Michelangelo's Last Judgement

Michelangelo Buonarroti, born in the sixteenth century, was perhaps one of the greatest artisans of all time. He was an accomplished artist, sculptor, architect, and poet who demonstrated his great skill with the creation of many astounding works. Michelangelo's artwork consisted of paintings and sculptures that showed humanity in its natural state. He is remembered today as the man who had sculpted the "David" and the "Pieta", which are two of the most stunning sculptures to come out of the Renaissance period. Although sculpting was the love of his life, his paintings of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, and "The Last Judgement" are considered by many his best masterpieces. Michelangelo's artistic career can be divided into two periods. In the early period he focused on realism. During this early period Michelangelo's works included the Pieta and the David. At the age of 24 he completed a statue called the "Pieta," which is still in its original place in Saint Peter's Basilica. This marble sculpture shows the dead Jesus Christ in his mother's arms. In 1501 Michelangelo returned to Florence, Italy to sculpt the famous nude sculpture called the "David." The "David" measures 18 feet tall, and is so massive that it took 40 men to move it from Michelangelo's workshop (Liebert, 72). The second period of Michelangelo's career was based upon his own imagination. In 1505 Michelangelo was summoned by Pope Julius II to fabricate a monumental tomb for him. We have no clear sense of what the tomb was to look like, since over the years it went through at least five conceptual revisions, and was never actually finished due to frustrating delays. A short time after starting the tomb, Pope Julius II selected Michelangelo to fresco the Sistine Chapel ceiling. When other artists were asked to paint ceilings they lied down on the scaffolding. Michelangelo painted in a standing position which caused him much discomfort (Liebert 146-147). Michelangelo even wrote a sonnet in which he described the pain he felt while painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling. My belly's pushed by force beneath my chin My beard toward Heaven, I feel the back of my brain Upon my neck, I grow the breast of a Harpy; My brush, above my face continually Makes it a splendid floor by dripping down My loins have penetrated to my paunch My rump's a crupper, as a counterweight, And pointless the unseeing steps I go In front of me my skin is being stretched While it folds up behind and forms a knot And I am bending like a Syrian bow (Liebert 148).

Pope Julius' chief architect Bramante questioned Michelangelo's experience with frescos, but as he was a friend of the Pope, it was insisted upon that he be given the job. Michelangelo worked on the ceiling from July of 1508 to October 31, 1512. He had hired five assistants to aid him in painting process. All in all, Michelangelo had painted three hundred and thirty-six assorted figures on the Sistine ceiling. This was an incredible feat and in the present, three hundred thirty-five and one-half of these figures still remain (Brandes, 162). The overall organization of the fresco consists of four large triangles at the corner; a series of eight triangular spaces on the outer border; an intermediate series of figures; and nine central panels, all bound together with architectural motifs and nude male figures. The corner triangles depict heroic action in the Old Testament, while the other eight triangles depict the biblical ancestors of Jesus Christ. Michelangelo conceived and executed this huge work in only four years, the first half taking almost three years to complete. The paintings were done with the brightest colors that attracted attention to the whole ceiling as one entered to look. The ceiling was completed just a little after the Pope had died but has given the Sistine Chapel tremendous appeal for having the best fresco ever done.

In painting "The Last Judgment," Michelangelo was given the chance to incorporate all that he had learned about the human body. He was able to show the way the body moved, as well as its displays of unrestrained passion, overwhelming grief, or endless torment. Michelangelo received a commission from Pope Clement VII to paint "The Last Judgment" on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in 1534. He was also commissioned at this time to paint a "Fall of the Angels" on the entrance wall, but this second work was never executed (Brandes, 198). Sebastiano del Piombo had persuaded the pope that the painting would look best in oil, and the wall was therefore prepared to receive oil pigments. This delayed the beginning of the work, since Michelangelo declared oil painting to be an "effeminate art" and insisted on painting "al fresco," as he had done with the ceiling. Although he had painted the ceiling of the chapel twenty-eight years earlier, the style of "The Last Judgment" was greatly different. On the ceiling, the ideas of hope and exaltation seem to rule, but on the altar wall, there is the depiction of Christ as the unforgiving