The last Judgment (Michel-Angel)

See also: last Judgment (homonymy)

The last Jugement is a biblical Fresque representing the last Jugement, painted by Michel-Angel on the wall of the furnace bridge of the Chapelle Sixtine with the the Vatican with the XVe century (Renaissance) on ordering of the Pape Clément VII (It is then sixty years old and carries out this work in six years).

History

In 1532, Michel-Angel returns to Rome after a stay of several years to Florence (during which it had taken party against the Pape in the conflict with the emperor Charles Quint) and Clément VII, which forgave him, requires of him to paint the two ends of the Chapelle Sixtine. It was to represent there the Chute of the rebellious angels and the last Jugement . Almost at once it was studied to carry out this disproportionate project. Clement VII having died (in 1534), it thought of giving up this work to take again the tomb of Jules II, when the pope Paul III opposed it and named it by brief in 1535 architect, painter and sculptor of the the Vatican. The last Jugement was only carried out. It was completed in 1541.

Description

The fresco extends on a vast wall (twenty meters in height, ten broad) in form from double glasses. It has as a biblical subject the last Judgment, topic which one very frequently finds on the wall of entry of the church S at the time   it is thought that Clément VII, which decided site, wanted to mark the spirits after terrible the Sac of Rome of 1527 by the Lansquenet S of Charles Quint.

In top of each glasses, the Ange S hold the instruments of the Passion of Christ: the cross and the column where the Christ was whipped. In the center, under the junction of the glasses, Christ in majesty is, raising the hand of a gesture of pitiless Juge. He is represented under the features of a young man having an athlete's build whom one says inspired by the chest of the View-point - a Christ quite different from the usual representations, giving him an air at the same time more human and more terrible. At its sides, the Vierge diverts the face as a sign of pity.

In the sides of Jesus and his mother appear the Saint S holding the instruments of their martyrdom, witnesses of the faith. One can recognize with their feet the owners of Rome, Saint Barthelemy holding his skinned skin, on which Michel-Angel was represented, and SAINT LAURENT with its grill. On the right holy Pierre holding is the Clef S of the Paradis, Adam and Eve, Ésaü and reconciled Jacob, and others Martyr S. On the left, Apôtre S and Jean-Baptiste.

In bottom, one sees deaths on the left ressuscitant and taken along by angels towards Christ to be judged, and on the right damnés pushed back by the angels and drawn by the demons towards the Enfer. In the center, one notices two men disputed by the angels and the démons  ; these men cling to a Chapelet, judgment implicit of the Protesting S, which reject the devotion with the Virgin.

Lastly, all in bottom of the fresco, two characters inspired not by the Bible but by the Divine comedy of Dante: Charon driving out out of its boat the damnés  ; Minos, with its ears of ass (under the features of the Master of the ceremonies Biagio da Cesena, which hated Michel-Angel, which returned to him well).

The unit composes a scene seizing, at the same time ordered and bubbling. Michel-angel offers a vision tortured and painful of the last judgment, far from the calm majesty of the usual representations, or the Christ of softness and love describes by saint François d' Assise.

It should be noted that at the time, work had made scandal, especially owing to the fact that the few four hundred characters appeared in it naked, even the Christ. Paul IV thought one moment to remove all the fresco, but it was finally satisfied to make moderately veil certain characters by Daniele da Volterra, which gained there the nickname of Braghettone (culottier). At the 17th century still, Clément XII will make cover with other characters.

The vision and the interpretation of work were disturbed by the long restoration carried out of 1981 with 1992. It revealed astonishing colors at that which one called the “terrible sovereign of the shade”: acid pinks pastels, greens, blue lights…

Sources

  • Guide of the museums and the Vatican City , publications of the Vatican, 1986

  • Rome , Hatchet, coll “blue Guides”, 1992

See too

External bonds

  • Diaporama of interpretation of the last Judgment

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