Tag Archives: Michelangelo

Art

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling (1512)

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Well, I sup­pose it had to hap­pen soon­er or lat­er, what with the Cre­ation of Adam being astride the top of these blogs week in, week out: it’s time to look at that apex preda­tor of the Renais­sance art world, and num­ber one cause of vis­i­tors’ neck strain, the Sis­tine Chapel. No vis­it to Rome is com­plete with­out it, and per­haps no blog on the sub­lime can afford to omit it.

First, a whis­tle-stop his­to­ry tour: Sis­tine Chapel 101, if you like. Meet Pope Six­tus IV, pope between 1471 and 1484:

Pope Six­tus IV

It was Six­tus (adjec­tive “Sis­tine” in case you need that mansplained) who com­mis­sioned the build­ing of the chapel, which was com­plet­ed in 1481 and has served ever since as the Pope’s offi­cial res­i­dence. Six­tus is also known for found­ing the Span­ish Inqui­si­tion, but that’s anoth­er sto­ry, let’s stick with the chapel. He arranged for a team of painters (not Michelan­ge­lo yet — he comes lat­er — but includ­ing two oth­er famous names, Bot­ti­cel­li and Ghirlan­diao) to cre­ate a series of fres­coes on the walls, depict­ing the lives of Moses and Jesus.

Fast for­ward to 1508 and Pope Julius II is in charge (Julius was a rel­a­tive of Six­tus: nepo­tism was anoth­er of Sixtus’s strong suits):

Pope Julius II

Julius com­mis­sioned Michelan­ge­lo to com­plete the dec­o­ra­tion of the chapel by paint­ing the ceil­ing, which he com­plet­ed four years lat­er in 1512. This was a project that changed the course of West­ern art and is right­ly regard­ed as one of the crown­ing artis­tic accom­plish­ments of human civil­i­sa­tion. Replete with bib­li­cal scenes,  sto­ries and char­ac­ters, the ceil­ing is a riotous col­lec­tion of limbs and draperies, at first glance, and indeed a pho­to of the ceil­ing does­n’t real­ly do it jus­tice — but giv­en time to appre­ci­ate (whilst not bump­ing into fel­low tourists), it is an artis­tic tour de force that war­rants its fame. Click on these images to expand; the first to spot the Cre­ation of Adam wins a prize…

Art

Michelangelo’s Pietà (1499)

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The Vir­gin Mary has fea­tured prodi­gious­ly in Chris­t­ian art for many cen­turies. There are numer­ous gen­res of her depic­tion includ­ing the famil­iar Madon­na and Child, and the Madon­na Enthroned, the Ador­ing Madon­na, the Madon­na of Humil­i­ty, and sev­er­al oth­ers.  One such, the Pietà (Ital­ian for “pity” or “mer­cy”), is a sub­ject that depicts the sor­row­ing Vir­gin Mary cradling the dead Jesus, and is most often found in sculp­ture. Today’s sub­ject is the Pietà of Michelan­ge­lo, com­plet­ed in 1499 and resid­ing in St Peter’s Basil­i­ca, Vat­i­can City.

There is no doubt­ing the sub­lime genius that cre­at­ed this piece. Carved from a sin­gle block of Car­rara mar­ble, Michelan­ge­lo cre­at­ed, with con­sum­mate skill, a coher­ent and mov­ing piece of art incor­po­rat­ing both Clas­si­cal and Renais­sance ten­den­cies.

The fig­ures are delib­er­ate­ly out of pro­por­tion owing to the dif­fi­cul­ty of depict­ing an adult man cra­dled full-length in a woman’s lap. When design­ing Mary’s mea­sure­ments, Michelan­ge­lo could not impose real­is­tic pro­por­tions and have her cra­dle her adult son as he envi­sioned, so he had to make her body over­sized. To ame­lio­rate this com­pro­mise on her form, Michelan­ge­lo carved out cas­cad­ing sheets of drap­ing gar­ments, cam­ou­flag­ing her true full­ness. The result is a tri­umph of form; observe the mon­u­men­tal drap­ery, the youth­ful face of Mary, the anatom­i­cal treat­ment of Christ’s elon­gat­ed body…

Michelan­ge­lo was 24 when he com­plet­ed this sculp­ture, and his fame became assured long before he com­plet­ed his oth­er mas­ter­pieces such as his David (com­plet­ed 1504) and the Sis­tine Chapel ceil­ing (com­plet­ed 1512)

 

Michelan­gelo’s Pietà