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Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo (Illustrated)
Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo (Illustrated)
Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo (Illustrated)
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Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo (Illustrated)

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The ‘Divine’ sculptor, painter, architect, poet and engineer, Michelangelo Buonarroti exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art, producing masterpieces that rank among the most famous in existence. Delphi’s groundbreaking ‘Masters of Art Series’ presents the world’s first digital e-Art books, allowing digital readers to explore the works of the world’s greatest artists in comprehensive detail. This volume presents the complete works of Michelangelo, with concise introductions, hundreds of high quality images and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)* The complete paintings of Michelangelo — over 400 images, fully indexed and arranged in chronological and alphabetical order
* Includes reproductions of rare works
* The complete ceiling and wall frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, fully indexed
* Insightful introductions, giving valuable contextual information on all the paintings and sculptures
* Enlarged ‘Detail’ images, allowing you to explore Michelangelo’s celebrated works in detail, as featured in traditional art books
* Hundreds of images in stunning colour – highly recommended for viewing on tablets and smart phones or as a valuable reference tool on more conventional eReaders
* Rare attributed works
* Also includes Michelangelo's architectural, poetical and drawing works
* Easily locate the works you want to view
* Features three bonus biographies, including Vasari’s legendary work - discover Michelangelo's artistic and personal life
* Scholarly ordering of plates into chronological order and literary genresPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting e-Art booksCONTENTS:The Paintings
THE TORMENT OF ST. ANTHONY
MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN AND ANGELS
THE ENTOMBMENT
DONI TONDO: THE HOLY FAMILY
THE BATTLE OF CASCINA
SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING ‘DETAIL’ IMAGES
THE LAST JUDGMENT
LEDA AND THE SWAN
THE CONVERSION OF SAUL
THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETERThe Sculptures
MADONNA OF THE STAIRS
BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS
CRUCIFIXES
STATUES FOR THE ‘ARCA DI SAN DOMENICO’
BACCHUS
PIETÀ
DAVID
MADONNA OF BRUGES
PICCOLOMINI ALTARPIECE
TONDO PITTI
TADDEI TONDO
ST. MATTHEW
TOMB OF POPE JULIUS II
REBELLIOUS SLAVE
DYING SLAVE
OTHER SLAVE STATUES
THE GENIUS OF VICTORY
TOMB OF GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI
TOMB OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI
APOLLO-DAVID
CROUCHING BOY
CRISTO DELLA MINERVA
BRUTUS
FLORENTINE PIETÀ
RONDANINI PIETÀ
ATTRIBUTED SCULPTURESThe Architecture
LIST OF ARCHITECTURAL WORKSThe Drawings
LIST OF DRAWINGSThe Poetry
ESSAY ON THE POETRY OF MICHELANGELO by Walter Pater
THE SONNETS OF MICHAELANGELO BUONARROTIThe Biographies
LIFE OF MICHELAGNOLO BUONARROTI by Giorgio Vasari
MICHELANGELO by Romain Rolland
THE LIFE OF MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI by John Addington SymondsPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles
LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 11, 2015
ISBN9781910630631
Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo (Illustrated)

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    Delphi Complete Works of Michelangelo (Illustrated) - Michelangelo

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    Michelangelo

    (1475–1564)

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    Contents

    The Paintings

    THE TORMENT OF ST. ANTHONY

    MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN AND ANGELS

    THE ENTOMBMENT

    DONI TONDO: THE HOLY FAMILY

    THE BATTLE OF CASCINA

    SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING

    TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING ‘DETAIL’ IMAGES

    THE LAST JUDGMENT

    LEDA AND THE SWAN

    THE CONVERSION OF SAUL

    THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER

    The Sculptures

    MADONNA OF THE STAIRS

    BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS

    CRUCIFIXES

    STATUES FOR THE ‘ARCA DI SAN DOMENICO’

    BACCHUS

    PIETÀ

    DAVID

    MADONNA OF BRUGES

    PICCOLOMINI ALTARPIECE

    TONDO PITTI

    TADDEI TONDO

    ST. MATTHEW

    TOMB OF POPE JULIUS II

    REBELLIOUS SLAVE

    DYING SLAVE

    OTHER SLAVE STATUES

    THE GENIUS OF VICTORY

    TOMB OF GIULIANO DE’ MEDICI

    TOMB OF LORENZO DE’ MEDICI

    APOLLO-DAVID

    CROUCHING BOY

    CRISTO DELLA MINERVA

    BRUTUS

    FLORENTINE PIETÀ

    RONDANINI PIETÀ

    ATTRIBUTED SCULPTURES

    The Architecture

    LIST OF ARCHITECTURAL WORKS

    The Drawings

    LIST OF DRAWINGS

    The Poetry

    ESSAY ON THE POETRY OF MICHELANGELO by Walter Pater

    THE SONNETS OF MICHAELANGELO BUONARROTI

    The Biographies

    LIFE OF MICHELAGNOLO BUONARROTI by Giorgio Vasari

    MICHELANGELO by Romain Rolland

    THE LIFE OF MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI by John Addington Symonds

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    © Delphi Classics 2014

    Version 1

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    Masters of Art Series

    Michelangelo Buonarroti

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    By Delphi Classics, 2014

    The Paintings

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    The Michelangelo Museum in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany — the artist’s birthplace

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    Portrait of Michelangelo, aged 60, by Jacopino del Conte, c. 1540

    THE TORMENT OF ST. ANTHONY

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    This is the earliest known painting to be ascribed to Michelangelo, completed when he was only 12 or 13 years old and inspired by an engraving by Martin Schongauer. Housed in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, the canvas depicts the popular medieval subject of Saint Anthony attacked in the desert by demons. The saint is beset by temptations, which he resists whilst being ambushed in mid-air by the devils. The painting was previously attributed to the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, under whom Michelangelo had served his apprenticeship. Under that attribution it was bought at a Sotheby’s auction in July 2008 by an American art dealer for $2 million. When the export license was obtained that September, the canvas was brought to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it was cleaned of discoloured varnish and later overpainting and closely examined for the first time. On the basis of stylistic hallmarks such as Michelangelo’s emphatic cross hatching, it was decided that the painting was by the younger artist. It was soon bought by the Kimbell Art Museum for an undisclosed amount, believed to be in excess of $6 million.

    Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists, noted that Michelangelo had painted St. Anthony after a print by Schongauer and Ascanio Condivi recorded that Michelangelo had gone to a market to draw fish scales, a feature not present in the original engraving. Besides this enhancement, Michelangelo also added a landscape below the figures, as well as altering the expression of the saint.

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

    MADONNA AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN AND ANGELS

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    Completed by c. 1497 and also known as The Manchester Madonna, this unfinished painting is another attributed work of Michelangelo, which is housed in the National Gallery, London. It is one of three surviving panel paintings attributed to the artist and is dated to his first period in Rome. The painting’s attribution to Michelangelo was in doubt for much of the last two centuries, although now most scholars are in agreement that it is in fact a genuine attribution. The painting first came to public attention in the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857, when it received its title the Manchester Madonna.

    The composition’s subject arises from a non-Biblical tradition that the Virgin Mary and Jesus met Christ’s cousin, St. John the Baptist, on the Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt. The Virgin is depicted with a bared breast, as if she has recently been suckling her infant son, recalling the theme of the Virgin breastfeeding common in medieval painting. She grips a book that she attempts to hold away from her son, the contents of which foreshadow his future sacrifice. She looks over her left shoulder at a scroll being read by a pair of angels, bearing the reading: Ecce Agnus Dei (‘Behold the Lamb of God’), a customary attribute of John the Baptist.

    The figures are arranged as if in a frieze, revealing Michelangelo’s predilection for a sculptor’s vision rather than a painter’s. The frieze becomes more convex at its centre with the figures of Virgin and Child, as in the later Pitti Tondo. Another similarity of the painting to the art of relief sculpture is in the plain background: rather than the landscapes more common for exterior settings, Michelangelo has simply painted an expanse of sky. Many areas of the painting have been left in a preliminary state, where the artist had intended to paint over the black of the Virgin’s robe with the rich blue pigment lapis lazuli and the angels on the left are indicated only by the green underpaint used for flesh tones.

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

    THE ENTOMBMENT

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    Also housed in London’s National Gallery, this painting, left unfinished circa 1501, concerns the placing of Jesus’ body in the garden tomb. The chronological position of the work has been a source of some dispute, although it is generally considered an early work. Some authorities believe that it may have been executed by one of Michelangelo’s pupils from a drawing by the master or that it was a direct imitation of his work. According to documents discovered in 1981, Michelangelo had been commissioned to paint a panel for the church of Sant’Agostino in Rome, but eventually gave back the sum received. It is probable this was the payment for the Entombment, which remained unfinished upon the artist’s return to Florence.

    The centre of the panel portrays Christ being carried up a flight of steps to the sepulchre, which was intended to be painted in the blank area at the top right. The bearded older man represented behind him is most likely Joseph of Arimathea, who gave up his tomb for the use as Christ’s sepulchre. The long-haired figure on the left is presumably Saint John, wearing a long orange-red gown, with Mary Magdalene kneeling at his feet. The floating appearance of some of the figures may be partly explained by the fact that the painting is intended to be viewed from below and due to the panel’s unfinished condition. However, the apparent incongruity of the stance of the bearer on the right remains problematic.

    Interestingly, there is an old story that Michelangelo received a letter from his father at the time he was painting this panel. The letter informed the artist that he should abandon whatever he was doing as a great piece of marble had arrived for him. This, of course, was the marble that would become the David.

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

    DONI TONDO: THE HOLY FAMILY

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    Now housed in the Uffizi in Florence, this is the only finished panel painting by Michelangelo to survive. The painting was commissioned by Agnolo Doni to commemorate his marriage to Maddalena Strozzi, the daughter of a powerful Tuscan family. The tondo (a circular framed painting) was most likely created during the period after the Doni’s marriage in 1503 or 1504, yet before the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescoes were begun in 1508, dating the painting to approximately late 1506 or 1507.

    Michelangelo presents the Virgin Mary as the most prominent figure in the composition, as she is fixed in the centre of the image, sitting directly on the ground without a cushion, suggesting the theme of her relationship to the earth. The grass directly below the figure is green, sharply contrasting to the grassless ground surrounding her. Saint Joseph has a higher position in the image compared to Mary, symbolising his status as head of the family — an unusual feature in compositions of the Holy Family. Mary is located between his legs, as if he is protecting her. There is some debate as to whether Mary is receiving the Christ child from Joseph or vice-versa. St. John the Baptist, the patron saint of Florence, is often included in Florentine works depicting the Madonna and Child. He is in the middle-ground of the panel, between the Holy Family and the background. The elements around the family include plants and water.

    The painting is still contained within its original frame, which Michelangelo is likely to have helped design. The frame is ornately carved and rather unusual for the five heads it contains, protruding three-dimensionally into space. Similar to the nude young men in the background, the meanings of these heads has been subject to speculation. The frame also contains carvings of crescent moons, stars, vegetation, and lions’ heads. These symbols are, perhaps, references to the Doni and Strozzi families, taken from each coat of arms. As depicted on the frame, the moons are bound together with ribbons that interlock with the lions, possibly referencing the marriage of the two families. There is a horizontal band separating the foreground and background, dividing the Holy Family from the background figures and St. John the Baptist. The background figures are five nudes, whose meaning and function are subject to much speculation and debate. The Holy Family is much larger in size than the nudes in the background and there appears to be water in between the land where the Holy Family and the nudes are situated. The Holy Family all gaze at Christ, yet none of the nudes look directly at him. Instead, they appear more concerned with their own physical beauty, like Roman youths at the gymnasium.

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    The Doni Tondo was influenced by an early version of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Virgin and Child with St. Anne’. This is the completed version, painted in 1510.

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    Agnolo Doni by Raphael, 1506. Doni is believed to have commissioned the ‘Doni Tondo’

    THE BATTLE OF CASCINA

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    Copy by Aristotile da Sangallo

    The Battle of Cascina is a lost work, which was commissioned by Piero Soderini, a statesman of the Republic of Florence. It was intended to be a fresco painted on a wall of the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio. The opposite wall was to be decorated by Leonardo da Vinci, who was commissioned to depict the Battle of Anghiari. The two battles were notable medieval Florentine victories. The Battle of Cascina was fought on 28 July 1364 between the troops of Florence and Pisa, resulting in the victory of the former. A thousand Pisans were killed and two thousand more were captured.

    Unfortunately, Michelangelo never completed the painting, though he did produce a complete cartoon of the composition. The cartoon was copied by several artists, the most notable extant copy being by Michelangelo’s pupil, Sangallo. Some of Michelangelo’s preparatory drawings also survive, along with prints of part of the scene by Marcantonio Raimondi. According to Michelangelo’s biographer, Giorgio Vasari, the original cartoon was deliberately destroyed by Michelangelo’s rival Bartolommeo Bandinelli, due to his jealousy of its fame.

    Michelangelo chose to depict the scene at the beginning of the battle, as the Florentine army was taken by surprise by the Pisans’ initial attack. The artist presents Florentine soldiers, bathing naked in the river Arno, responding to a trumpet that warns them of the sudden Pisan assault. As the soldiers emerge from the river and buckle on their armour, they are threatened by shots from the enemy. Several soldiers look or point towards the Pisan position to the left. One soldier has apparently been hit and has fallen back into the river, while others leap into action. This selected scene allowed Michelangelo to depict his favoured topic: the naked male figure in varieties of contrapposto.

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    Michelangelo’s study of Battle of Cascina

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    Study of Battle of Cascina

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    Study of the Battle of Cascina

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    Study of the Battle of Cascina

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    Piero Soderini (1450-1522)

    SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING

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    Painted between 1508 and 1512, Michelangelo’s work on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the large papal chapel built within the Vatican by Pope Sixtus IV, remains a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The ceiling’s various painted elements form part of a larger scheme of decoration within the Chapel, which includes Michelangelo’s later wall fresco, The Last Judgment, as well as other wall paintings by leading fifteenth century artists, including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Pietro Perugino. The chapel also features a set of large tapestries by Raphael, illustrating the doctrine of the Catholic Church.

    Central to Michelangelo’s celebrated ceiling decoration are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, of which The Creation of Adam is the best known — an image that has achieved an iconic status only equalled by Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa — where the hands of God and Adam are represented at the point of man’s creation. The complex design includes several sets of individual figures, both clothed and nude, allowing Michelangelo to fully demonstrate his skill in creating a huge variety of poses for the human figure, destined to influence countless artists for the following centuries.

    In 1506 Pope Julius II designed a program to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, where the walls of the chapel had already been decorated twenty years earlier. The lowest of three levels was painted to resemble draped hangings, which was hung on special occasions with the set of tapestries designed by Raphael. The middle level contains a complex scheme of frescoes illustrating the Life of Christ on the right side and the Life of Moses on the left side. It was carried out by some of the most renowned Renaissance painters: Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Signorelli and Cosimo Rosselli. The upper level of the walls contains the windows, between which are painted pairs of illusionistic niches with representations of the first thirty-two popes. A draft by Matteo d’Amelia indicates that the ceiling was painted blue and decorated with gold stars, representing the zodiacal constellations.

    Michelangelo, who was primarily known as a sculptor and not a painter, was reluctant to take on the project. At the time of the ambitious assignment he was occupied with a very large sculptural commission for the Pope’s tomb. Nevertheless, the Pope was adamant, leaving Michelangelo no choice but to accept. Nevertheless, a war with the French broke out, diverting the attention of the Pope and Michelangelo fled Rome to continue working on his sculpting. The tomb sculptures, however, were never to be finished, as in 1508 the Pope returned to Rome victorious and summoned Michelangelo to return and commence work on the ceiling. The contract was signed on 10 May 1508.

    The scheme proposed by the Pope was for twelve large figures of the Apostles to occupy the pendentives. Michelangelo negotiated for a grander and more complex scheme and he was eventually permitted to do as he wished with the ceiling. His scheme for the work ultimately comprised some three hundred figures and took four years to execute, being completed in 1512.

    To reach the chapel’s ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own scaffold, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall near the top of the windows, rather than being built up from the floor. It has been speculated that this was in order to cut the cost of timber. According to Michelangelo’s pupil and biographer Ascanio Condivi, the brackets and frame that supported the steps and flooring were all put in place at the beginning of the work and a lightweight screen, possibly cloth, was suspended beneath them to catch plaster drips, dust and excess paint drips. Only half of the building was framed with scaffolding at a time and the platform was moved as the painting was completed in stages. The areas of the wall covered by the scaffolding still appear as unpainted areas across the bottom of the lunettes. Interestingly, the same holes were used again to hold scaffolding in the recent restoration.

    Contrary to popular belief, the artist painted in a standing position, not lying on his back as has been passed down into legend. According to Vasari, The work was carried out in extremely uncomfortable conditions, from his having to work with his head tilted upwards. The fresco painting technique involved applying the paint to damp plaster, which Michelangelo had learnt whilst apprenticed in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most competent practitioners of this art form at the time. Michelangelo was also almost certainly influenced by the paintings of Luca Signorelli, particularly his works in the Death and Resurrection Cycle in Orvieto Cathedral, which feature many nudes and inventive figurative compositions.

    When first beginning the Sistine ceiling project, the plaster, intonaco, began to grow mould due to being too wet. Therefore, Michelangelo had to remove his initial attempts and start all over again. This time he tried a new formula created by one of his assistants, Jacopo l’Indaco, which involved resisting mould, heralding a new Italian building tradition.

    As the artist was painting fresco, the plaster was laid in a new section every day, called a giornata. At the beginning of each session, the edges would be scraped away and a new area laid down. The edges between giornate remain somewhat visible, giving a glimpse of how the work would finally appear as they progressed. It was customary for fresco painters to use a full-sized cartoon to transfer a design on to a plaster surface. However, Michelangelo broke from tradition; confident the intonaco had been well applied, he drew directly on to the ceiling. His energetic sweeping outlines can be seen scraped on to some of the surfaces; while on others a grid is evident, indicating that he enlarged directly on to the ceiling from a small drawing.

    Michelangelo painted on the damp plaster using a wash technique to apply broad areas of colour, then as the surface became drier, he revisited these areas with a more linear approach, adding shade and detail with a variety of brushes. For some textured surfaces, such as facial hair and wood grain, he opted for a broad brush with bristles as sparse as a comb. He employed all the finest workshop methods and innovations, combining them with a range of brushwork techniques, exceeding the skills of his previous fresco master Ghirlandaio.

    The work commenced at the end of the building furthest from the altar, with the latest of the narrative scenes and progressed towards the altar with the scenes of the Creation. The first three scenes, from the story of Noah, contain a much larger number of small figures than the later panels. This is partly because of the subject matter, which deals with the fate of Humanity, but also because all the figures at that end of the ceiling, including the prophets and Ignudi are smaller than in the central section. The Ignudi are twenty athletic, nude males that Michelangelo painted as supporting figures at each corner of the five smaller narrative scenes, which run along the centre of the ceiling. The lean figures are represented as being decorated with a variety of items, including pink ribbons, green bolsters and large garlands of acorns. As the scale of the work grew larger, Michelangelo’s style became broader, with the final narrative scene of God in the act of Creation being reportedly painted in a single day.

    The continual subject matter of the ceiling is the doctrine of humanity’s need for Salvation as offered by God through Jesus. It is a visual metaphor of Humankind’s need for a covenant with God. The Old Covenant of the Children of Israel through Moses and the New Covenant through Christ had already been represented around the walls of the chapel. The main components of the design are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, concerning The Downfall of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. These are formed of five smaller scenes, each framed and supported by four naked youths or Ignudi. At either end and beneath the scenes are the figures of twelve men and women that prophesied the birth of Christ. On the crescent-shaped areas, or lunettes, above each of the chapel’s windows are tablets listing the Ancestors of Christ and accompanying figures. Above them, in the triangular spandrels, a further eight groups of figures are depicted, though these have not been identified with specific Biblical characters.

    The narrative elements of the ceiling illustrate how God made the World as a perfect creation, placing humanity into the centre. The ceiling then portrays how humanity fell into disgrace and was punished by death and separation from God. Humanity then sank further into sin and disgrace, finally to be punished by the Great Flood. Through a lineage of Ancestors – from Abraham to Joseph – God sends the saviour of humanity, Jesus Christ. The coming of the Saviour was prophesied by the Prophets of Israel and Sibyls of the Classical world. The various components of the ceiling are linked to this Christian doctrine. Traditionally, the Old Testament was perceived as a prefiguring of the New Testament. Many incidents and characters of the Old Testament were commonly understood as having a direct symbolic link to a particular aspect of the life of Jesus or to an important element of Christian doctrine or to a sacrament, such as Baptism or the Eucharist.

    The scenes, from the altar towards the main door, are ordered as follows:

    The Separation of Light and Darkness

    The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Earth

    The Separation of Land and Water

    The Creation of Adam

    The Creation of Eve

    The Temptation and Expulsion

    The Sacrifice of Noah

    The Great Flood

    The Drunkenness of Noah

    The medallions represent:

    Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac

    The Destruction of the Statue of Baal

    The worshippers of Baal being brutally slaughtered.

    Uriah being beaten to death.

    Nathan the priest condemning King David for murder and adultery.

    King David’s traitorous son Absalom caught by his hair in a tree while trying to escape and beheaded by David’s troops.

    Joab sneaking up on Abner to murder him

    Joram being hurled from a chariot onto his head.

    Elijah being carried up to Heaven

    On one medallion the subject is either obliterated or incomplete.

    On October 1984, the Vatican commenced a historic first stage of restoration on the Sistine Chapel’s lunettes, which then proceeded on to the ceiling paintings and was completed by December 1989. Restoration work then started on The Last Judgement. The whole restoration was unveiled by Pope John Paul II on 8 April 1994. The colours, which now appear vibrantly fresh with pale pinks, apple greens, vivid yellows and sky blues against a background of warm pearly grey, had become greatly discoloured by candle smoke over the years, almost rendering the appearance of the works as monochrome. The restoration has removed the filter of grime to reveal the original colours that Michelangelo had originally intended. Nevertheless, the restoration was met with both praise and criticism. Critics assert that much original work by Michelangelo – in particular pentimenti, highlights and shadows – were lost in the removal of various accretions.

    The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was to have a profound effect upon other artists, even before the great work was completed. Vasari, in his Life of Raphael, records that Bramante, who had the keys to the chapel, let Raphael in to examine the paintings in Michelangelo’s absence. On seeing Michelangelo’s prophets, Raphael went back to the picture of the Prophet Isaiah he was painting on a column in the Church of Sant’Agostino and, although it was finished, scraped it off the wall and repainted it in a much more powerful manner, in imitation of Michelangelo’s work.

    Five hundred years ago, Vasari wrote: The whole world came running when the vault was revealed, and the sight of it was enough to reduce them to stunned silence. In January 2007, it was estimated that as many as 10,000 visitors pass through the Vatican Museums on an average day and that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is, of course, the main attraction. The Vatican, anxious that the newly restored frescoes would suffer damage, announced plans to reduce visiting hours and raise the price in an attempt to discourage visitors.

    There are few design elements on the Sistine ceiling that have not been subsequently imitated by a leading artist, including the fictional depiction of architecture, the muscular anatomy, the masterful foreshortening, the luminous colouration and the mysterious putti and Ignudi. Among the artists in whose work can be seen the direct influence of Michelangelo are Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Tintoretto, Annibale Carracci, Paolo Veronese and El Greco — to name only a few examples. For Michelangelo’s own work, the chapel ceiling led to his Mannerist painting of The Last Judgement. The crowded composition of this later wall fresco allowed the artist to develop his inventiveness further with contorted and foreshortened figures, expressing the dual polarities of despair and jubilation.

    Please note: following the overall images of the ceiling and the contextual images relating to the Sistine paintings, there is a separate table of contents, allowing readers to navigate the various detail images of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

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    The ceiling in situ

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    The Sistine Chapel, outside

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    Supposed self-portrait of Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494), the early master of Michelangelo, celebrated for his fresco paintings

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    ‘Massacre of the Innocents’ by Domenico Ghirlandaio — this fresco, which is the most celebrated of the cycle, was completed in the Tornabuoni Chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, between 1485 and 1490. Michelangelo is likely to have had a hand in the work, from which he learnt the trade of fresco painting.

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    Lamentation of Christ, Orvieto, Monte Oliveto by Luca Signorelli — Michelangelo was also influenced in his Sistine paintings by the work Signorelli, particularly by the Death and Resurrection Cycle in Orvieto

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    Pope Julius II (1443-1513) by Raphael — known as The Warrior Pope, the papacy of Pope Julius II was marked by an active foreign policy, ambitious building projects and his patronage for the arts.

    TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE SISTINE CHAPEL CEILING ‘DETAIL’ IMAGES

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    CONTENTS

    The Ceiling Narrative Paintings: The Creation

    The Ceiling Narrative Paintings: The Creation and Downfall of Adam and Eve

    The Ceiling Narrative Paintings: The Noah Stories

    Ancestors of Christ: Triangles

    Ancestors of Christ: Lunettes

    Prophets

    Sibyls

    Pendentives

    Ignudi

    Medallions

    The Ceiling Narrative Paintings: The Creation

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    First Day of Creation

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    Detail

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    Creation of the Earth and the celestial bodies

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    Detail

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    Detail

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    Dividing Water and Heavens

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    Detail

    The Ceiling Narrative Paintings: The Creation and Downfall of Adam and Eve

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    Creation of Adam

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    Detail

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    Study for the hand of God

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    God creating Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam

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    Adam and Eve: temptation and banishment

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    The Ceiling Narrative Paintings: The Noah Stories

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    The Sacrifice of Noah

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    The Great Flood

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    Noah’s drunkenness

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    Detail of Noah

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    Ancestors of Christ: Triangles

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    Ezechias Spandrel

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    Jesse Spandrel

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

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    Ancestors of Christ detail

    Ancestors of Christ: Lunettes

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    The family of Jacob and Joseph

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    Amminadab

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    Nahshon

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    Jesse - David - Solomon

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    Josiah-Jechoniah-Sheatiel

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    The family of Zorobabel

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    The family of Achim

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    Ezechias lunette

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    Salmon - Boaz - Obed

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    Rehoboam and Abijah

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    Eleazar and Mattan lunette

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    Uzziah - Jotham – Ahaz

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    Ozias, Jethan und Achaz

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    Destroyed lunette – preserved as an engraving: Perez - Hezron - Ram

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    Destroyed lunette – preserved as an engraving: Abraham - Isaac - Jacob - Judah

    Prophets

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    Jonah

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    Jeremiah

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    Ezekiel

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    Joel

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    Zechariah

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    Isaiah

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    Daniel

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    Detail of Putti

    Sibyls

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    Persian Sibyl / Babylonian Sibyl

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    Erythraean Sibyl

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    Detail of Putti

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    Delphic Sibyl

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    Cumaean Sibyl

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    Libyan Sibyl

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    Pendentives

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    The Brazen Serpent

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    Punishment of Haman

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    David and Goliath

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    Judith and Holofernes

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    Bronze nudes

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    Bronze nudes

    Ignudi

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    First day

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    Creation of Eve

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    Dividing water from Heaven

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    Medallions

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    THE LAST JUDGMENT

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    This landmark fresco was executed on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel from 1536 to 1541, twenty-five years after Michelangelo had finished the Sistine Chapel ceiling decorations. The fresco depicts the Second Coming of Christ and God’s final judgment of humanity. The souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ surrounded by prominent saints, including Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Peter, Lawrence, Bartholomew, Paul, Sebastian, John the Baptist and others. Michelangelo accepted the commission from Pope Clement VII, with the original subject of the mural being the resurrection of Christ.  However, following the Pope’s death, his successor, Pope Paul III, felt that the Last Judgment was a more fitting subject for 1530’s Rome and the judgmental impulses of the Counter-Reformation.

    Michelangelo’s handling of the subject was innovative and unconventional.  Whereas traditional medieval depictions of the last judgment represented figures dressed according to their social positions, the artist created a new standard, portraying figures equal in status, due to their nudity, literally stripped bare of rank. Michelangelo depicts the separation of the blessed and the damned by the saved ascending on the left and the damned descending on the right. The fresco is more monochromatic than the ceiling frescoes, perhaps as a result of criticism of his colouring techniques he received in later years and the work is dominated by the tones of flesh and sky. The recent cleaning and restoration of the fresco, however, revealed a greater chromatic range than previously apparent. Orange, green, yellow and blue are scattered throughout, animating and unifying the complex scene.

    The fresco was the subject of a serious dispute between critics of the Catholic Counter-Reformation and those that championed Michelangelo’s adopted Mannerist style, as exemplified in the painting. The artist was accused of being insensitive to decorum and of flaunting personal style over appropriate depictions of content. A few years after the fresco was completed, the decrees of the Council of Trent urged a tightening-up of church control of ‘unusual’ sacred images. The Pope’s own Master of Ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, said of the painting it was mostly disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel, but rather for the public baths and taverns. In response, Michelangelo represented Cesena’s face as that of Minos, judge of the underworld in the far bottom-right corner of the fresco, giving the king Donkey ears to indicate his foolishness, while his nudity is covered by a coiled 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 have to remain.

    The genitalia in the fresco, referred to as ‘objectionable,’ were painted over with drapery, after Michelangelo died in 1564, by the Mannerist artist Daniele da Volterra, when the Council of Trent condemned nudity in religious art. Daniele would become famous for this act, earning the humorous nickname Il Braghettone (the breeches maker).

    Many have identified the face of the man on the flayed skin held by St. Bartholomew as belonging to the artist himself. In his later years, Michelangelo had become a greatly troubled and introspective person, who was concerned about his own spiritual fate.  Historians now believe he experienced guilt over his homosexuality, leading many to argue that this is why the artist portrayed himself as a flayed sufferer during the last judgement. This feeling of guilt would not leave the inwardly troubled painter and in a later architectural project he waived all fees for his work on St. Peter’s Basilica, wishing to bestow his work as a gift to his beloved church.

    The fresco was restored along with the Sistine vault between 1980 and 1994 under the supervision of curator of the Vatican Museums Frabrizio Mancinelli. During the course of the restoration about half of Daniele’s censorship details of Fig-Leaves and ‘breeches’ were removed. Numerous pieces of buried details, caught under the smoke and grime of centuries were revealed. Amusingly, it was discovered that the fresco of Biagio de Cesena as Minos with donkey ears was being bitten in the genitalia by a coiled snake. Another interesting discovery was of the figure condemned to Hell directly below and to the right of St. Bartholomew with flayed skin, which for centuries had been considered to be male, until the removal of the fig leaf revealed that it was in fact a female.

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    Detail: centre

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    Detail: Christ and Mary

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    Detail

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    Detail: St. Bartholomew displaying his flayed skin (perhaps the flayed skin bears a self-portrait)

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    Detail: left side

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    Detail: left side

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    Detail: right side

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    Detail: St. Peter holding the keys

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    Detail: right side

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    Detail: right side

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    Pope Paul III (1468-1549), who changed the commission of the altar fresco, came to the papal throne in an era following the sack of Rome in 1527, which was rife with uncertainties in the Catholic Church, following the Protestant Reformation.

    LEDA AND THE SWAN

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    Leda and the Swan is believed to be a lost tempera painting from 1529, which was probably deliberately destroyed. The image depicted Zeus, the king of the gods, seducing Leda whilst in the form of a swan. The work was commissioned in 1529 by Alfonso d’Este for his palazzo in Ferrara and taken to France for the royal collection in 1532; the painting was recorded as being in Fontainebleau in 1536. Michelangelo’s cartoon for the work, given to his assistant Antonio Mini, who used it for several copies for French patrons before his death in 1533, survived for over a century. This composition is known from many copies, including an ambitious engraving by Cornelis Bos, c. 1563; the marble sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati in the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the young Rubens on his Italian voyage and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in the National Gallery, London. Michelangelo’s composition is reported to have had Mannerist tendencies of elongation and a twisted pose that was popular at the time.

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    Leda and the Swan, a 16th-century copy by Peter Paul Rubens, after Michelangelo’s lost painting

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    Drawing by Cornelis Bos after the lost original by Michelangelo

    THE CONVERSION OF SAUL

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    Housed in the Cappella Paolina, Vatican Palace, the style of this fresco is more Mannerist than Michelangelo’s earlier Sistine Chapel frescoes and for this reason it was not as well received by his contemporaries. The fresco depicts the conversion of the apostle, as related in the New Testament, an event that took place in the life of Paul, leading him to end his persecution of the early Christians and become a follower of Christ. The event is normally dated by researchers to AD 33–36.  Within the New Testament, Paul’s conversion experience is discussed in both Paul’s own letters and in the book known by the title Acts of the Apostles.

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    THE CRUCIFIXION OF ST. PETER

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    Commissioned by Pope Paul, this work is housed in the Cappella Paolina, in the Vatican Palace, and is believed to be the last fresco completed by Michelangelo. St. Peter is represented at the moment in which he was raised by the Roman soldiers to the Cross, with stress given to the depiction of his pain and suffering. Restoration of the fresco, completed in 2009, revealed an image believed to be a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself. The figure is standing in the upper left corner of the fresco, wearing a red tunic and a blue turban. Blue turbans were often worn by Renaissance sculptors to keep the dust out of their hair.

    The mountains are painted in a faint blue hue, which perhaps is intended to increase the depth of field through atmospheric perspective. The land represented in the middle ground and foreground is a pale yellow-green that is in some places more of a yellow ochre in colour. The main vertical elements in the painting are the figures, which occupy most of the foreground. Many clusters of people surround a single large central figure that is mounted on a crucifix. Unlike the previous representations of the martyrdom of Peter, Michelangelo depicts the raising of the cross at the moment before the crucifixion has started. The angle of the crucifix activates the composition and makes what might otherwise be a static image into a more dynamic image. The strong diagonal line of the crucifix creates a cyclical visual pattern for the eyes to follow to the group of people located on the top right corner, which in turn leads to the end of the crucifix, whilst the other end points to the men climbing up the steps. Michelangelo also created many strong diagonals with the placement of his figures and the extension of their arms and legs towards a central point of convergence. The positioning of St. Peter himself is often noted as a striking innovation implemented in this work. St. Peter’s upper body cranes upward, twisting his neck around so that his eyes make contact with the viewer. The saint’s penetrating stare gives the impression that he is demanding our observation of his crucifixion, so that his sacrifice would not be in vain.

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    Detail –Michelangelo’s self-portrait may be the figure with the red tunic and blue turban

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    The Sculptures

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    St. John the Baptist Church at Caprese, where Michelangelo was baptised in 1475

    MADONNA OF THE STAIRS

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    This relief sculpture is housed in the Casa Buonarroti, Florence and was completed circa 1491, when Michelangelo was about seventeen years old. It is generally believed that this relief and the Battle of the Centaurs were Michelangelo’s first two sculptures. The first reference to the Madonna of the Stairs as a work by Michelangelo was in the 1568 edition of Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. It depicts a maternal scene involving the Virgin Mary and her infant son, while an older child, possibly John the Baptist, is depicted standing several steps above the mother.  Two other infant boys are also illustrated in the background of the relief. The vertical and horizontal play of lines created by the older boy’s somewhat unusual pose could be seen as a symbolic reference to the Crucifix.

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    Detail

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    BATTLE OF THE CENTAURS

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    Created around 1492, this unfinished marble sculpture concerns a popular narrative subject for artists during ancient times as well as the Renaissance: the mythic battle between the Lapiths and the Centaurs. It is believed the relief sculpture was the last work Michelangelo created while under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici, who died shortly after the sculpture’s completion. Inspired by a classical relief by Bertoldo di Giovanni, a work in bronze that hung in the Medici palace, Michelangelo’s own interpretation of the Battle of the Centaurs was an innovative breakthrough in the art of sculpture, due to its departure from the contemporary practice of working on a discrete plane, opting instead to work multidimensionally. It was also the first sculpture Michelangelo created without the use of a bow drill, achieving finer details with the use of a toothed chisel. For these reasons, Michelangelo regarded The Battle of the Centaurs as the best of his early works, serving as a potent reminder of why he was determined in his efforts to become an independent sculptor.

    It is believed the poet Poliziano suggested the specific subject to Michelangelo, recounting the myth to him. The battle of the Lapiths and the Centaurs took place at the wedding feast of Pirithous, king of the Lapith, who had long clashed with the neighbouring Centaurs. To mark his good intentions, Pirithous invited the Centaurs to his wedding to Hippodamia. However, several of the Centaurs, unused to wine, became drunk and when the bride was presented to greet the guests, the centaur Eurytion leapt up and attempted to carry her away. This led to a fight and an ensuing year-long war, before the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly. The ancient Greek sculptors of the school of Pheidias considered the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs as symbolic of the great conflict between order and chaos and a metaphor for the difference between the civilised Greeks and the Persian ‘barbarians’. Therefore, battles between Lapiths and Centaurs were depicted in the sculptured friezes on the Parthenon and on Zeus’ temple at Olympia.

    Michelangelo’s relief consists of a mass of nude figures, writhing in combat, placed underneath a roughed out strip, in which the artist’s chisel marks remain visible. The centaurs are obscured in appearance as most of the figures are represented from the waist up. One of the few identifiable centaurs is visible in the bottom centre, while Hippodamia can be seen among the figures in the centre right. The Battle of the Centaurs was an early turning point of Michelangelo’s sculptural technique. Particularly striking is the composition of the figure’s upper limbs, which deviate from the carefully articulated norms. Michelangelo also sculpted independently of his preparatory drawings, freeing him from the constraints of two-dimensional vision and allowing him to merge the figures fluidly and multi-dimensionally.

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