image from Wikimedia Commons
This would have been the most prestigious commission for any artist of the time, to be employed by the Pope (Julius the Second) to decorate a major chapel in St Peter’s Basilica. Michelangelo initially turned it down! He wanted to concentrate on sculptural commissions, one of which was for the Pope’s own tomb. The Pope, though, would accept no refusal and after negotiations eventually convinced Michelangelo to take up the commission. It seems the winning factor was that the Pope agreed to allow Michelangelo artistic freedom to decide what he would paint on the ceiling and how he would portray it. The Pope insisted that the images be rich in meaning, but otherwise left the content at the discretion of the artist, subject to continual review and approval, of course. Another clause of the contract was that Michelangelo be allowed to work exclusively on the project. The writer Vasari tells us that Michelangelo worked solo on the paintings, not even allowing assistants to grind and mix his pigments.
Michelangelo went direct to the texts for inspirations and interpreted them in his own way. Traditionally, artists would look to other treatments of the same figure or subject in sacred art and base their versions on similar poses and compositions – a ‘hangover’ from icon paintings that followed the template approach. Michelangelo invented a dazzling array of new poses and painted dynamic figures that were not based on established iconography or Classical postures. The narrative he illustrated was a dramatic re-telling of Genesis from Creation, with a Zeus-like God separating day from the night, to the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Eden, then the story of Noah and the Great Flood and on to the First Covenant with Moses.
Michelangelo also designed his own scaffold and platform system that could be moved as he painted each section, with suspended sheeting to catch drips of plaster and paint. He worked at close quarters, standing to apply the plaster and paint, though sometimes laying down to view the work. The fresco technique he employed required fast work as the final layer of plaster had to be freshly smoothed and the paints applied before it dried. This ensured the pigments sunk in and would be less likely to fade, peel or crack. With this technique, any errors could not be erased or corrected. If a mistake was made, the plaster would have to be hacked away and a new layer added before painting again.
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After completing the ceiling, there was an interval of twenty-four years before he added the Last Judgment scene on the wall above the altar. This was commissioned by Pope Paul the Third and again Michelangelo was given artistic freedom. At the centre of the huge fresco is the muscular and masculine figure of Jesus, surrounded by many saints with sinners being cast back down. This dynamic swirl of floating and falling figures became a model for Last Judgment scenes. Although Michelangelo was allowed to paint according to his own design, another artist was soon sent in to cover up anything ‘too Greek’. Daniele da Volterra, a pupil of Michelangelo was given the job of painting loincloths and drapery around the figures to cover any nudity. Presumably no one could reach the ceiling, and so many of those figures remained naked, in the Classical tradition.
image from Wikimedia Commons
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