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The Last Judgment
By peace | September 18, 2010
The Last Judgment
The Medici family had to leave Florence in 1527. The people took away the family’s power and made Florence a republic. At that time Michelangelo was made an architect. He also worked as a military engineer. He oversaw repairs to the city’s walls and made plans so that an attacking army could not get inside Florence. He worked on the tomb of Julius II, too. He began to carve five more slave statues, but he did not finish them.
By 1530, the Medici family were back in power. Michelangelo, who had helped the republic, feared for his life. The Medici family had ordered him killed. Michelangelo went into hiding for several months. The new pope, Clement VII, Lorenzo de Medici’s nephew, pardoned him on the condition that he return to work on the Medici tombs.
Michelangelo left Florence for good in 1534. He settled in Rome. A new pope, Paul III, wanted him to paint a fresco on the back wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted The Last Judgment, a Bible story that tells of people rising from the dead and being judged by Christ. In this fresco Michelangelo shows Christ in the centre, high above the altar, surrounded by saints and angels, his right arm upraised as if to smite the wicked. Below, bodies rise and fall in a furious swirl: the blessed pulled up from the earth toward heaven while hideous demons drag the sinners down into hell — At the bottom are people in Hell. At the top are people in Heaven. He painted many of the figures undressed. He believed that people were made in the image of God, so the naked body was beautiful. This bothered Biagio da Cesena, one of the pope’s officials. He did not think that a picture showing uncovered bodies should be in a chapel. Michelangelo was so annoyed by this comment that he painted the man into the picture — in hell, naturally. Michelangelo did not have to change his painting, but to get back at Cesena, he painted Cesena as Minos, the king of hell — He is shown naked, with the ears of a donkey, in the grip of a hideous snake.
The finished fresco was shown in 1541. It caused quite a stir. The painting is so vivid and terrifying that when Pope Paul III saw it, he was so overcome by what he saw that he fell to his knees and prayed for mercy.
Michelangelo even painted himself into the picture in a most gruesome way — his is the dark, distorted face on the flayed skin held by Saint Bartholomew. About 23 years after Michelangelo finished the fresco, one of his students, Daniele da Volterra, was hired to paint coverings(little draperies) on all the naked figures — to cover the ‘shameful’ parts.
More Links About Michelangelo
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Artist of The Body
Michelangelo’s Pieta
The Giant
Michelangelo and The Pope
Sculptures By Michelangelo
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