The Sistine Chapel. First, let me get this frustration out: I can't understand why people are so extremely disrespectful. It is clearly stressed that silence is to be practiced and pictures are not to be taken within the chapel. Neither of these requests were granted. (Disclaimer: the image you will see is a picture of a postcard and not the actual ceiling). If you don't want to respect what is required of this place then don't come. I can't imagine the effect that it would have if silence was observed. Although, I will be honest, I felt a little weird throughout the entire sojourn. This is the Vatican City. This is the Holy of Holies of Catholicism. This is the place that artist Michelangelo slaved for four years as he tortured himself over his theological depictions. This is where the Pope lives. I am not sure how I would feel about the places I esteem to be Holy being so invaded by those without care. Whatever. Tourism is the country's currency.
That being said, I will move on. The chapel, which is said to be the same measurements as Soloman's temple, originally had a ceiling of blue with gold stars. Michelangelo was given the incomprehensible task of changing that. Michaelangelo's work is all fresco. This means painstaking hours of applying fresh plaster and painting it before it dries. Can you imagine? The ceiling begins with the creation. First we see the separation of light and dark (my favorite part). We see the creation of Adam and the very famous gap between the finger of God and the finger of Adam as God gives and Adam receives the life spark. Then we see the Fall. It then shows the flood and Noah's drunkenness and then something that I didn't get. The part of Noah is to remind us how far man has come because of the Fall, referencing the cursing of Ham and the blessing of Noah's other sons Shem and Japheth.
This all takes place down the center panels of the ceiling. As the ceiling curves down, there are side spaces filled with the names and pictures of the ancestor's of Jesus. Then on the walls are really amazing frescoes by other artists. As one enters the chapel, one is meant to see the walls as parallels of each other. On the right side is the life and prophecy of Moses. On the left is the same of Jesus. The carefully selected scenes of their lives are meant to coincide (for example, although not in the correct order, the tempting of Jesus and the tempting of Moses, the passing of keys to Peter and the passing of authority to Joshua, Jesus giving the law by means of the sermon on the mount and Moses giving the law by carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments etc.) It was cool.
After all of this, Michelangelo also painted the wall, upon which is one of the most controversial topics of the chapel. The Last Judgement is inexplicable by someone like me, so I will just share a few things. The point of it is to emphasize the balance between justice and mercy. The hundreds of people, both of good and evil people, are to remind us that we are susceptible to evil because of the Fall. Both the righteous and the unrighteous will receive a judgement according to their actions. This is justice. However, the bodies, especially the central and powerful depiction of Christ, shows us the mercy of God by sending his son incarnate to overcome death and save us from our fallen state by the sacrifice of his own body, thus allowing those who repent to avoid the demands of full justice. This is his mercy, deliverance by the blood of His most beloved son.
I just want to share a poem with you written by Michelangelo. Upon studying what I would see in Vatican City, I often found that he was very unwilling to take this commission. He had doubts about the Pope's motives, about his abilities as a painter, about finishing the feat, and about how to show the gospel so that those who didn't understand (because of restricted access to biblical accounts, illiteracy, lack of latin etc.) could take part in comprehension. He was a theologist and an artist that was torn by his understanding of what it meant to be either. It is speculated that there is a self-portrait of Michelangelo on the ceiling. The shocking part is that it is guessed to be the flayed skin held in the hand of St. Bartholemew, who was said to be flayed alive. Let's just say that Michelangelo was a deep dude and to be stuck on a scaffold for 4+ years painting 1200 square meters or more worth of ceiling does something to a person.
Michelangelo: To Giovanni da Pistoia
"When the Author Was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel"
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@—1509
I've already grown a goiter from this torture,
hunched up here like a cat in Lombardy
(or anywhere else where the stagnant water's poison).
My stomach's squashed under my chin, my beard's
pointing at heaven, my brain's crushed in a casket,
my breast twists like a harpy's. My brush,
above me all the time, dribbles paint
so my face makes a fine floor for droppings!
My haunches are grinding into my guts,
my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight,
every gesture I make is blind and aimless.
My skin hangs loose below me, my spine's
all knotted from folding over itself.
I'm bent taut as a Syrian bow.
Because I'm stuck like this, my thoughts
are crazy, perfidious tripe:
anyone shoots badly through a crooked blowpipe.
My painting is dead.
Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor.
I am not in the right place—I am not a painter.
The entire world might disagree.
1 comment:
Beauty.
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