Sistine Chapel ceiling
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 which includes 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 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.
History
Michelangelo was commissioned in 1505 by Pope Julius II to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, around the upper wall oof which there already existed a complex scheme of paintings illustrating the Life of Christ and the Life of Moses. It had been carried out by a number 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, at the time, working upon 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 himsellf a powerful military leader, and Michelangelo fled from Rome to continue sculpting. The tomb sculptures, however, were never to be finished.
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.
Among the many poems written by Michelangelo there is one describing the experience of spending many long hours painting the ceiling, the strain of bending bacward with his arms raised and the paint dripping onto his face. He was left with neck and back problems the for rest of his life. Contrary to popular belief he painted in a standing position, not lying on his back.
The 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, high up near the top of the windows, rather than being built up from the floor which would have involved a massive structure. He stood on this scaffolding while he painted. The scaffolding did not occupy the area of the entire ceiling. The evidence of the painting itself is that it was painted in three stages, beginning with that nearest the entrance, then the central section and finally the chancel area.
The technique employed was fresco, in which the paint is applied to damp plaster. Michelangelo was well experienced with this method of painting, having been trained in the workshop of Ghirlandaio, one of the most competent and prolific of the Florentine fresco painters who completed a number of important fresco cycles in churches in Florence and whose work was represented on the walls of the Sistine Chapel.
When the first layer of plaster began to grow mold because it was too wet, Michelangelo had to remove it and start again. He then tried a new mixture of plaster, called intonaco, created by one of his assistants, Jacopo l’Indaco. This resisted mold, and entered the Italian building tradition and 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,[5] while on others a grid is evident, indicating that he enlarged directly onto the ceiling from a small drawing.
The fresco technique was tricky. If the artist worked onto completely dry plaster, then every brushstroke sank in immediately. It was a meticulous undertaking because the pigment could not be easily manipulated. Michelangelo painted onto 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, his techniques show the skill that one would expect of Ghirlandaio’s greatest pupil. He employed all the finest workshop methods, the newest innovations and a diversity of brushwork and breadth of skill of which the meticulous and accurate Ghirlandaio was not capable. Because he was painting a fresco on fresh plaster, 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 bright colours and broad, cleanly-defined outlines make each subject easily visible from the floor. Despite the height of the ceiling (over twenty meters), 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 dark and murky. The long restoration (1981 through 1994) has removed the filter of grime to reveal the full quality of the paintings again.
Subject matter
The subject matter of the ceiling is the doctrine of Humankind’s need for Salvation as offered by God in Jesus through the Church.
In other words, the ceiling illustrates that God made the World as a perfect creation and put Humankind into it, Humankind[7] 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 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.
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 that stood 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.
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 familar 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 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 contradicted by modern scholarship and others of which continue to defy interpretation.
Section reference
Plans of the ceiling
Architectural plan
Pictorial plan
Description
Architecture
Nine pictorial 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 live and where they walk with God. The third group of three pictures shows the plight of a 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 Medieval paintings and stained glass. [10] The three Creation pictures show, in the first scene, God creating light and separating light from darkness. Chronologically, the next scene takes place in the third panel, in which God divides the waters from the heavens. In the central panel, the largest of the three, there are two representations of God. In the first, God creates the Earth and makes it sprout plants. In the second, God puts the Sun and the Moon in place to govern the night and the day, the time and the seasons of the year.
Closest to the door of the chapel is the drunkenness of Noah; God separating light from darkness is at the opposite end, closest to the altar. They were painted in this order, with Michelangelo said to have painted the last scene, the separation of light and darkness, in only one day. When viewing the frescoes in the chronological order of their creation, the increased freedom of composing and handling is apparent. They are designed to all appear the right way up when viewed from the sanctuary. This is the order of the scenes from the altar towards the main entrance:
1. The Separation of Light and Dark
2. The Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Planets
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 Flood
9. Drunkenness of Noah
The Ignudi
The Ignudi (singular: ignudo; from the Italian adjective nudo, meaning “naked”) are the 20 athletic, nude male figures that Michelangelo painted at the four corners of the five smaller scenes of Creation. Because they were not relevant to the themes of the piece, Michelangelo’s ignudi outraged several pontiffs.
Most of the figures are surrounded by a huge garland of oak leaves, and clustered about them are thousands of acorns resembling the penis, or “prickhead”, in Tuscan slang (testa di cazzo). The most likely reason for their abundance is that Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work, was of the della Rovere family (”of the Oak”): they function as, perhaps, Michelangelo’s allusion to his patron.
There are many speculations about the meaning of the ignudi, none of them definitive. Considering that Michelangelo regularly employed male models even for his female figures, they could represent Michelangelo’s concept of the human potential for perfection. Again, this could be interpreted through the classical Greek view that “the man is the measure of all things”.
Seven prophets
Seven prophets from the Old Testament were depicted on the ceiling, with Zechariah on the entrance end, Jonah on the chapel end, Joel, Ezechiel and Jeremiah on one of the long sides; and Isaiah and Daniel on the other. The four major prophets Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel and Isaiah are diagonally opposite each other in that order from the chapel end towards the entrance, while the other three are seen as minor prophets. The sibyls are arranged between the prophets. Each of the prophets is identified by name, painted beneath them as if incised on a coloured marble panel, as transcribed here in brackets.
The seven prophets shown are:
* Daniel (DANIEL)
* Ezekiel (EZECHIEL)
* Isaiah (ESAIAS)
* Jeremiah (HIEREMIAS)
* Joel (IOEL)
* Jonah (IONAS) - on the opposite end to Zechariah
* Zechariah (ZACHERIAS) - the first painting Michelangelo did, on the entrance end of the chapel
Five sibyls
The sibyls are 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. Three of the sibyls (Libyan, Cumaean and Delphican) are on one side, separated by the prophets Daniel and Isaiah. The remaining sibyls (Erythraean and Persian) are on the other side, with the prophet Ezechiel between them. Each sibyl is identified by her locality, which is painted on a panel below the picture as shown in the brackets here.
The sibyls are:
* Delphic Sibyl. (DELPHICA)
* Libyan Sibyl (LIBICA)
* Persian Sibyl (PERSICHA)
* Cumaean Sibyl. (CVMAEA)
* Erythraean Sibyl. (ERITHRAEA)
Pendentives
The corners or “Pendentives” show scenes which may relate to the people of Israel being saved, such as David slaying the Philistine Goliath, Judith cutting the head off Holofernes, Haman punished for plotting against the Jews, and Moses erecting the bronze serpent:
* Haman’s punishment
* The Brazen serpent
* David and Goliath
* Judith and Holofernes
The ancestors of Christ
There are eight triangular areas, or “webs”, above the arched windows of the chapel, four on each side. They were painted with scenes:
* Baby Solomon
* Parents of future King Jesse
* Baby Roboam with Solomon
* Asa (baby)
* Ozias (baby)
* Ezekias (baby)
* Zorobabel (baby)
* Josiah (baby)
Other
In addition, there were many minor figures around the chapel ceiling; each of the eight triangular areas have two orangish figures sitting on top of them, sixteen in all. There are ten painted columns on each of the long sides, two on each short side, each one having two white nude young male figures, making a total of 48 in all. Other smaller figures appear behind the prophets and sibyls. Further figures were painted lower down holding the tablets which have the prophets’ and sibyls’ names on them.
Quotation
A close-up view
In an article that appeared in the March 5, 2006 Sunday Times of London (”The Michelangelo Code”), 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. It means something along the lines of: how would you like this inserted into your rectum, ragazzo?”
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