1
November 1509 A.D. Michelangelo
Unveiled Unfinished Chapel Ceiling
Graves, Dan.
“Michelangelo Unveiled Unfinished Chapel Ceiling.” Christianity.com. Jul
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/michelangelo-unveiled-unfinished-chapel-ceiling-11629912.html. Accessed 6 Jun 2014
All
of Rome waited in expectation. For months, Michelangelo Buonarroti had worked
in secret. Curiosity was aflame. What had he accomplished? Had he succeeded in
transferring his skill as a sculptor to work with fresco (paint in plaster)?
Pope Julius II, as impatient as
ever, demanded that Michelangelo unveil the ceiling of the Sistine chapel
although it was far from done. High on the scaffolding, his face just inches
from the ceiling, paint dripping into his eyes, Michelangelo had completed only
the central vault.
Julius prevailed. Down came the
scaffold, erected with such labor. On this day, November 1,
1509, the public surged into the chapel to see what Michelangelo had
wrought.
Painters could only gape in
astonishment. Michelangelo, who had earlier revolutionized sculpture, now did
the same with painting. His nine groups of stories from Genesis stole the
breath of contemporaries. He made his figures seem to be in perspective and
distributed them across the vault with an astonishing inner rhythm to tell the
stories of creation, the fall of man, and sacred history. (Years later, he
added the Last Judgment to the wall behind the altar.) His rivals immediately
began to ape his techniques.
Michelangelo infused much of his
art with Christian feeling. An admirer of the reformer Savonarola, his sonnets
show that he genuinely desired to know God and considered himself unworthy of
him:
O
my dear God, matched with the much I owe
All that I am were no real recompense:
Paying a debt is not munificence.
All that I am were no real recompense:
Paying a debt is not munificence.
Although he had flaws of temper,
Michelangelo's art and life reveal an individual concerned for God's glory. A
contemporary wrote, "Buonarroti, having lived for ninety years, there was
never found through all that time anyone who could with right and justice
impute to him a stain or any ugliness of manners."
However, he found dealing with
Pope Julius a strain. Once when Michelangelo threatened to leave Rome, Julius,
in a fury, said he would have him flung from the scaffold. Michelangelo
immediately took it down and refused to add the gold leaf and touch-ups that
Julius wanted.
Bibliography:
1. Cross, F. L., editor. "Michelangelo." The Oxford
Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press, 1997.
2. Janson, H. W. History of Art. Prentice-Hall,
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1969.
3. Symonds, John Addington. The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti.
New York: Modern Library, 1928.
4. Various encyclopedia and internet articles.
Last updated June,
2007.
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