The Sistine Chapel (2)

8/6/2019 The Sistine Chapel (2)

1/10

THE SISTINE CHAPEL


2/10

Introduction

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

His life as an architect, artist, philosopher etc

The Sistine Chapel

Location

The relation between Michelangelo and the Christian Church

The Masterpiece

Timeline

Visitors

The afterlife of Michelangelo

Conclusions


3/10

Thesis Argumentation

From all the great work of Michelangelo I chose the Sistine Chapel since it is one of the great

works not only because of the beauty, but as well because of the time it took to finish, the bid

dimension of this work, the challenge of a sculptor artist to dare creating such a masterpiecewhich was not related to his work.

The Sistine Chapel is worth to be studied because of the art used on it, the figures which were

unknown for that period and the challenge to paint inside a Chapel nude figures, which brought

many discussions and protests.

Being the Sistine Chapel a masterpiece created by only one artist is another reason why everyone

should be interested on it.

Introduction

Michelangelo is one of the most known and great artists of all times; his name has been always

related with the word masterpiece. He was born on March 6, 1475 and died on February 18,

1564.

At age of 13 Michelangelo started to apprentice at the workshop of the painter Domenico

Ghirlandaio and after one year of studying the art of fresco, he started studying sculpture in the

Medici gardens and he was shortly noticed by Lorenzo de Medici, the Magnificent who later

invited him into his household. During his visit there he became acquainted with humanists such

as Marsilo Ficino and the poet Angelo Poliziano. 1

A unexpected interest on human anatomy made him ask permission to study corpses, which was

strictly forbidden by the Church; very soon he was obliged to abandon this activity since hestarted facing health problems.

1http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html
http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.htmlhttp://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html


4/10

By the age of 16, Michelangelo produced two relief sculptures, the Battle of the Centaurs and the

Madonna of the Stairs. This showed clearly that he had started to differentiate from others by

achieving a personal style.

In 1942, Lorenzo the Magnificent died, so Michelangelo went to Rome. Soon after his arrival he

produced the first large-scale sculpture Bacchus which was a pagan sculpture. At the same time

he did the Marble Pieta. In the Marble Pieta is shown the youthful Mary seated majestically

holding the dead Christ across her lap. Instead of revealing extreme grief, Mary is restrained and

her expression is one of resignation.

The marble was placed in Saint Peter, and the rumors were saying that it was Christoforo Solari

the artist that made it, so that night Michelangelo took a hammer and a chisel and placed the

inscription MICHEL ANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENT FACIBAT (Michelangelo

Buonarroti, Florentine made this); the inscription was with capital letters and was placed across

Marys breast and this is the only work ever signed by Michelangelo.

After his return to Florence he produced his giant marble David, who was used by him as a

model of heroic courage related to the latest difficult period that Florence was facing. The

message that he wanted to pass to people was that the inner spiritual strength can be more

effective that arms; the faith in God enabled David to overcome the Israels enemies using a

mere sling, which is as well the only element in the composition which makes us identify the

figure of David.

David was represented as an athletic character, ready to fight, which is shown on his worried

look and in his right hand a stone. As I mentioned above the creation of David came as a result

of the difficulties of that period and Michelangelo wanted the people to start taking

responsibilities and commit to accomplish their duties.

David was the sculpture that made Michelangelo surpass not only all the modern artists but alsothe Greek and Romans, since it was a sculpture which had both beauty and meaning.

While working with David, Michelangelo started working on a mural, the Battle of Cascina

which would be placed at the Sala dei Cinquecento of the Palazzo Vecchio. The assignment was

given to other artists as well but neither of them managed to finish it; what Michelangelo did is


5/10

to create different figures nude or dressed in many positions, which will then be used as well to

his next major project The Sistine Chapel.

3 year after finishing the Last Judgment, Michelangelo met a very strong and with high influence

woman Vittoria Colona and a very deep friendship, some can say deep love developed. She was

his inspiration for his finest lyric poems which described admiration and devotion to a superior

woman. Later on his poems changed to a more passionate style.

Michelangelo wrote many poems in the 1530s and 1540s. The earlier poems are on the theme of

Neoplatonic love (belief that the soul comes from a single undivided source to which it can unite

again) and are full of logical contradictions and intricate images. The later poems are Christian.

Their mood is penitent (being sorrow and regretful); and they are written in a simple, direct style.

2

Michelangelo greatest achievement as an architect was the St. Peters Basilica, where he was the

chief architect in 1546. The initial plan was designed by Donato Bramante but until the end it

was constructed according to Michelangelo idea. He was 70 years old when he accepted this

assignment; although he had a great pressure from the Pope to accept the assignment he did it

because he considered it as his duty and mission to God and he didnt accept any payment for the

job done.

At the last years of life he worked on his last sculptures, one of which was Pieta, which was

carved for his own tomb. Once finished, he didnt like it and destroyed it with a hammer

breaking off a leg and an arm from the figure of Christ and one hand from the figure of Virgins

Mary.

2http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Michelangelo.html
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Michelangelo.htmlhttp://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Michelangelo.html


6/10

The Sistine Chapel

The Sistine Chapel is located within the Vatican Museums in Rome, Italy.

On April 1508 Michelangelo was contacted to start a new job, which had nothing to do with

sculpture, but with painting; Michelangelo refused the project but the Pope Julius II forced him

to accept the assignment.

The ceiling is about 40 meters long by 13 meters wide. These numbers are rounded off just a tad,

but don't detract from the fact that Michelangelo painted well over 460 m of frescoes.3

Michelangelo created a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall, high

up near the top of the windows. He lay on this scaffolding while he painted.4

Between the years 1508-1512 Michelangelo painted almost 300 figures on the ceiling of the

Sistine Chapel, which are the greatest images of all the time.5

Understanding the major work, he asked for the assistance of Giuliano Bugardini, Aristotele da

Sangallo and Francesco Granacci and many labors, which after continuous disagreements he

fired and took the entire responsibility on him.

He removed all the work done with his assistants and started from the beginning; he was not

allowing anyone to see his work but the Pope. Everyone was pressuring him to disclose it, so he

made it available for everyone before the official finish.

The effect of this masterpiece was enormous; many of the artists of that time were clearly

influenced by the style of Michelangelo.

Working so rigorously on the project, affect him physically and emotionally; it was impossible

for his friends to meet him and he recall that although he was only 37 years at time, he was

looking like an old man.

3http://arthistory.about.com/od/famous_paintings/a/sischap_ceiling.htm4http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel5http://www.svcc.edu/academics/classes/murray/Ezine/sistine.html
http://arthistory.about.com/od/famous_paintings/a/sischap_ceiling.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapelhttp://www.svcc.edu/academics/classes/murray/Ezine/sistine.htmlhttp://arthistory.about.com/od/famous_paintings/a/sischap_ceiling.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapelhttp://www.svcc.edu/academics/classes/murray/Ezine/sistine.html


7/10

The Sistine ceiling is divided in nine scenes which include nine stories from the Genesis; it starts

with God separating Light from Darkness, the creation of Adam and Eve, the temptation of

Adam and Eve and even the Flood.

The scenes are painted in reverse order from the altar to the entrance; the corners of the ceiling

are decorated by ignudi or male nudes which for the time that they were painted were very

controversial.

In total, Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel includes:6

9 scenes from Genesis

4 corner pendentives

4 pairs of bronze nudes above the pendentives

8 triangular spandrels with pairs of bronze nudes

7 prophets (4 major: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel;

and 3 minor: Zechariah, Joel and Jonah)

5 sibyls

20 ignudi

10 medallions

After Michelangelo had finished his work on the Sistine Chapel he wrote a poem of his agony

during the painting of this Sistine Chapel. 7

I've got myself a goiter from this strain,

As water gives the cats in Lombardy

Or maybe it is in some other country;

My belly's pushed by force beneath my chin.

6http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-sistine-chapel

7http://www.svcc.edu/academics/classes/murray/Ezine/sistine.html
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-sistine-chapelhttp://www.svcc.edu/academics/classes/murray/Ezine/sistine.htmlhttp://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/rome-sistine-chapelhttp://www.svcc.edu/academics/classes/murray/Ezine/sistine.html


8/10

My beard toward Heaven, I feel the back of my brain

Upon my neck, I grow the breast of a Harpy;

My brush, above my face continually,

Makes a splendid floor by dripping down.

My Lins have penetrated to my paunch,

My rump's a crupper, as a counterweight,

And pointless the unseeing steps I go.

In front of me my skin is being stretched

While it folds up behind and forms a knot,

And I am bending like a Syrian bow.

And judgment, hence must grow,

Borne in mind, peculiar and untrue;

You cannot shoot well when the gun's askew.

John, come to the rescue

Of my dead painting now, and of my honor;

I'm not in a good place, and I'm no painter.

The Last Judgment is located in the Sistine Chapel, above the altar. It took six years to

complete. Michelangelo began working on it three decades after finishing the ceiling of the

Chapel.8

8http://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/sistine-chapel-last-judgement.html
http://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/sistine-chapel-last-judgement.htmlhttp://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/sistine-chapel-last-judgement.html


9/10

The painting depicts the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse, as Michelangelo imagines

it. In contrast to the other frescoes in the Chapel, the figures used at the Last judgment are

different, with more muscles and they look tortured.

The last judgment was the most disputed project of Michelangelo since he was accused of

immorality, having included naked figures with their genitals in evidence; it was organized even

an anti-campaign from Cardinal Carafa against the fresco fro Michelangelo to remove the

frescoes. Later on the genitals on the fresco were covered by another artist Daniele da Volterra

who took the nickname the breeches painter. 9

The afterlife

Michelangelo Buonarroti died, on February 18th, 1564, after a "slow fever." In his will he left

only three sentences his soul to God, his body to the earth, and his material possessions to his

nearest relations10

Talking about material possessions there wasnt too much left since he had burned great part of

his work.

After his death the work at St.Peters continued and the concept he had on the baroque style was

completed.

His work is of a great architectural worth and monetary value, because it attracts million of

visitors every year who pay to see or take pictures of his masterpieces.

Conclusions

9http://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/sistine-chapel-last-judgement.html10http://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html
http://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/sistine-chapel-last-judgement.htmlhttp://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.htmlhttp://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.htmlhttp://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.htmlhttp://www.moodbook.com/history/renaissance/sistine-chapel-last-judgement.htmlhttp://www.michelangelo.com/buon/bio-index2.html


10/10

Michelangelo is considered as the genius of marble and paint even after so many years after his

death. His work has been attacked but he still remains one of the most great painters, sculptors

and architects of all times.

His influence on many artists of the Renaissance was major. Michelangelo is the first artist for

whom two great writers such as Condivi and Visari wrote the biography during his lifetime.

Although his work was considered to be too immoral for the Church, he was committed from

the Pope to work on his greatest works.

Documents

The Sistine Chapel (2)