring out of the picture with prophetic intensity. It may be that she
   represents the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her position is directly above the
   tablet on which are engraved the name of Jesse of whom it was
   prophesied "There shall come forth a rod out of the stump of Jesse and
   a branch shall grow out of his roots". Jesse is in fact the key to
   understanding the tradition behind these paintings. While the depiction
   of the Ancestors of Christ in fresco are rare, the subject was a common
   one in stained glass. It is often shown as a Jesse Tree with Jesse
   lying prone and a tree growing from his side with the ancestors on each
   branch.

   Section References
   The anger and despair of the figures in the Zorobabel lunette is seen
   throughout the Ancestor series.
   The anger and despair of the figures in the Zorobabel lunette is seen
   throughout the Ancestor series.

Treatment

   The figures in the lunettes appear to be families, but in every case
   they are families that are divided. The figures in them are physically
   divided by a name plate but they are also divided by a range of human
   emotions that turn them outward or in on themselves and sometimes
   towards their partner with jealousy, suspicion, rage. In them
   Michelangelo has portrayed the anger and unhappiness of the human
   condition. Michelangelo uses these families to indicate to the viewer
   the problems that are inherent to humanity's nature and shows clearly
   the reason why Humankind was in need of the saviour, Christ Jesus. In
   their constraining niches, the ancestors "sit and squat and wait".

   Of the fourteen remaining lunettes, the two that were probably painted
   first, the families of Eleazar and Mathan and of Jacob and Joseph are
   the most detailed. They become progressively broader towards the altar
   end, one of the last being painted in only two days.
   This figure is in a similar pose to one of the ignudi, but with more
   "mannered" gestures.
   This figure is in a similar pose to one of the ignudi, but with more
   "mannered" gestures.
   This impassive figure is one of the most reproduced on the ceiling.
   This impassive figure is one of the most reproduced on the ceiling.

   The Eleazar and Mathan picture has two figures with a wealth of costume
   detail that is not present in any other scene. The female to the left
   has had as much care taken with her clothing as any of the sibyls. Her
   skirt is turned back showing her linen petticoat and the garter that
   holds up her mauve stockings and cuts into the flesh. She has a
   reticule and her dress is laced up under the arms. On the other side of
   the tablet sits the only male figure among those on the lunettes who is
   intrinsically beautiful. This blonde young man, elegantly dressed in
   white shirt and pale green hose, with no jerkin but a red cloak,
   postures with an insipid and vain gesture, in contrast to the ignudi
   which he closely resembles.

   Prior to restoration, of all the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, the
   lunettes and spandrels were the dirtiest. Added to this, there has
   always been a problem of poor daytime visibility of the panels nearest
   the windows because of halination.. Consequently, they were the least
   well known of all Michelangelo's publicly accessible works. The recent
   restoration has made these masterly studies of human nature and
   inventive depiction of the human form known once more.

   Section References

Ignudi

   The Ignudi are the 20 athletic, nude males that Michelangelo painted as
   supporting figures at the four corners of the five smaller narrative
   scenes of central part of the ceiling. The figures hold or are draped
   with or lean on a variety of things which include pink ribbons, green
   bolsters and enormous garlands of acorns. The acorns are the symbol of
   the family of Michelangelo's patron, Pope Julius, and can also be seen
   as the finials on his chair in Raphael's portrait.

   The Ignudi, although all seated, are less physically constrained than
   the Ancestors of Christ. While the pairs of the monochrome male and
   female figures above the spandrels are mirrors of each other, these
   ignudi are all different. In the earliest paintings, they are paired,
   their poses being similar but with variation. These variations become
   greater with each pair until the postures of final four bear no
   relation to each other whatsoever. Their painting demonstrates, more
   than any other figures on the ceiling, Michelangelo's mastery of
   anatomy and foreshortening and his enormous powers of invention.

   The meaning of these figures has never been clear. They are certainly
   in keeping with the Humanist acceptance of the classical Greek view
   that “the man is the measure of all things”. Their presence and nudity
   angered a number of critics, including Pope Hadrian VI who described
   the ceiling as "a stew of naked bodies" and wanted it stripped.
   This figure shows the powerful musculature of the lower back that
   suggests that the model may have been a stone mason.
   This figure shows the powerful musculature of the lower back that
   suggests that the model may have been a stone mason.

   But Michelangelo knew the Bible well. He would have been well aware of
   the fact that although seraphim and cherubim are described as being
   winged creatures, angels are not. They are described as looking like
   men. When Michelangelo later painted the altar wall of the chapel, he
   included a great number of angels, particularly in the lunettes which
   are decorated with scenes of angels carrying the symbols of the
   Passion. Other angels are employed sounding the trumpets which call
   forth the dead, displaying books in which the names of the saved and
   the damned are written and casting sinners down to Hell. In all, the
   Last Judgement contains more than forty angels, all closely resembling
   the ignudi.

   It is reasonable to conclude that the ignudi represent angels, rather
   than "Human perfection", since the message of the ceiling is,
   overwhelmingly, one of human misery and degredation. It is about
   Humankind's need for a covenant with God. The old covenant of the
   Children of Israel through Moses and the new covenant through Christ
   Jesus had already been represented around the walls of the chapel. If
   the ignudi are indeed angels, they are the ever-present attendants and
   messengers of God, impassively watching and waiting on the fate of
   Humankind.

Artistic legacy

   The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was to have a profound effect upon
   other artists, even before it was completed. Vasari, in his Life of
   Raphael, tells us that Bramante, who had the keys to the chapel, let
   Raphael in to examine the paintings in Michelangelo's absence. On
   seeing Michelangelo's prophets, Raphael went back to the picture of the
   Prophet Isaiah that he was painting on a column in the Church of
   Sant'Agostino and, according to Vasari, although it was finished, he
   scraped it off the wall and repainted it in a much more powerful
   manner, in imitation of Michelangelo.
   This painting by Tintoretto shows the influence of the ignudi, this
   time in female form.
   This painting by Tintoretto shows the influence of the ignudi, this
   time in female form.

   There was hardly a design element on the ceiling that was not
   subsequently imitated: the fictive architecture, the muscular anatomy,
   the foreshortening, the dynamic motion, the luminous colouration, the
   haunting expressions of the figures in the lunettes, the abundance of
   putti.

   Gabriele Bartz and Eberhard König have said of the ignudi "There is no
   image that has had a more lasting effect on following generations than
   this. Henceforth similar figures disported themselves in innumerable
   decorative works, be they painted, formed in stucco or even sculpted."
   The Deposition by Pontormo
   The Deposition by Pontormo

   Within Michelangelo's own work, the chapel ceiling led to the later and
   more Mannerist painting of the Last Judgement in which the crowded
   compositions gave full rein to his inventiveness in painting contorted
   and foreshortened figures expressing despair or jubilation. Among the
   artists in whose work can be seen the direct influence of Michelangelo
   are Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Tintoretto, Annibale
   Carracci, Paolo Veronese and El Greco.

   In January 2007, it was claimed that as many as 10,000 visitors passed
   through the Vatican Museums in a day and that the ceiling of the
   Sistine Chapel is the biggest attraction. The Vatican, anxious at the
   possibility that the newly-restored frescoes will suffer damage,
   announced plans to reduce visiting hours and raise the price in an
   attempt to discourage visitors.

   Five hundred years earlier Vasari had said "The whole world came
   running when the vault was revealed, and the sight of it was enough to
   reduce them to stunned silence."

Quotations

   Vasari
   Figures such as the Prophet Ezechiel had a profound effect upon Raphael
   and other painters.
   Figures such as the Prophet Ezechiel had a profound effect upon Raphael
   and other painters.

   “The work has proved a veritable beacon to our art, of inestimable
   benefit to all painters, restoring light to a world that for centuries
   had been plunged into darkness. Indeed, painters no longer need to seek
   for new inventions, novel attitudes, clothed figures, fresh ways of
   expression, different arrangements, or sublime subjects, for this work
   contains every perfection possible under those headings.”

   Waldemar Januszczak

   The art critic and television producer Waldemar Januszczak wrote that
   when the Sistine Chapel ceiling was recently cleaned, he "was able to
   persuade the man at the Vatican who was in charge of Japanese TV access
   to let me climb the scaffold while the cleaning was in progress.

   "I sneaked up there a few times. And under the bright, unforgiving
   lights of television, I was able to encounter the real Michelangelo. I
   was so close to him I could see the bristles from his brushes caught in
   the paint; and the mucky thumbprints he’d left along his margins. The
   first thing that impressed me was his speed. Michelangelo worked at
   Schumacher pace. Adam’s famous little penis was captured with a single
   brushstroke: a flick of the wrist, and the first man had his manhood. I
   also enjoyed his sense of humour, which, from close up, turned out to
   be refreshingly puerile. If you look closely at the angels who attend
   the scary prophetess on the Sistine ceiling known as the Cumaean Sibyl,
   you will see that one of them has stuck his thumb between his fingers
   in that mysteriously obscene gesture that visiting fans are still
   treated to today at Italian football matches."

   Gabriel Bartz and Eberhard König

   "In a world where all experience was based in the glorious lost past of
   Antiquity, he made a new beginning. Michelangelo, more even than
   Raphael or Leonardo, embodies a standard of artistic genius which
   reveals a radically changed image of human beings and their
   potential..."

   Pope John Paul II
   "...witnessing to the beauty of man created by God...", Pope John Paul
   II.
   "...witnessing to the beauty of man created by God...", Pope John Paul
   II.

   “It seems that Michelangelo, in his own way, allowed himself to be
   guided by the evocative words of the Book of Genesis which, as regards
   the creation of the human being, male and female, reveals: "The man and
   his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame". The Sistine Chapel
   is precisely - if one may say so - the sanctuary of the theology of the
   human body. In witnessing to the beauty of man created by God as male
   and female, it also expresses in a certain way, the hope of a world
   transfigured, the world inaugurated by the Risen Christ……”

   Michelangelo

   "Whatever beauty here on earth is seen,

   To meet the longing and perceptive eye,

   Is semblance of that source divine,

   From whence we all are come.

   In this alone we catch a glimpse of Heaven."

Restoration

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