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The
Last
Judgment
In
Rome, in 1536, Michelangelo was
at work on the Last Judgment for
the alter wall of the Sistine
Chapel, which he finished in
1541. The largest fresco of the
Renaissance, it depicts Judgment
Day. Christ, with a clap of
thunder, puts into motion the
inevitable separation, with the
saved ascending on the left side
of the painting and the damned
descending on the right into a
Dantesque hell. As was his
custom, Michelangelo portrayed
all the figures nude, but prudish
draperies were added by another
artist (who was dubbed the
“breeches-maker”) a
decade later, as the cultural
climate became more conservative.
Michelangelo painted his own
image in the flayed skin of St.
Bartholomew. Although he was also
given another painting
commission, the decoration of the
Pauline Chapel in the 1540s, his
main energies were directed
toward architecture during this
phase of his life.
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The
Fall from Grace,
1508-12,
from the ceiling of the
Sistine Chapel.
click
on image to
enlarge
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