The Sistine Chapel
The “Creation of Eve” is next. It should be noted that in Michelangelo’s fresco Eve is born from living rock and not, as the Bible says, from Adam’s rib. The sixth panel is occupied by the “Original Sin” (left) and the “Expulsion from Paradise” (right). The two scenes are divided by the tree of good and evil, with the serpent coiled around its trunk and the Archangel Gabriel above it. The tree is slightly off-centre, marking the transition from lush countryside to an arid landscape, expressing how the human condition has changed. Even our ancestors’ bodies change after the Sin, seeming to age, which proves that physical appearance for Michelangelo also represents inner spirituality. The seventh episode, “Sacrifice of Noah”, shows the Patriarch thanking the Lord after the flood. The offering of a ram’s entrails can be seen in the foreground: “Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it” (Genesis 8:20). The “Flood” in the eighth panel is largely taken from the seventh and eighth chapters of the Genesis. A tent, where the terrified future victims of the flood are taking shelter, is on the right. In the centre, Noah carries the few survivors to safety on a boat, taking them towards the arc in the upper left of the painting, which symbolises the Church. The scene of Salvation is painted diagonally in the foreground: after the inundation, the waters have retreated and the survivors can settle down on dry land, along with the few possessions they have saved. Sixty people crowd into this scene, standing out against a light background in a deep landscape. This was probably the first episode painted by Michelangelo: afterwards he preferred larger images, daringly foreshortened and the composition became complex. Unfortunately, part of the sky collapsed in 1797 when Castel Sant’Angelo’s gunpowder depot exploded; 16th century prints show that a thunderbolt was painted in the collapsed area.
In the ninth panel over the original entrance to the Chapel is the “Drunkenness of Noah” (Genesis 9:20-23), showing life and agricultural activities resuming on earth. “Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told that to his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness”.
The Genesis scenes are surrounded by “Ignudi”, extraordinary naked male figures; their powerful bodies probably represent male beauty, created in God’s image. They sit on marble blocks in “spiralling” poses, holding festoons or ribbons with large bronze medallions painted with scenes from the Old Testament. Their role in the composition is an important one, because they break up the structure’s regularity, visually connecting the Genesis panels. It has been observed that “their presence on each of the four relieves very naturally frames the smaller scenes, and their function in the sequence of the nine panels is therefore essential” (R. Pane, 1964). This function is particularly noticeable between the first and second scene, where part of the fresco over the arch collapsed in 1797.
Other important painting effects are the following: the way the painter enlarged the naked male figures and the figure of Christ towards the altar; his diversified use of colour, which is applied thickly in the Moses scenes and with rapid brush strokes in the last scenes.
Finally, the images in the foreground have clear, sharp outlines, while those in the background have softened outlines painted with fluid brush strokes, a technique which Michelangelo had probably learnt from his contemporary, Leonardo.