By Aby Sam Thomas
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. | Photo by Anam Siddiq.
“I cannot tell you how much I wished you were here, for until you have seen the Sistine Chapel, you can have no adequate conception of what man is capable of accomplishing,” said the German poet, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, when he visited Rome in 1786. It has been more than 200 years since Goethe made that statement, but those words are the best way I can describe my feeling today after our visit to the Sistine Chapel.
Elizabeth Lev, an art historian who has been giving guided tours of the Vatican Museum for over thirty years, told us that while the Sistine Chapel may not be much to look at from the outside, the reason why 4.5 million visitors come to the museum each year is to see the grandeur of the interior of the church. While it has several frescoes completed by groundbreaking Renaissance artists Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino and others gracing the walls, it was clear that the majority of the people in the chapel were, like us, throwing their heads back and gazing open-mouthed at Michelangelo’s masterpiece on the ceiling.
Michelangelo was originally asked by Pope Julius II to paint the 12 apostles on the ceiling, but he refused to do so. Michelangelo, the sculptor of the Pietà and of David considered painting, a lower art form. As a compromise between himself and the Pope, Michelangelo was allowed to choose scenes from the Bible that he wished to paint, which led to the famous depictions of episodes from the Book of Genesis on the Chapel’s ceiling.
As Lev pointed out, Michelangelo used his background in sculpture in his paintings, staying true to his form of art. Every scene on the ceiling was telling a story — you could see the churning of the energies as God created the world, echoing the arm and body gestures representative of Troy’s Laocoon, or how Adam and Eve looked blanched and tired as compared to their relaxed beauty before they were expelled from the Garden of Eden. The ceiling, which was once just a starry sky, is now populated by 300 or more of Michelangelo’s animated figures, each displaying his mastery of the use of color, light and shadow.
But Michelangelo’s talent doesn’t stop with just the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. “The Last Judgment,” the massive fresco behind the altar, plays second fiddle to his famous ceiling in many people’s minds, but it shows the celebration of the human form in sculpture channeled into Christian teachings like never before. Jesus, beardless and muscular, has a face that resembles that of the statue of Apollo in the Cortile del Belvedere.
In "The Last Judgment," Michelangelo paints Jesus' face which resembles that of the statue of Apollo in the Cortile del Belvedere, pictured here. | Photo by Aby Sam Thomas.
In Michelangelo’s original version of “The Last Judgement,” the figures were all painted in the nude. However, thanks to Biagio da Cesena, a cardinal who found the genitalia on the fresco offensive to his senses, an apprentice of Michelangelo, Daniele da Volterra, was commissioned to cover up all the “sacrilegious” imagery. However, Michelangelo had the last laugh, by making sure that at the bottom right of the painting denoting hell, a figure with a striking resemblance to the said cardinal was portrayed with unmistakably large donkey ears.
Michelangelo’s fondness toward sculpture can also be seen in his design for the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. The dome’s structure was representative of the human form, with the curvature of the dome indicative of strong, well-rounded shoulders and the apex resting on the dome as a proud and regal head. It was the last of Michelangelo’s many everlasting gifts to the Church. He accepted no money for it and, instead, hoped that his reward would be the salvation of his soul.
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