Pope Clement VII decided, like his predecessor Julius II, to perpetuate the memory of himself and wanted a grandiose fresco to be painted on the Main, altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, and in 1534 he settled on the theme of the Last Judgment. Michelangelo was called upon to complete the picturesque decoration of the Sistine Chapel with the image of the “Last Judgment” on its altar wall, and on the opposite wall he was ordered to show, above the main doors, how Lucifer was expelled from heaven for his pride and how all the angels who sinned with him were cast into the depths of hell. him..
Of these two colossal frescoes, only the first was executed, in 1534 - 1541, already under Pope Paul III
On September 25, 1534, Pope Clement VII died. Michelangelo, fortunately for him, was not in Florence at that time. He had lived in constant fear for a long time. Clement VII's nephew, Duke Alessandro, hated him and, if not for the patronage of the pope, would have long ago ordered his death. This hostility increased even more when Michelangelo, not wanting to contribute to the greater enslavement of Florence, refused to build a citadel that would dominate the city.
Michelangelo was very busy and relieved and decided that Pope Clement's order had been cancelled. At the age of sixty, on September 23, 1534, Michelangelo moved to Rome, where he remained until his death, in 1546 he even received Roman citizenship.
It is known that the master returned from time to time to work on the tomb of Pope Julius II, but the last thirty years of Michelangelo’s life were marked by his gradual retreat from sculpture and painting and turning mainly to architecture and poetry.
After the short reign of Pope Andrian, the elderly Paul III of the House of Farnese was elected to the papal throne. Immediately after his election, the new pope summoned Michelangelo, insisting that he work for him and remain with him. He also wanted to immortalize himself and confirmed the order of Pope Clement
But Michelangelo was at that time bound by an agreement with the Duke of Urbino. Hearing this, the angry old man said: “I’ve had this desire for thirty years now; will I really not fulfill it when I become a pope? I will break the contract: I want you to serve me.”
According to Vasari, Michelangelo wanted to flee Rome again, but in the end he “prudently feared the power of the pope” and submitted to him. The power of the Pope is enormous. The punishing sword of the Vatican is terrible for the disobedient. Under the same Paul III, the fires of the Inquisition will blaze in Italy, and the new order of Jesuits with the slogan “The end justifies the means” will soon manifest their cruel activities.
Pope Paul III commissioned Michelangelo to paint the gospel scene of the Last Judgment on the altar wall of the same Sistine Chapel (the order was received in 1533-1534).
Above this fresco is almost two hundred square meters, the largest fresco Renaissance, Michelangelo worked (with some interruptions) for six years, alone, without the participation of assistants.
Many years have passed since the completion of the ceiling frescoes (1508-1512). The master has changed. If early work is dedicated to the first days of creation and glorifies the mighty creative energy of man, then “The Last Judgment” contains the idea of the collapse of the world and retribution for acts committed on earth.
The artist decided to show, retreating from everyone Christian traditions, The Second Coming of Christ is a day of anger, horror, struggle of passions and hopeless despair. He carried out his plan. The fresco evokes horror and delight.
Apocalypse and Dante - these are the sources of the Last Judgment
To implement the plan, it was necessary to prepare the wall. I had to close 2 windows, remove two paintings with relatives of Christ (the work of Michelangelo), 2 frescoes with figures of popes and frescoes by Perugino (baby Moses is found by the river, Adoration of the shepherds who learned about the birth of Christ).
The process of painting with tempera is complex.
The fresco was painted on wet plaster, which sets in ten minutes and requires skill and experience: as soon as the brush, which had been sliding easily before, begins to “harrow” the base and “spread” the paint, the painting stops, since the paint layer will no longer penetrate deep into the base and won't stick.
The layer of plaster that remains unwritten is cut obliquely outward, and the new part is plastered to the previous layer. Only minor corrections are possible; it cannot be remade: the bad places are simply lost and the painting process is repeated.
When starting work, the artist must imagine what the colors he used will become after final drying (after 7 - 10 days). Usually they are greatly highlighted. Artists usually paint 3-4 square meters of wall per day.
In addition, Michelangelo solved the most difficult task - to combine the painting of the altar wall with the previously executed fresco of the vault in such a way as not to interfere with the perception of each of them and at the same time to combine them in one ensemble.
“Born and raised in an era when his humanistic ideals and sense of the naked body could be appreciated... Michelangelo was forced to live in an era that he could not help but despise... His passion was the nude figure, his ideal was strength. But what could he do if stories like “The Last Judgment,” according to the powerful, unshakable laws of the Christian world, were supposed to express humility and sacrifice? But humility and patience were as unfamiliar to Michelangelo as to Dante, as to the creative geniuses of all eras.
Even experiencing these feelings, he would not have been able to express them, for his naked figures are full of power, but not weakness, horror, but not fear, despair, but not submission... “The Last Judgment” is conceived as grandiosely as possible, like the last moment before the disappearance of the universe into chaos, like the dream of the gods before its sunset... For when a catastrophe comes, no one will survive it, not even the supreme deity himself.
Therefore, Michelangelo failed in the concept of this plot, and it could not have been otherwise.
But where else can you, even if you take everything? world art Overall, to feel such a tremendous charge of energy as in that dream, or rather, the giant’s nightmare?”
Bernson
The section is based on materials
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Sistine Chapel, Last Judgment
The artist is again called to the Vatican court. The new proposal is tempting and grandiose: to create a fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel “The Last Judgment”, the day of “God’s wrath”, which was predicted by the prophets and sibyls. On this wall, however, there are already frescoes by Perugino, but they will be sacrificed to clear space for Michelangelo’s new masterpiece.
In 1534, almost a quarter of a century after finishing the painting of the Sistine ceiling, the sculptor began work on one of the most ambitious frescoes in the entire history of world painting. When Michelangelo got used to the idea that he would still have to paint a fresco, when he found himself alone with a giant white wall into which he had to breathe life, he set to work, although at that time he was no longer young. At 60 years old, he looked like a decrepit old man - wrinkled, hunched over, tired. His joints ached, his teeth hurt, and he suffered from migraines and neuralgia. 
This time the master is working on a giant fresco (200 sq.m.) all alone, without assistants. It works like a well-oiled clockwork mechanism. For five years, day after day, Michelangelo leaves his house on one of the dirty streets of Rome at dawn, rides on horseback to the Vatican and returns back late at night. He still lives as an ascetic and a poor man, although by that time Pope Paul III had made him the first architect, sculptor and artist of the Vatican and awarded him a high salary. However, the most famous and highly paid master of his time did not change even this habit - he wears out his dress to rags.
In his famous fresco Michelangelo decisively breaks with tradition. And the first violation is that the Last Judgment appears here on the altar (eastern!!!) wall instead of the western, as it has always been. True, this was the instruction of the pope himself.
While working on the vault of the chapel, Michelangelo showed himself to be an innovator in fresco painting. His methods of work were completely new, unexpected and bold. He himself invented new colors. He makes the wall of the fresco slightly inclined towards the floor; Thanks to this, the picture is better visible and less dust settles on it. 400 figures (each up to 2.5 m high) were conceived by Michelangelo for the composition of “The Last Judgment”. And so they gradually take shape, filling the entire space of the fresco.
How different the master’s new creation is from the one created 30 years ago! Then - an explosion of color, a richness of shades of pink when depicting the human body. Now - sparing color, muted tones... But it has become even more powerful creative genius artist! 
From the biblical texts, the program for Michelangelo was a fragment from the Gospel of Matthew: “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and He will send His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”
Michelangelo's Christ - young, beardless and naked - appears rather in the image of an ancient god, similar to Jupiter. The concept of "Christ - Jupiter" was known to Dante.
The medieval “Last Judgments” represented a firmly established hierarchy of Earth, Heaven and Hell, in which all figures, even those who appear at the Judgment resurrected, appear traditionally dressed according to their social status. Christ, the Virgin Mary, the apostles - they were all depicted on thrones in heaven. Michelangelo depicts a general scene without thrones, without insignia of status, with naked figures.
In the fresco, Michelangelo depicted a truly terrible court, where a formidable judge summoned both the living and the dead for retribution. Vasari writes: “Christ sits in the center. He turned his menacing and unyielding face towards the sinners, cursing them, to the great horror of the Madonna, who, cowered in her cloak, hears and sees all this destruction.” Reading these words of a man XVI century, it does not hurt to remember that, according to the ideas of that time, the Madonna was an intercessor. She turned away in confusion, unable to do anything to save humanity. It is not mercy or condescension that reigns here, but the terrible and inexorable law of retribution. It is not easy to understand the composition of this gigantic fresco, the crowds of naked, athletic people in bizarre poses and angles.
Top of the fresco on both sides, under the arches of the vault, it is occupied by images of equal size, as if lifted by a hurricane onto the clouds. These are all the instruments of passion (torture) of Jesus Christ (a sign of the sacrifice of Christ, which he made for the salvation of mankind).
On the left we see the cross (a symbol of martyrdom and humiliation) on which he was crucified, on the right - a column (a symbol of passing earthly power), near which he was scourged. Around them are several free-floating nude figures holding a sponge, nails and a crown in the air.
The center of the whole composition is the figure of Christ (the judge) with his right hand raised. Next to him is a drooping and mournful Madonna. Compassionate, as if depressed by what is happening, Madonna turns away, human sorrows are close to her in a motherly way. Around them are powerful figures forming a semblance of a crown (a crowd of preachers, prophets, patriarchs, sibyls, heroes of the Old Testament, martyrs and saints).
To the right of Christ we see a giant figure of the Apostle Peter with gold and silver keys (he is the founder of the Christian church in Rome). Next to him is the Apostle Paul.
To the right of the apostles are the martyrs with the instruments of their torture (symbols of the suffering they endured for their faith): Andrew with a cross, Sebastian with arrows in his hand - according to legend, the pagan Roman imperial guards threw arrows at him, Catherine with a cogwheel - between two of these the saint was, according to legend, torn apart by wheels with spikes by order of the Roman prefect in Alexandria (modern Egypt), Lawrence with a grate on which he was roasted alive by the verdict of the Roman court in pagan Rome, the capital of the empire; with iron bars...
One detail of “The Last Judgment” testifies to the gloomy mood of the master at that time. At the left foot of Christ there is a figure of St. Bartholomew, holding a scraper in one hand and his own skin in the other (he was martyred and skinned alive). The saint's facial features are reminiscent of Pietro Aretino, who passionately attacked Michelangelo because he considered his interpretation of a religious subject indecent. The face on the removed skin of St. Bartholomew is a self-portrait of the artist himself.
To the left of Christ the same gigantic figure as Peter stands out. She is usually called Adam (the founder of the human race). Around her there are also figures of the righteous. The group of righteous people contains female saints, martyrs and sibyls, the most important female characters Old Testament. The huge figure protecting the kneeling girl is usually considered Eve. She stands out for her humanity and touchingness; a young girl fell to her knees in search of salvation.
The bottom of the fresco, in turn, is divided into five parts: in the center, angels with trumpets and books announce the Last Judgment; shown below on the left resurrection of the dead, above - the ascension of the righteous; at the top right is the capture of sinners by devils, at the bottom is hell.
Below the central group- a cloud with angels described by the Evangelist John. Seven angels blow the trumpets of the Apocalypse, calling for judgment, and two angels hold in their hands the books of lives (books of good and evil deeds) with the names of those who have found eternal salvation and those who are doomed to the torments of hell. Angels awaken the dead with the sound of trumpets.
To the left of the cloud with angels Below is an image of the ground with the dead emerging from their graves. Some of them are only skeletons, the bones of others have begun to be covered with flesh, and still others (the righteous) are already ascending to heaven. Angels and righteous people help them rise.
To the right of the cloud with angels- the condemned are thrown into hell, they are dragged along by the devils. Wingless angels drive sinners into hell with their fists. A sinner whose legs are pulled by the devils makes a great impression; covering one eye with his hand, he looks at what is happening around him with the other eye, full of despair and horror.
In the center is the entrance to purgatory, where several demons are eagerly awaiting new sinners.
A hellish abyss yawns in the depths. In the group of overthrown sinners, a figure flying head down with keys stands out, which, as is known, is a symbol of papal power. This figure was seen as a dad Nicholas III, who introduced simony (the sale of church positions).
The bottom of the fresco on the right is occupied by the image of hell. The dark figure of the ferryman across the hellish river, Charon, is placed here; he ferociously expels those condemned to eternal torment from his boat into hell with blows of the oar. Michelangelo was inspired by this impressive scene from Dante's Divine Comedy:
Naked souls huddled by the river,
Having heeded the sentence that knows no withdrawal;
Chatting teeth, pale with melancholy,
They shouted curses at the Lord...
And the demon Charon calls together a flock of sinners,
Rotating your gaze like coals in the ashes,
And he drives them away and hits the unhurried ones with an oar.
(Translation by M. Lozinsky)
Despite the fantastic nature of the plot, the deep realism of Michelangelo’s art, well noted by Surikov, was reflected here too. He wrote: “I cannot forget the excellent grouping on the boat at the bottom of the Last Judgment painting.” It’s completely natural, whole, strong, exactly as it happens in reality.”
Devils in a joyful frenzy drag the naked bodies of the proud, heretics, traitors... men and women throw themselves into a bottomless abyss.
Arrival of sinners in Hell. The fearsome Minos rules here. He indicates the severity of the guilt of sinners by moving his tail - this is the number of circles of hell assigned to them as punishment.
Minos is depicted in the very corner on the right. Judge of souls with donkey ears (symbol of ignorance) and a snake entwined around him. In Minos, contemporaries saw a portrait of the papal master of ceremonies, and this is what Vasari says about this:
“Michelangelo had already completed more than three-quarters of his work when Pope Paul came to look at it; Along with him came Messer Biagio da Cesena, the master of ceremonies, who, when asked how he found this work, burst out with abuse: “It is complete shamelessness to depict naked people in such a sacred place, who, without shame, show their private parts; such a work is suitable for baths and taverns, and not for the papal chapel.”
Usually sharp-tongued, this time Michelangelo remained silent, and yet took revenge on the bigot with his characteristic humor: he depicted the venerable prelate in hell, in the form of Minos, with a large snake coiled around his feet, among a heap of devils. No matter how much Messer Biagio da Cesena asked the pope and the artist to destroy this image, the latter preserved it, so that you can still see it.”
Behind the figures of Adam and St. Peter, standing on either side of Christ, two figures are visible crawling on all fours. Behind Adam is the head of a gray-bearded old man in a red robe with a hood, similar to Paul III, as we know him from Titian’s portraits. Behind Peter is the head of an elderly man in green robes and with a sharp, fox-like face, probably Clement VII, whose portraits were painted by Raphael and Sebastiano del Piombo. Among the crowds depicted by Michelangelo, possible portraits of Dante, Beatrice, Vittoria Colonna and some of his other contemporaries were also found.
“The Last Judgment” aroused admiration among many and... fierce criticism from some.
Vasari’s story about the words uttered by Biagio da Cesena is not fiction: by order of the pope, even during Michelangelo’s lifetime (at the beginning of 1564, 20 years after the creation of the fresco), other artists were ordered to draw draperies in the “Last Judgment” so that they covered the nudity . The painter Daniele da Volterra, who took on this task, was given the contemptuous nickname “bracetone” by his contemporaries (from “bracca” - pants, literally “underwear”), with which he went with until his death. But, of course, the fresco suffered great damage. But the great artist never had a chance to see this: he died, just shy of 96 years old.
It should also be remembered that in 1590, Pope Clement VIII intended to knock down the entire “Last Judgment”, since the veils made were not enough for him. Fortunately, this barbaric project was not carried out: painters from the Roman Academy of St. Luke managed to dissuade the pope.
Our maestro wrote this sonnet while working on “The Last Judgment.”
Grace was revealed to my eyes,
When they saw the imperishable fire
And the face is divine and inspired
The one with whom I am proud to be related.If we were not to match the Lord in soul,
We would be mired in despicable worthlessness,
And we are captivated by the beauty of the Universe,
And we strive to know the secret of eternity.I say to you, who live only in vain,
Oh, how short this mortal life is,
And the impulses of love are fleeting.In a friendly union of mind and soul
Man will find salvation -
Those bonds on earth and in heaven are eternal.
Michelangelo's fame exceeded any expectations. Immediately after the consecration of the Last Judgment fresco, pilgrims from all over Italy and even from abroad rushed to the Sistine Chapel. “And this serves as an example in our art great painting, sent down by the earthly god, so that they could see how fate guides the minds of the highest order that descended to earth, absorbing grace and divine wisdom” (Vasari).
Encyclopedic YouTube
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Michelangelo, "The Last Judgment"
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Diary of a Genius. Michelangelo Buonarroti. Part I. Diary of a Genius. Michelangelo. Part I
"The Mysteries of Michelangelo" documentary film
Sculpture. Michelangelo's David.
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History of creation
Clement VII
In 1533, Michelangelo was working in Florence on various projects in San Lorenzo for Pope Clement VII. On September 22 of this year, the artist went to San Miniato to meet the pope. Perhaps it was then that the Pope expressed a desire for Michelangelo to paint the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel on the theme of “The Last Judgment.” In this way, the thematic completion of the cycles of paintings on scenes from the Old and New Testaments that decorated the chapel would have been achieved.
Probably, the pope wanted his name to stand in line with the names of his predecessors: Sixtus IV, who commissioned Florentine artists in the 1480s to create cycles of frescoes based on the stories of Moses and Christ, Julius II, whose pontificate Michelangelo painted ceiling (1508-1512) and Leo X, at whose request the chapel was decorated with tapestries based on the cardboards of Raphael (c. 1514-1519). To be among the pontiffs who took part in the founding and decoration of the chapel, Clement VII was ready to call on Michelangelo, despite the fact that the elderly artist worked for him in Florence without the same energy and with the involvement of an increasing number of assistants from among his students.
It is unknown when the artist entered into a formal contract, but in September 1534 he arrived from Florence in Rome to begin work on the new work (and to continue work on the tomb of Julius II). A few days later dad died. Michelangelo, believing that the order had lost its relevance, left the papal court and took up other projects.
By order of the pope, frescoes painted in the 15th century and early 16th century were to be hidden new painting. This was the first “intervention” in the history of the chapel in a complex of images that were thematically related to each other: Finding Moses, Ascension of the Virgin Mary with the kneeling Sixtus IV and Christmas, as well as portraits of some popes between the windows and two lunettes from the cycle of frescoes on the ceiling of the chapel with the ancestors of Jesus, painted by Michelangelo more than twenty years ago.
During the preparatory work, the configuration of the altar wall was changed using brickwork: it was given a slope into the room (its top protrudes approximately 38 cm). In this way, they tried to avoid dust settling on the surface of the fresco during work. Two windows located in the altar wall were also sealed. Destruction of the old frescoes must have been a difficult decision; in the first preparatory drawings Michelangelo tried to preserve part of the existing wall decoration, but then, in order to maintain the integrity of the composition in the spatial abstraction of the limitless sky, he had to abandon this too. Surviving sketches (one in the Bayonne Museum Bonnet, one in the Casa Buonarroti and one in the British Museum) highlight the artist's work on the fresco in development. Michelangelo abandoned the usual division of the composition into two worlds in iconography, but interpreted the theme of the Last Judgment in his own way. He built an extremely dynamic rotational movement from the mass of chaotically intertwined bodies of righteous and sinners, the center of which was Christ the Judge.
When the wall was ready for painting, a dispute arose between Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo, until then a friend and colleague of the master. Del Piombo, who found support in this matter from the pope, argued that for the sixty-year-old Michelangelo, working in pure fresco technique would be physically difficult, and suggested preparing the surface for painting oil paint. Michelangelo categorically refused to carry out the order in any other technique than “pure fresco,” saying that painting a wall with oils was “an activity for women and rich lazy people like Fra Bastiano.” He insisted that the already completed oil base be removed and a layer intended for fresco painting be applied. According to archival documents, work on preparation for painting continued from January to March 1536. The execution of the fresco painting was delayed for several months due to the acquisition of the necessary paints, mainly very expensive blue, the quality of which was fully approved by the artist.
The scaffolding was installed and Michelangelo began painting in the summer of 1536. In November of the same year, the pope, in order to free Michelangelo from his obligations to the heirs of Julius II, mainly Guidobaldo della Rovere, issued a motu proprio, which gave the artist time to complete the Judgment without being distracted by other orders. In 1540, as work on the fresco was nearing completion, Michelangelo fell from the scaffolding and needed a month's break to recover.
The artist, as during the period of work on the ceiling of the chapel, painted the wall himself, using help only in preparing the paint and in applying the preparatory layer of plaster for painting. Only one Urbino assisted Michelangelo, probably he painted the background. Later studies of the fresco, apart from the addition of draperies, did not reveal any interference with Michelangelo's original painting. Experts counted approximately 450 in the “Last Judgment.” jornat(daily standards for fresco painting) in the form of wide horizontal stripes - Michelangelo began work from the top of the wall and gradually went down, dismantling the scaffolding.
The fresco was completed in 1541 and unveiled on All Saints' Eve, the same night 29 years earlier when the chapel's ceiling frescoes were unveiled.
Criticism
Even during the process of work, the fresco aroused, on the one hand, boundless and unconditional admiration, and on the other, harsh criticism. The artist soon faced the threat of being accused of heresy. The Last Judgment caused a conflict between Cardinal Carrafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused of immorality and obscenity because he depicted naked bodies without hiding the genitals in the most important Christian church. A censorship campaign (known as the "Fig Leaf Campaign") was organized by Cardinal and Ambassador of Mantua Sernini, the purpose of which was to destroy the "indecent" fresco. The Pope's master of ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, upon seeing the painting, said that “it is a shame that in such a sacred place naked bodies are depicted in such an indecent form” and that this fresco is not for the pope’s chapel, but rather “for public baths and taverns.” Michelangelo responded by depicting Cesena in Hell in The Last Judgment as King Minos, judge of the souls of the dead (lower right corner), with donkey ears, which was a hint of stupidity, naked, but covered with a snake wrapped around him. It was said that when Cesena asked the pope to force the artist to remove the image from the fresco, Paul III jokingly replied that his jurisdiction did not extend to the devil, and Cesena himself should come to an agreement with Michelangelo.
Censored records. Restoration of the fresco
The nudity of the characters in The Last Judgment was hidden 24 years later (when the Council of Trent condemned nudity in religious art) by order of Pope Paul IV. Michelangelo, having learned about this, asked him to tell the pope that “it’s easy to remove nudity. Let him bring the world into decent shape." The draperies on the figures were painted by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom the Romans awarded with a derogatory nickname Il Braghettone(“pants writer”, “undershirt”). A great admirer of his teacher’s work, Volterra limited his intervention to “covering” the bodies with clothes painted in dry tempera, in accordance with the decision of the Council of January 21, 1564. The only exception were the images of Saint Blaise and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, which caused the strongest indignation of critics who considered their poses obscene, reminiscent of copulation. Yes, Volterra remade this fragment of the fresco, cutting out a piece of plaster with Michelangelo’s original painting; in the new version, Saint Blaise looks at Christ the Judge, and Saint Catherine is dressed. Most The work was completed in 1565, after the death of the master. Censorship recordings continued later, after the death of da Volterra, they were carried out by Giloramo da Fano and Domenico Carnevale. Despite this, the fresco was subject to criticism in subsequent years (during the 18th century, when the author’s painting appeared through later records in 1825), and it was even proposed to destroy it. The first restoration attempts were made in 1903 and in 1935-1936. During the last restoration, completed in 1994, all late edits to the fresco were removed, while records relating to XVI century remained as historical evidence of the requirements for work of art presented by the era of the Counter-Reformation.
Pope John Paul II put an end to the centuries-old controversy on April 8, 1994, during a mass held after the restoration of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel:
Composition
In The Last Judgment, Michelangelo somewhat departed from traditional iconography. Conventionally, the composition can be divided into three parts:
- The upper part (lunettes) are flying angels, with attributes of the Passion of Christ.
- The central part is Christ and the Virgin Mary between the blessed.
- Lower - the end of times: angels playing the trumpets of the Apocalypse, the resurrection of the dead, the ascension of the saved to heaven and the casting of sinners into hell.
The number of characters in The Last Judgment is a little over four hundred. The height of the figures varies from 250 cm (for the characters in the upper part of the fresco) to 155 cm in the lower part.
Lunettes
The two lunettes feature groups of angels who carry symbols of the Passion, a sign of the sacrifice Christ made for the salvation of mankind. This is the starting point for reading the fresco, anticipating the feelings that overcome the characters in “The Last Judgment.”
Contrary to tradition, angels are depicted without wings apteri, whom Vasari simply called Ignudi, they are presented in the most complex angles and clearly stand out against the background of the ultramarine sky. Probably, among all the figures in the fresco, the angels are closest to the ideals of beauty, anatomical strength and proportion of Michelangelo’s sculptures; this unites them with the figures of naked youths on the ceiling of the chapel and the heroes of the Battle of Cascina. In the tense expressions on the faces of the angels with wide open eyes, a gloomy vision of the end of times is anticipated: not spiritual peace and enlightenment of the saved, but anxiety, trembling, depression, which sharply distinguish Michelangelo’s work from his predecessors who took on this theme. Masterly work of the artist who painted angels in the most difficult situations, aroused the admiration of some viewers and the criticism of others. So Giglio wrote in 1564: “I do not approve of the efforts that the angels show in Michelangelo's Judgment, I am talking about those that support the Cross, the column and other sacred objects. They look more like clowns and jugglers than angels.”
Christ the Judge and the Virgin Mary with saints
The center of the entire composition is the figure of Christ the Judge with the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a crowd of preachers, prophets, patriarchs, sibyls, heroes of the Old Testament, martyrs and saints.
In traditional versions Last Judgment Christ the Judge was depicted on the throne, as the Gospel of Matthew describes, separating the righteous from the sinners. Usually at Christ's right hand raised in a blessing gesture, the left one is lowered as a sign of judgment on sinners, stigmata are visible on his hands.
Michelangelo only partially follows the established iconography - his Christ against the background of clouds, without the scarlet robe of the ruler of the world, is shown at the very moment of the beginning of the Judgment. Some researchers saw here a reference to ancient mythology: Christ is depicted as the thunderer Jupiter or Phoebus (Apollo), in his athletic figure they find Buonarroti’s desire to enter into competition with the ancients in the depiction of a naked hero with extraordinary physical beauty and power. His gesture, authoritative and calm, attracts attention and at the same time calms the surrounding excitement: it gives rise to a wide and slow rotational movement in which everyone is involved characters. But this gesture can also be understood as threatening, emphasized by the concentrated, albeit impassive, without anger or rage, appearance, according to Vasari: “...Christ, who, looking with a terrible and courageous face at sinners, turns and curses them.”
Michelangelo painted the figure of Christ, making various changes, for ten days. His nudity drew condemnation. In addition, the artist, contrary to tradition, depicted Christ the Judge as beardless. On numerous copies of the fresco he appears in a more familiar appearance, with a beard.
Next to Christ is the Virgin Mary, who humbly turned her face away: without interfering in the decisions of the Judge, she is only waiting for the results. Mary's gaze, unlike Christ's, is directed towards the Kingdom of Heaven. In the appearance of the Judge there is neither compassion for sinners, nor joy for the blessed: the time of people and their passions has been replaced by the triumph of divine eternity.
Surrounding Christ
Michelangelo abandoned the tradition according to which artists at the Last Judgment surrounded Christ with the apostles and representatives of the Tribes of Israel seated on thrones. He also shortened the Deesis, leaving the only (and passive) mediator between the Judge and human souls Mary without John the Baptist.
Two central figures surrounded by a ring of saints, patriarchs and apostles - a total of 53 characters. This is not a chaotic crowd; the rhythm of their gestures and glances harmonizes this giant funnel of human bodies stretching into the distance. The characters' faces express various shades anxiety, despair, fear, they all take an active part in the universal catastrophe, calling on the viewer to empathize. Vasari noted the richness and depth of expression of the spirit, as well as his unsurpassed talent in depicting the human body “in the strange and varied gestures of young and old, men and women.”
Some characters in the background, not included in the preparatory cardboard, were drawn a secco, without detail, in a free pattern, with an emphasized spatial separation of the figures: in contrast to those closest to the viewer, they seem darker, with blurry, indistinct contours.
At the feet of Christ, the artist placed Lawrence with the lattice and Bartholomew, perhaps because the chapel was also dedicated to these two saints. Bartholomew, identified by the knife in his hand, holds the flayed skin on which Michelangelo is believed to have painted his self-portrait. This is sometimes taken to be an allegory for the atonement of sin. The face of Bartholomew is sometimes considered a portrait of Pietro Aretino, Michelangelo’s enemy, who slandered him in retaliation for the fact that the artist did not take his advice when working on The Last Judgment. A hypothesis was also put forward, which received a wide public response, but was refuted by most researchers, that Michelangelo depicted himself on flayed skin, as a sign that he did not want to work on the fresco and carried out this order under duress.
Some of the saints are easily recognizable by their attributes, while various hypotheses have been built regarding the definition of other characters, which are not possible to confirm or refute. To the left of Christ is Saint Andrew with the cross on which he was crucified; the drapery that appeared on it as a result of censorship records was removed during the restoration. Here you can also see John the Baptist in a fur skin; Daniele da Volterra also covered him with clothes. The woman addressed by Saint Andrew is possibly Rachel.
Second ring of characters. Left side
This group consists of martyrs, spiritual fathers of the Church, virgins and blessed (about fifty figures).
On the left side, almost all the characters are women: virgins, sibyls and heroines of the Old Testament. Among the other figures, two women stand out: one with a naked torso and the other, kneeling in front of the first. They are considered personifications of the Church's mercy and piety. Numerous figures in this series cannot be identified. Some blessed ones from among the resurrected ones rush upward, drawn into the general powerful rotational movement. Gestures and facial expressions of the characters show excitement much greater than that of those who are next to Christ.
Second ring of characters. Right side
The right group - martyrs, confessors and other blessed ones, is dominated by male figures (approximately eighty characters). On the far right is an athletic man holding a cross. It is assumed that this is Simon the Cyrenean, who helped carry Jesus the cross on the way to Golgotha. Another possible identification is Dismas, the prudent robber.
Below him, Saint Sebastian rises onto a cloud, clutching arrows in his left hand, a sign of his martyrdom. The figure of Sebastian is seen as the artist's tribute to ancient eroticism.
Slightly to the left are depicted Blasius of Sebaste and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, this part of the fresco was rewritten by Daniele da Volterra. They are followed by Saint Philip with a cross, Simon the Canaanite with a saw, and Longinus.
The end of times
The bottom of the fresco, in turn, is divided into five parts: in the center, angels with trumpets and books announce the Last Judgment; at the bottom left is the resurrection of the dead, at the top is the ascension of the righteous; at the top right is the capture of sinners by devils, at the bottom is hell.
Notes
- Stefano Zuffi, La pittura rinascimentale, 2005.
- , p. 84.
- , p. 12.
- , p. 112.
- , p. 214.
- De Vecchi-Cerchiari, cit., pag. 151.
- The Sistine Chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, where the papal court celebrated the Ascension Day of the mother of Christ.
The wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The artist worked on the fresco for four years - from 1537 to 1541. Michelangelo returned to the Sistine Chapel twenty-five years after he completed painting its ceiling. The large-scale fresco occupies the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. Its theme was the second coming of Christ and the apocalypse. “The Last Judgment” is considered the work that completed the Renaissance era in art, to which Michelangelo himself paid tribute in painting the ceiling and vaults of the Sistine Chapel, and opened new period disappointments in the philosophy of anthropocentric humanism.
History of creation
Clement VII
In 1533, Michelangelo worked in Florence on various projects in San Lorenzo for Pope Clement VII. On September 22 of this year, the artist went to San Miniato to meet the pope. Perhaps it was then that the Pope expressed a desire for Michelangelo to paint the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel on the theme of “The Last Judgment.” In this way, the thematic completion of the cycles of paintings on scenes from the Old and New Testaments that decorated the chapel would have been achieved.
Probably, the pope wanted his name to stand in line with the names of his predecessors: Sixtus IV, who commissioned Florentine artists in the 1480s to create cycles of frescoes based on the stories of Moses and Christ, Julius II, whose pontificate Michelangelo painted ceiling (1508-1512) and Leo X, at whose request the chapel was decorated with tapestries based on the cardboards of Raphael (c. 1514-1519). To be among the pontiffs who took part in the founding and decoration of the chapel, Clement VII was ready to call on Michelangelo, despite the fact that the elderly artist worked for him in Florence without the same energy and with the involvement of an increasing number of assistants from among his students.
It is unknown when the artist entered into a formal contract, but in September 1534 he arrived from Florence in Rome to begin work on the new work (and to continue work on the tomb of Julius II). A few days later dad died. Michelangelo, believing that the order had lost its relevance, left the papal court and took up other projects.
Paul III
However, the new pope, Paul III, did not give up the idea of decorating the altar wall with a new fresco. Michelangelo, from whom the heirs of Julius II demanded that work on his tomb continue, tried to push back the start of work on the painting.
By order of the pope, the frescoes painted in the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century were to be hidden by new painting. This was the first “intervention” in the history of the chapel in a complex of images that were thematically related to each other: Finding Moses, Ascension of the Virgin Mary with the kneeling Sixtus IV and Christmas, as well as portraits of some popes between the windows and two lunettes from the cycle of frescoes on the ceiling of the chapel with the ancestors of Jesus, painted by Michelangelo more than twenty years ago.
During the preparatory work, the configuration of the altar wall was changed using brickwork: it was given a slope into the room (its top protrudes approximately 38 cm). In this way, they tried to avoid dust settling on the surface of the fresco during work. Two windows located in the altar wall were also sealed. Destruction of the old frescoes must have been a difficult decision; in the first preparatory drawings Michelangelo tried to preserve part of the existing wall decoration, but then, in order to maintain the integrity of the composition in the spatial abstraction of the limitless sky, he had to abandon this too. Surviving sketches (one in the Bayonne Museum Bonnet, one in the Casa Buonarroti and one in the British Museum) highlight the artist's work on the fresco in development. Michelangelo abandoned the usual division of the composition into two worlds in iconography, but interpreted the theme of the Last Judgment in his own way. He built an extremely dynamic rotational movement from the mass of chaotically intertwined bodies of righteous and sinners, the center of which was Christ the Judge.
When the wall was ready for painting, a dispute arose between Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo, until then a friend and collaborator of the master. Del Piombo, who found support in this matter from the pope, argued that for the sixty-year-old Michelangelo, working in pure fresco technique would be physically difficult, and suggested preparing the surface for painting with oil paint. Michelangelo categorically refused to carry out the order in any other technique than “pure fresco,” stating that painting a wall with oils was “an activity for women and rich lazy people like Fra Bastiano” (that is, Sebastiano del Piombo). He insisted that the already completed oil base be removed and a layer intended for fresco painting be applied. According to archival documents, work on preparation for painting continued from January to March 1536. The execution of the fresco painting was delayed for several months due to the acquisition of the necessary paints, mainly very expensive blue, the quality of which was fully approved by the artist.
The scaffolding was installed and Michelangelo began painting in the summer of 1536. In November of the same year, the pope, in order to free Michelangelo from his obligations to the heirs of Julius II, mainly Guidobaldo della Rovere, issued a motu proprio, which gave the artist time to complete the Judgment without being distracted by other commissions. In 1540, as work on the fresco was nearing completion, Michelangelo fell from the scaffolding and needed a month's break to recover.
The artist, as during the period of work on the ceiling of the chapel, painted the wall himself, using help only in preparing the paint and in applying the preparatory layer of plaster for painting. Only one Urbino assisted Michelangelo, probably he painted the background. Later studies of the fresco, apart from the addition of draperies, did not reveal any interference with Michelangelo's original painting. Experts counted approximately 450 in the “Last Judgment.” jornat(daily standards for fresco painting) in the form of wide horizontal stripes - Michelangelo began work from the top of the wall and gradually went down, dismantling the scaffolding.
The fresco was completed in 1541 and unveiled on All Saints' Eve, the same night 29 years earlier when the chapel's ceiling frescoes were unveiled.
Criticism
Even during the process of work, the fresco aroused, on the one hand, boundless and unconditional admiration, and on the other, harsh criticism. The artist soon faced the threat of being accused of heresy. The Last Judgment caused a conflict between Cardinal Carrafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused of immorality and obscenity because he depicted naked bodies without hiding the genitals in the most important Christian church. A censorship campaign (known as the "Fig Leaf Campaign") was organized by Cardinal and Ambassador of Mantua Sernini, the purpose of which was to destroy the "indecent" fresco. The Pope's master of ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, upon seeing the painting, said that “it is a shame that in such a sacred place naked bodies are depicted in such an indecent form” and that this fresco is not for the pope’s chapel, but rather “for public baths and taverns.” Michelangelo responded by depicting Cesena in Hell in The Last Judgment as King Minos, judge of the souls of the dead (lower right corner), with donkey ears, which was a hint of stupidity, naked, but covered with a snake wrapped around him. It was said that when Cesena asked the pope to force the artist to remove the image from the fresco, Paul III jokingly replied that his jurisdiction did not extend to the devil, and Cesena himself should come to an agreement with Michelangelo.
Censored records. Restoration of the fresco
The nudity of the characters in The Last Judgment was hidden 24 years later (when the Council of Trent condemned nudity in religious art) by order of Pope Paul IV. Michelangelo, having learned about this, asked him to tell the pope that “it’s easy to remove nudity. Let him bring the world into decent shape." The draperies on the figures were painted by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom the Romans awarded with a derogatory nickname Il Braghettone(“pants writer”, “undershirt”). A great admirer of his teacher’s work, Volterra limited his intervention to “covering” the bodies with clothes painted in dry tempera, in accordance with the decision of the Council of January 21, 1564. The only exception were the images of Saint Blaise and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, which caused the strongest indignation of critics who considered their poses obscene, reminiscent of copulation. Yes, Volterra remade this fragment of the fresco, cutting out a piece of plaster with Michelangelo’s original painting; in the new version, Saint Blaise looks at Christ the Judge, and Saint Catherine is dressed. Most of the work was completed in 1565, after the master's death. Censorship recordings continued later, after the death of da Volterra, they were carried out by Giloramo da Fano and Domenico Carnevale. Despite this, the fresco was subject to criticism in subsequent years (during the 18th century, when the author’s painting appeared through later records in 1825), and it was even proposed to destroy it. The first restoration attempts were made in 1903 and in 1935-1936. During the latest restoration, completed in 1994, all late edits to the fresco were removed, while records dating back to the 16th century remained as historical evidence of the demands placed on the work of art during the Counter-Reformation era.
Pope John Paul II put an end to the centuries-old controversy on April 8, 1994, during a mass held after the restoration of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel:
Composition
In The Last Judgment, Michelangelo somewhat departed from traditional iconography. Conventionally, the composition can be divided into three parts:
- The upper part (lunettes) are flying angels, with attributes of the Passion of Christ.
- The central part is Christ and the Virgin Mary between the blessed.
- Lower - the end of times: angels playing the trumpets of the Apocalypse, the resurrection of the dead, the ascension of the saved to heaven and the casting of sinners into hell.
The number of characters in The Last Judgment is a little over four hundred. The height of the figures varies from 250 cm (for the characters in the upper part of the fresco) to 155 cm in the lower part.
Lunettes
Angels with attributes of the Passion of Christ, left lunette
The two lunettes feature groups of angels who carry symbols of the Passion, a sign of the sacrifice Christ made for the salvation of mankind. This is the starting point for reading the fresco, anticipating the feelings that overcome the characters in “The Last Judgment.”
Contrary to tradition, angels are depicted without wings apteri, whom Vasari simply called Ignudi, they are presented in the most complex angles and clearly stand out against the background of the ultramarine sky. Probably, among all the figures in the fresco, the angels are closest to the ideals of beauty, anatomical strength and proportion of Michelangelo’s sculptures; this unites them with the figures of naked youths on the ceiling of the chapel and the heroes of the “Battle of Cascina”. In the tense expressions on the faces of the angels with wide open eyes, a gloomy vision of the end of times is anticipated: not spiritual peace and enlightenment of the saved, but anxiety, trembling, depression, which sharply distinguish Michelangelo’s work from his predecessors who took on this theme. The masterly work of the artist, who painted angels in the most difficult positions, aroused the admiration of some viewers and the criticism of others. So Giglio wrote in 1564: “I do not approve of the efforts that the angels show in Michelangelo's Judgment, I am talking about those that support the Cross, the column and other sacred objects. They look more like clowns and jugglers than angels.”
Christ the Judge and the Virgin Mary with saints
Christ and Mary
The center of the entire composition is the figure of Christ the Judge with the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a crowd of preachers, prophets, patriarchs, sibyls, heroes of the Old Testament, martyrs and saints.
In traditional versions Last Judgment Christ the Judge was depicted on the throne, as the Gospel of Matthew describes, separating the righteous from the sinners. Usually, Christ’s right hand is raised in a blessing gesture, while his left hand is lowered as a sign of judgment on sinners; stigmata are visible on his hands.
Michelangelo only partially follows the established iconography - his Christ against the background of clouds, without the scarlet robe of the ruler of the world, is shown at the very moment of the beginning of the Judgment. Some researchers saw here a reference to ancient mythology: Christ is depicted as the thunderer Jupiter or Phoebus (Apollo), in his athletic figure they find Buonarroti’s desire to enter into competition with the ancients in the depiction of a naked hero with extraordinary physical beauty and power. His gesture, authoritative and calm, attracts attention and at the same time calms the surrounding excitement: it gives rise to a wide and slow rotational movement in which all the characters are involved. But this gesture can also be understood as threatening, emphasized by the concentrated, albeit impassive, without anger or rage, appearance, according to Vasari: “...Christ, who, looking with a terrible and courageous face at sinners, turns and curses them.”
Michelangelo painted the figure of Christ, making various changes, for ten days. His nudity drew condemnation. In addition, the artist, contrary to tradition, depicted Christ the Judge as beardless. On numerous copies of the fresco he appears in a more familiar appearance, with a beard.
Next to Christ is the Virgin Mary, who humbly turned her face away: without interfering in the decisions of the Judge, she is only waiting for the results. Mary's gaze, unlike Christ's, is directed towards the Kingdom of Heaven. In the appearance of the Judge there is neither compassion for sinners, nor joy for the blessed: the time of people and their passions has been replaced by the triumph of divine eternity.
Surrounding Christ
The first ring of characters around Christ and Mary
Saint Bartholomew
Michelangelo abandoned the tradition according to which artists at the Last Judgment surrounded Christ with the apostles and representatives of the Tribes of Israel seated on thrones. He also shortened the Deesis, leaving Mary as the only (and passive) mediator between the Judge and human souls without John the Baptist.
The two central figures are surrounded by a ring of saints, patriarchs and apostles - a total of 53 characters. This is not a chaotic crowd; the rhythm of their gestures and glances harmonizes this giant funnel of human bodies stretching into the distance. The faces of the characters express various shades of anxiety, despair, fear, all of them take an active part in the universal catastrophe, calling on the viewer to empathize. Vasari noted the richness and depth of expression of the spirit, as well as his unsurpassed talent in depicting the human body “in the strange and varied gestures of young and old, men and women.”
Some characters in the background, not included in the preparatory cardboard, were drawn a secco, without detail, in a free pattern, with an emphasized spatial separation of the figures: in contrast to those closest to the viewer, they appear darker, with blurry, indistinct contours.
At the feet of Christ, the artist placed Lawrence with the lattice and Bartholomew, perhaps because the chapel was also dedicated to these two saints. Bartholomew, identified by the knife in his hand, holds the flayed skin on which Michelangelo is believed to have painted his self-portrait. This is sometimes taken to be an allegory for the atonement of sin. The face of Bartholomew is sometimes considered a portrait of Pietro Aretino, Michelangelo's enemy, who slandered him, in retaliation for the fact that the artist did not take his advice when working on The Last Judgment. A hypothesis was also put forward, which received a wide public response, but was refuted by most researchers, that Michelangelo depicted himself on flayed skin, as a sign that he did not want to work on the fresco and carried out this order under duress.
Some of the saints are easily recognizable by their attributes, while various hypotheses have been built regarding the definition of other characters, which are not possible to confirm or refute. To the left of Christ is Saint Andrew with the cross on which he was crucified; the drapery that appeared on it as a result of censorship records was removed during the restoration. Here you can also see John the Baptist in a fur skin; Daniele da Volterra also covered him with clothes. The woman addressed by Saint Andrew is possibly Rachel.
Second ring of characters. Left side
Left side
This group consists of martyrs, spiritual fathers of the Church, virgins and blessed (about fifty figures).
On the left side, almost all the characters are women: virgins, sibyls and heroines of the Old Testament. Among the other figures, two women stand out: one with a naked torso and the other, kneeling in front of the first. They are considered personifications of the Church's mercy and piety. Numerous figures in this series cannot be identified. Some blessed ones from among the resurrected ones rush upward, drawn into the general powerful rotational movement. Gestures and facial expressions of the characters show excitement much greater than that of those who are next to Christ.
Second ring of characters. Right side
The right group - martyrs, confessors and other blessed ones, is dominated by male figures (approximately eighty characters). On the far right is an athletic man holding a cross. It is assumed that this is Simon the Cyrene, who helped carry Jesus the cross on the way to Golgotha. Another possible identification is Dismas, the prudent robber.
Below him, Saint Sebastian rises onto a cloud, clutching arrows in his left hand, a sign of his martyrdom. The figure of Sebastian is seen as the artist's tribute to ancient eroticism.
Slightly to the left are depicted Blasius of Sebaste and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, this part of the fresco was rewritten by Daniele da Volterra. They are followed by Saint Philip with a cross, Simon the Canaanite with a saw, and Longinus.
The Last Judgment - canonical fresco Italian master Renaissance Michelangelo Buonarroti. It is made on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Work on the fresco took four years, approximately between 1536 and 1541. (Preparation of the wall behind the altar began in 1535.) Michelangelo began working on this painting about 25 years after finishing the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
This one is enough large-scale work(1200 cm x 1370 cm) depicts the second coming of Christ and the final judgment of God over all humanity. The souls of people ascend to heaven or descend to hell, depending on the decision of Christ, surrounded by outstanding saints: Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, Bartholomew, Paul, John the Baptist and others.
In the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Last Judgment was the subject of intense controversy between critics and those who understood the artist's idea and his style, the style of Mannerist painting. Michelangelo was accused of being insensitive to proper etiquette and flaunting his personal vision over existing descriptions of a given subject. The Council of Trent issued decrees that prohibited such representations in sacred art, and all objectionable art was to be altered or destroyed. The Pope's entertainer, Biagio da Cesena, said the following words regarding this fresco: “it is a shame that in such a sacred place naked bodies are depicted in such an indecent manner” and that this picture is not for the pope’s chapel, but rather “for public baths and taverns.” In response to such accusations, Michelangelo painted the face of Cesena to Minos, the judge the afterlife, whom he depicted with donkey ears (a hint of his stupidity), and covered his nakedness with curls of a snake. It is said that when Cesena complained to the Pope, the Pontiff joked that his jurisdiction did not extend to Hell, so the portrait would remain.
Biagio da Cesena as Minos, judge of the underworld (fragment).
The controversial genitals in the fresco were painted after Michelangelo died (1564). This was commissioned to the artist Daniela da Volterra when the Council of Trent condemned nudity in religious art. The resolution of the Council reads in part: “Every superstition must be removed... every lasciviousness must be avoided, in the understanding that figures should not be depicted or decorated so as to excite lust... so that nothing profane, embarrassing or indecent can be seen ... so that they can see that holiness has become the house of God. These requirements must be strictly observed. Holy Synod commands that no one shall be admitted to any sacred place, or church, to place any unusual image, unless the image has been approved by the bishop."
Between 1980 and 1994, the fresco, along with the vault of the Sistine Chapel, was restored. The restoration was carried out under the direction of the curator of the Vatican Museums, Fabrizio Mancinelli. At this time, about half of the "fig leaf campaign" censorship was removed. After cleaning, numerous fragments and their parts buried under soot were revealed.
Some have hypothesized that Michelangelo depicted himself as a flayed figure being held in the hands of St. Bartholomew because he may have felt contempt when he was invited to paint the Last Judgment scene. When his idea received public support, everyone more people, belonging to the art historical community, consistently refuted this theory. Michelangelo, in some respects, may have felt he had lost all his power and authority. He was approximately 66 years old when he completed this painting, and it has been argued that the scene of Bartholomew's flaying signifies the flaying of flesh in anticipation of a new rebirth.
Apostle Bartholomew (fragment).
General structure The painting appears to revolve around Christ at the center, thus replacing the traditional composition, which usually consisted of horizontal layers with heaven above, earth in the middle, and hell below. The beardless and muscular figure of Christ is surrounded by light.
Every day, thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit the Sistine Chapel to admire the monumental description of the second coming of Christ, Michelangelo Buonarroti's fresco of the Last Judgment, which never ceases to amaze and leaves an unforgettable memory.
