The Sistine Chapel
The Ceiling
This is Michelangelo’s masterpiece and one of the most important painting cycles in the world, covering 800 sq metres of wall with “good fresco” painting. It was begun in May 1508, and then stopped for about a year between September 1510 and August 1511. The chapel was solemnly inaugurated by Julius II on November 1st, 1512. The vault’s iconography is linked to the themes chosen for the side walls, representing humanity’s long wait for Christ, the prophecies foreseeing his coming and scenes from the Genesis. All the figures are set in a massive, architectural painted background, which is superimposed to the real vault. Interpretation of the paintings can be divided into three parts: The first part: Christ’s Ancestors according to Matthew’s Gospel (1:1-17) are in the triangular webs and lunettes above the Windows. Men and women, representing humanity in general and generations succeeding one another, are crowded into a narrow, shallow space, awaiting the great event of Revelation in different poses and attitudes: they look tired, exhausted, in fact, prostrated and often in great pain caused by their inactivity, exasperated by the interminably slow passage of time before the birth of Christ. The painter’s extraordinary technical ability is particularly noticeable in some of the figures, such as Mathan (above the original entrance)
or Josaphat (in the central part of the vault, near the episodes from the life of Christ), rapidly frescoed with quick brush strokes and very fluid colours. The four pendentives are painted with scenes alluding to the Salvation of Israel’s people. Beginning from the part over the ancient entrance are the following:
- on the right, “Judith and Holofernes”. The Babylonian king Nabucodonosor had ordered his Assyrian general Holofernes to attack the Israeli army; Judith, a young Jewish girl, got Holofernes drunk and then killed him. The scene shows Judith giving his head to her maid (Judith 13:8-10).
- on the left, the episode with “David and Goliath”. During the war between the Jews and the Philistines, young David fought Goliath, a giant who had sworn that he would reduce the Jews to slavery if he defeated their army (1, Samuel 17: 41-51). The pendentives towards the Last Judgement wall represent:
- on the right, the “Brazen Serpent”, alluding to the Biblical episode in which the Lord sent the reptiles against the Israelites. During their journey to the Promised Land, they became discouraged with the hardships endured, incurring the wrath of both God and Moses (Numbers 21:8). They repented for their behaviour, however, and were pardoned. God then told Moses to make a serpent in bronze: looking at this bronze serpent could save anyone bitten by one of the reptiles;
- on the left, the “Punishment of Haman”, an episode from the Book of Esther. A young vizier named Haman issued an edict against the Jews, ordering that anyone refusing to bow down to the king would be killed. Esther, the wife of a Persian king, managed to have the edict annulled, thereby saving the people of Israel and causing the death of the vizier Haman. Above these pendentives are symmetrical bronze nudes and “bucrani” (ox skulls), classical decorative motifs alluding to sacrificial rituals.
The second part: splendid figures of the seven Prophets of the Bible and of the five pagan Sibyls, seated on massive thrones, outlined by naked, monochrome naked puttos resting on plinths. The Prophets and Sibyls both predicted the coming of Christ. Each figure is accompanied by angels or puttos who underline the personage’s specific role. They are all caught in the act of reading a book or unrolling a parchment scroll, absorbed in an extraordinary physical and spiritual effort. The most beautiful figures are probably the Delphic Sibyl and the prophets Ezekiel and Jonah. Jonah is shown next to the whale inside which he remained for three days - the same amount of time that Christ stayed in the sepulchre before his Resurrection.
The third part: the rectangles in the middle have nine scenes from the Genesis, four of them large ones and five small ones. Three of these episodes describe the Creation, three the story of Adam, and three deal with Noah. Michelangelo started painting the vault with the Noah episodes, probably intending to paint the scenes with the Creator at a later moment.
The three scenes of the Creation start with the “Separation of Light from Darkness”(Genesis 1:3-4), showing God wrapped in pink drapery and occupying most of the scene, which has an extremely complex perspective. Recent studies done after the fresco was cleaned have proved that Michelangelo painted it in just one day. Next is the extraordinary “Creation of Celestial Bodies and Plants”, divided into two asymmetric parts, each one containing the figure of the Lord. On the right He faces outwards, creating the shining sun and the pale moon with one sweeping gesture, while on the left the Lord has his back to the viewer as He creates plant life (Genesis 1:12-16). The third panel, with the “Separation of Land from Sea” (Genesis 1: 7-9), shows a completely new perspective and is equally beautiful.
Next to it is the celebrated “Creation of Adam”, where the focal point, the two loosened hands of the protagonists, is slightly offcentre. Adam’s body is magnificent. God is wrapped in pink drapery, and wingless angels with an expression of amazement on their faces, support His impetus. It is interesting to note that the two figures of God and Adam were actually painted using a single preliminary cartoon, as if Michelangelo were confirming what is written in the Bible: “God created man in the image of himself” (Genesis 1:27).