In Michelangelo's fresco "The Last Judgment" retribution overtakes not only sinners, but also those who annoyed the painter
Fresco "The Last Judgment"
13.7 m x 12.2 m 1536–1541
Located in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
It would be easy and joyful for the artist to create if it were not for the impatient customer. Michelangelo, who always preferred sculpture to painting, sought first to complete the tomb of Pope Julius II, but the new pontiff Paul III insisted that the master begin as soon as possible on the fresco depicting the Last Judgment for the Sistine Chapel. The artist remembered how, more than twenty years ago, he cursed everything in the world when he painted the ceiling in the same room, balancing on shaky scaffolding in an uncomfortable position, which caused unbearable back pain. And here it is again the same...
However, the customer is not so bad, and then come the critics. Before Michelangelo had time to finish the painting, complaints began to pour in: they say, naked bodies have no place in the chapel frescoes. Meanwhile, according to art critic Marsha Hall, the artist followed the dogma that at the end of time the living and those resurrected from the dead will receive incorruptible spiritual bodies.
The only thing worse than critics is official censorship. At the Council of Trent of 1545–1563, church hierarchs condemned liberties in religious painting. They even wanted to destroy Michelangelo's Last Judgment. Immediately after his death, the bodies in the fresco began to be “covered” with draperies painted on top. Michelangelo could not do anything about the censorship, but he still managed to hit back at some of his ill-wishers in his own way.
1. Christ. Beardless, athletically built, he looks like an ancient Greek statue - Michelangelo was also criticized by his contemporaries for being uncanonical, but ancient beauty has always been a divine ideal for the artist. Perhaps the very plot of Christ dispensing well-deserved punishments to sinners gave Michelangelo the idea of punishing his own offenders right on the fresco.
2. Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The “dressing” of the figures in the fresco began with her. In 1565, Michelangelo's student Daniele da Volterra was tasked with covering the virgin's nakedness and changing the pose of Saint Blaise standing behind her. Volterra "took revenge" public opinion: from then on he was nicknamed Il Braghettone- “drawer of pants.”
3. Minos. The painter borrowed this image from “ Divine Comedy» Dante Alighieri. The artist deliberately gave the demon a portrait resemblance to his first detractor, the papal master of ceremonies Biagio da Cesena. He told Paul III that this fresco with indecently naked bodies was not suitable for the pontiff’s chapel, but perhaps for public baths.
4. Saint Bartholomew. According to some researchers, it is no coincidence that the character holding a knife and human skin with a portrait of Michelangelo as attributes is similar in appearance to the philosopher Pietro Aretino. While the artist was working on the fresco, the thinker bothered him, trying to impose his own interpretation of the plot. After The Last Judgment was ready, Aretino joined in the persecution of Michelangelo for his “nudity,” despite the fact that he himself composed pornographic sonnets.
5. Apostle Peter. He holds the keys to the gates of heaven and hell - a symbol of the powers delegated by God to St. Peter and his successors, the popes. In Michelangelo, the naked apostle, stripped of his regalia, returns the keys to Christ. This is a hint to the pontiffs that their power is transitory and does not really belong to them. Some art historians believe that the artist gave Peter the features of Paul III.
6. Self-portrait. It is believed that Michelangelo depicted his face, distorted by suffering, on the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew as a silent reproach to all those responsible for the artist’s mental and physical torment.
7. Young man. Art historian Fabrizio Mancinelli suggested that Michelangelo depicted his student Francesco Amadori, nicknamed Urbino, here. The artist “pushed” it behind St. Bartholomew’s back, perhaps annoyed that sections of the fresco made by an insufficiently talented assistant made it imperfect.
Artist
Michelangelo Buonarroti
1475
- born in Caprese (now Caprese Michelangelo, Tuscany) in the family of an official.
1487–1489
- was a student of the famous Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio; then, probably, he received his first experience of fresco painting.
1490–1492
- studied sculpture under the guidance of master Bertoldo di Giovanni.
1496
- Arrived in Rome for the first time.
1508–1512
- painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by order of Pope Julius II, including creating famous fresco"The Creation of Adam".
1513–1515
- created the statue of “Moses” for the tomb of Julius II.
1534
- finally moved from Florence to Rome.
1547
- was appointed chief architect of the new St. Peter's Cathedral under construction.
1564
- died of fever in Rome. According to the will of the artist, he was buried in Florence, in the Church of Santa Croce.
Photo: ALAMY / LEGION-MEDIA , DIOMEDIA, BRIDGEMAN (X2) / FOTODOM.RU
We have all heard about the Vatican and its Sistine Chapel, which was built by Pope Sixtus IV in the 15th century. But somehow I had no desire to learn about this wonder of the world myself. And I've been there for a week now.
Outwardly, it is completely inconspicuous, it looks like an extension to St. Peter's Cathedral, but inside it is painted with frescoes by many great artists, and it became famous thanks to the genius of the artist Michelangelo Buonarotti. 
And if in more detail, then...
Michelangelo Buonarotti painted the ceiling of the chapel (12,000 sq. m.) in four years between 1508 and 1512. He had to write lying on his back in unbearable heat and cold. But the ceiling of the chapel is a separate story for me, especially since it is well presented. 
About the fresco “The Last Judgment”
And yet my attention is more focused on the altar wall of the chapel, which the artist completed much later, only in 1524. He completed this also enormous work (200 sq. m.) for 3 years and it was called “The Last Judgment.” It also depicts many (291) human figures who experience the Second Coming of Christ. 
Looking at the picture from afar, you first of all feel the vortex of a whirlpool, as in a kaleidoscope. And you don’t immediately grasp the greatness and meaning of creation. And this way and that I turned the fresco, thanks to the Vatican website. Then I realized that it was perhaps necessary to first lower my gaze to the lower left corner, where the dead are resurrected, and then rise to the figure of the Supreme Judge (Christ) in the upper part of the center of the picture, and then only, together with the condemned, lower my gaze into the hell of the underworld. Then the countless number of human bodies, which seem to be carried and twisted by a whirlwind in a variety of poses, will be able to disintegrate into individual characters. It is better to watch them from this site, where very good photos fresco fragments.
The blue background and athleticism of the figures are surprising. Anger, horror, struggle of passions and hopeless despair are visible on their faces. On the right on the fresco are sinners who are bowing under the blow of fate, their faces and bodies shuddering in horror. On the left, the righteous ascend to heaven, but it seems that salvation brought them more relief than joy. 
In the center is Christ, who with a punishing gesture of a raised hand brings down the dying Universe before our eyes. He is surrounded by radiance, without a beard, looking like a young athlete, raising his hand. And this gesture is more threatening, punishing than blessing. Compassionate, as if depressed by what is happening, Madonna turns away, human sorrows are close to her in a motherly way. Above Christ on the left, angels overturn a cross, a symbol of martyrdom and humiliation, and on the right they overthrow a column, a symbol of passing earthly power. Under Christ in the center, seven angels sound trumpets to announce the hour of judgment, saved souls rise up, tombs are opened, the dead are resurrected, skeletons rise from the ground, a man being dragged down by the devil covers his face with his hands in horror. Even the saints who surround Christ with a tight ring shudder in anticipation of the verdict. To the right and left stand Peter and Paul, and at his feet sit Lawrence (left) and Bartholomew (right). They watch Christ's gestures intently. All the damned, driven by horror, are cast into hell, in the lower right corner. Charon is already waiting for them, escorting them to the underworld through the Styx. Charon ferociously expels those condemned to eternal torment from his boat into hell with blows of the oar. Devils in a joyful frenzy drag the naked bodies of the proud, heretics, traitors... men and women throw themselves into a bottomless abyss.
And a little more about Saint Bartholomew, who holds flayed human skin in his hands... 
His pose is very unusual. His torso and arms look like scales. 
And the skin resembles a portrait of Michelangelo. 
There is a hypothesis that Michelangelo depicted that moment of the Last Judgment, when Christ decides the fate of the artist himself.
More information and photos from here:
Book about Michelangelo "Torment and Joy". By I. Stone.
In the very center of the Roman Vatican, along with significant sights, stands beautiful museum– Sistine Chapel ( Italian Capella Sistina) in which Michelangelo himself had to create his masterpieces.
Created initially as a house church - that is, a consecrated building located in a building - it was strengthened and turned into a chapel. It was named in honor of Pope Sixtus.
Chapel address: Viale Vaticano, Cappella Sistina
Opening hours: Monday-Saturday from 9.00-18.00
Ticket price: from 8 to 16 euros
Official website: www.mv.vatican.va
History of the Sistine Chapel
The Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo Buonarroti has undergone several restorations and reconstructions. The very first of them occurred back in 1400. It was then that the house fortress was rebuilt into a chapel. Later, as a result of soil subsidence, restoration was carried out with the construction and strengthening of walls.
Along with its museum purpose, it is here that a solemn, godly event takes place - the election of the Pope. There is nothing surprising in this choice: spacious, decorated with frescoes - paintings done on damp plaster and unusually durable - from the times of Botticelli and Michelangelo, the room gives everyone a feeling of solemnity and the constant presence of Christ.
There were about 16 paintings in total, but only 12 have survived to this day. They decorate the walls, altar and ceiling of the chapel. As for the bottom of the chapel, it was previously pristine. Tapestries by Raphael's hand were hung here. The most interesting thing is that those frescoes that are on the sides tell about the lives of two prophets at once: Christ and Moses. Between the windows, there are portraits of all the popes.
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling also has its own characteristics and history.
Entertainment lovers will undoubtedly like the Mirabilandia amusement park or the Aquafan water park.
It rivals the Sistine Chapel in beauty, and interesting details will not leave anyone indifferent.
Exotic lovers should definitely try the famous one, which not everyone dares to try.
Description of the painting by Michelangelo “The Last Judgment”
It is impossible to provide a detailed description of Michelangelo’s painting “The Last Judgment” - it is such a chaotic and numerous arrangement of many naked bodies that it is impossible to either count its exact number - the approximate number is about 400 people - or convey the whole gamut of feelings on their faces.
However, the greatest achievement of this picture is that all the emotions of the characters are reflected in their poses. There is not a single repeating figure in this image! This phenomenon can neither be explained nor repeated.
Another fact: depressive state Michelangelo played a cruel joke on him. The Last Judgment itself is, according to the Bible, the victory of Christ over Lucifer. However, Michelangelo depicted “The Last Judgment” - the fresco of the Sistine Chapel - as the fear of all humanity before the inevitability. In other words, the description of Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” does not reflect the joy of victory, but shows the horror of this event. This is due to the fact that, as a time interval, Michelangelo chose not the end, but the beginning of this action.
This explains details such as:
- Young Christ.
- Angels without wings.
- A piece of skin collected from a saint's leg, etc.
The creation of this painting took Michelangelo 6 years. It was the Last Judgment that took away from Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel last strength and caused severe mental anguish, but perhaps it was these emotions that made this picture so stunning and exciting.
Photo of Michelangelo's painting “The Last Judgment”
Sistine Chapel from above
Fragment of the painting The Last Judgment - devils drag the martyrs to Minos Fragment of the painting The Last Judgment - Charon transports the martyrs
“And this serves as an example in our art great painting, sent by God to the earthly, so that they could see how fate guides the descended minds of a higher order, which have absorbed grace and divine wisdom.”
[Vasari on the fresco “The Last Judgment”]
Divine Michelangelo. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel “The Last Judgment”. Part I . Photo and description of fragments of the Sistine Chapel fresco “The Last Judgment”.
In 1534, Michelangelo returned to Rome again and forever.
Pope Clement VII, who was going to commission him to paint the “Resurrection” for the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, died on the second day after the artist’s arrival.
The new Pope Paul III offered Michelangelo the position of chief architect and painter of the Vatican, and the artist gratefully accepted this honorable offer. Pope Paul decided to realize the noble intention of his predecessor and complete the picturesque decoration of the Sistine Chapel. But he chose the theme of the Last Judgment on the altar wall, and on the opposite wall above the entrance - “The Fall of Lucifer.” Of these two grandiose frescoes, only the first was executed - “The Last Judgment”.
Previously, the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel was painted with frescoes by Pietro Perugino on the themes “The Finding of Moses” and “The Birth of Christ,” which are known to us only in descriptions. To give space to the new fresco, it was necessary to destroy not only them, but also Michelangelo's paintings in the lunettes of the altar wall. In addition, two huge lancet windows were walled up, which changed both the lighting and the perception of other works. And now in this place Michelangelo had to recreate the Last Judgment - a fresco that became the last great work of the Renaissance and the harbinger of a new style of Rome - Baroque.
This last piece great era was going to create it last great master: by that time his main colleagues and rivals Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael had long since passed away.
The younger generation idolized Michelangelo, but this could not lift him out of deep depression: after all, he witnessed the slow fading of the era of humanist geniuses, whose faith crumbled to dust. It was replaced by a new ideology and new art. The events of that time, especially the strengthening of Protestantism and the destructive effect of the Reformation, increased Michelangelo's emotional intoxication. In addition, the artist had serious health problems: he suffered from arthritis, migraines, neuralgia, and had toothache. At 60, he looked like a hunched and tired old man. In such an environment and in such a state, Michelangelo began to create a story about the latest tragedy humanity - the Last Judgment. The fresco, which Michelangelo spent about six years of hard work creating, is striking in its monumentality. The mural is about 200 square meters in size. m (1370x1220 cm) depicts four hundred figures in different, and never repeated, poses. This world of diverse movements reflects the entire spectrum of human feelings.
The very theme of the Last Judgment in religion is intended to embody the triumph of justice over evil. But Michelangelo abandoned the affirmative idea of the Last Judgment and presented the religious theme as a human tragedy on a cosmic scale, when the Second Coming of Christ became a day of wrath and horror, a struggle of passions and hopeless despair.
In this grandiose fresco there are no images of life-affirming power; the artist shows a person powerless in the face of fate. If the frescoes of the ceiling are dedicated to the first days of creation and are imbued with faith in man, then the “Last Judgment” carries the idea of the collapse of the world and retribution for what was done. Michelangelo managed to solve difficult task- to combine in one ensemble the ceiling painting, which is a complex system of compositions and images, with the huge composition of the “Last Judgment” on the altar wall in such a way that they do not interfere with the perception of each. Michelangelo's solution to the theme of the Last Judgment differs from the traditional one: it depicts not the moment of the Judgment, when the righteous are already separated from the sinners, but its beginning. But at the same time, he preserved the most important element of iconography, dividing the space of the fresco into two planes - heavenly (with Christ, the Mother of God and saints) and earthly, with scenes of the resurrection of the dead and dividing them into righteous and sinners.
The appearance of the beardless young Christ, personifying the Supreme Court, is also unconventional. He goes back to the early Christian type of Christ Emmanuel and is completely free from the signs of a conventional religious hierarchy. No one before Michelangelo dared to violate the ancient Byzantine canons of the image of Christ.
The center of the composition of “The Last Judgment” is the only stable figure of Christ, not amenable to movement characters. Michelangelo's Christ is not a merciful protector, but a punishing Master. His face is impartial, and the cursing hand gesture can only be interpreted as a gesture of retribution. With this punishing gesture, Christ sets into motion a slow but inexorable circular movement, which draws into its flow both the righteous and sinners, and angels and saints, indistinguishable from each other. This external force The pressure that captivates the figures and which they cannot resist is so great that the characters lose their beauty, the harmony of deprivation is disrupted by exaggeratedly powerful muscles and bodies, their sharp gestures are full of despair.
Compassionately depressed by what was happening, Maria turned away in confusion, unable to help people. Christ and Mary are surrounded by figures of saints who have found salvation, apostles and prophets, among whom stand out: Adam, as the initiator human race and Saint Peter as the founder of the Christian religion. In the hands of the martyrs, instruments of torture are symbols of the suffering they endured for their faith: Saint Sebastian with arrows, Saint Lawrence with the iron grate on which he was burned.
At the left foot of Christ, Michelangelo placed Saint Bartholomew, who holds in his hand the skin flayed alive from him by the persecutors of the first Christians. Michelangelo conveyed his emotional state and personal attitude to the embodied theme very boldly and unusually, giving the face distorted by suffering on the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew his own features.
Above Christ on the left, wingless angels (which was new for traditional iconography) overturn a cross - a symbol of martyrdom and humiliation, and on the right they overthrow a column - a symbol of passing earthly power.
At the feet of Christ, seven trumpeting angels, described by the Evangelist St. John, announce the beginning of the Last Judgment; two angels hold in their hands the book of lives, where all human deeds are recorded.
The entire fresco is filled with movement: the saved soul rises to heaven along a garland of roses. The dead rise from the earth, receiving their bones and flesh again from the same earth, and go with hope and fear to the judgment of God. Those who have few sins rise easily and freely, and strong in spirit help those who need support to rise up.
With continuation - Divine Michelangelo. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel “The Last Judgment”. Part II . Photos and descriptions of fragments of the Sistine Chapel fresco “The Last Judgment” - you can read
With the death of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo lost his patron, left Rome and returned to Florence, where he abandoned painting and sculpture for several years.
A representative of the Medici family, Clement VII, was elected as the new pope. During his pontificate, the troops of the Spanish King Charles V captured and defeated Rome in May 1527. When news of this reached Florence, the Medici were expelled from there and the republic was restored. The pope, first of all, observing the interests of his family, urgently reconciled with the Spaniards and approached Florence, the siege of which lasted 11 months. Forced to defend itself, Florence began to build forts and towers, for the construction of which Michelangelo drew plans. He does not refuse to participate in the war itself.
It was hard time for Florence, and for all of Italy. Mutual feuds, murders, and crimes poisoned human souls, and it was hard to live in the world. When Florence fell, Pope Clement VII announced that he would forget about the sculptor’s participation in the defense of the city if Michelangelo immediately resumed work on the Medici tomb at the Church of San Lorenzo. Feeling constant fear for the fate of his family and for his life, Michelangelo was forced to agree to this.
And then Pope Clement VII wanted Michelangelo to re-paint the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel with scenes from the Last Judgment. In 1534, almost a quarter of a century after finishing the painting of the Sistine ceiling, the sculptor began work on one of the most ambitious frescoes in the entire history of world painting.
When Michelangelo got used to the idea that he would still have to write “The Last Judgment,” when he found himself alone with a giant white wall into which he had to breathe life, he set to work, although at that time he was no longer young. At 60 years old, he looked like a decrepit old man - wrinkled, hunched over, tired. His joints ached, his teeth hurt, and he suffered from migraines and neuralgia.
It took the great master six years to complete his creation. As before, new dad, having lost patience, came to the chapel. The master of ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, also came with him. He really did not like The Last Judgment, and he began to furiously prove to the pope that Michelangelo was doing the wrong thing, that the picture was obscene. Having listened to all this, Michelangelo immediately, hot on his heels, painted the judge of souls Minos in the image of Biagio with donkey ears. Yes, Cesena rushed to complain to the pope, but he did not help him: so Cesena remained in hell.
There have already been so many of them - canvases depicting the power of God and the insignificance of man, the vain vanity of human thoughts and deeds. Michelangelo believed in God, but he also believed in the free thought of man, in his physical strength and beauty. The artist interprets the scene of the “Last Judgment” as a universal, all-human catastrophe. In this fresco, huge in scale and grandiose in concept, there are no (and there could not have been) images of life-affirming power, similar to those that were created when painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. If before creativity Michelangelo was imbued with faith in man, the belief that he is the creator of his own destiny, but now, painting the altar wall, the artist shows man helpless in the face of this fate.
You don’t immediately take in these countless characters, but it seems that everything in the fresco is in motion. Here are crowds of sinners who, in a frantic entanglement of their bodies, are dragged into the dungeon of hell; and the jubilant righteous ascending to heaven; and hosts of angels and archangels; and the carrier of souls across the underground river Charon, and Christ carrying out his wrathful judgment, and the Virgin Mary timidly clinging to him.
People, their actions and deeds, their thoughts and passions - that was the main thing in the picture. Pope Nicholas III, the same one who authorized the sale of church positions, also found himself in the crowd of overthrown sinners.
Michelangelo depicted all the characters naked, and this was a deep calculation of the great master. In the physical, in the infinite variety of human poses, he, who was so able to convey the movements of the soul, through a person and by means of a person, depicted the entire huge psychological gamut of feelings that overwhelmed them. But to depict God and the apostles naked - for this in those days great courage was needed.
In addition, the understanding of the Last Judgment as a tragedy of universal existence was incomprehensible to Michelangelo’s contemporaries. This can be seen from the correspondence between the Venetian writer and pamphleteer Pietro Aretino and the artist. Aretino wanted to see in “The Last Judgment” a traditional medieval interpretation, that is, an image of the Antichrist. He wanted to see the whirlwinds of the elements - fire, air, water, earth, the faces of the stars, the moon, the sun. Christ, in his opinion, should have been at the head of the host of angels, while Michelangelo main character- Human. Therefore, Michelangelo replied that the description of Aretino caused him grief and he could not depict him.
Several centuries later, the researcher of Italian art Dvorak, who also did not perceive the “Last Judgment” as a cosmic catastrophe, saw in the giant images only “dust swirled by the wind.”
The center of the composition is the figure of Jesus Christ, the only one stable and not susceptible to the whirlwind of movement of the characters. The face of Christ is impenetrable, so much strength and power is invested in the punishing gesture of his hand that it is interpreted only as a gesture of retribution.
Mary turned away in confusion, unable to do anything to save humanity. In the menacing glances of the apostles, a close crowd approaching Christ with instruments of torture in their hands, only the demand for retribution and punishment of sinners is also expressed. Art critic V.N. Lazarev wrote about the “Last Judgment”: “Here the angels cannot be distinguished from the saints, sinners from the righteous, men from women. They are all carried away by one inexorable stream of movement, they all wriggle and writhe from the fear and horror that gripped them... The more carefully you look into overall composition of the fresco, the more persistently the feeling arises as if in front of you is a huge rotating wheel of fortune, involving more and more new people in its rapid run human lives, none of which can escape fate. In such an interpretation of the cosmic catastrophe, there is no longer any room left for a hero and heroic deed, and there is no room left for mercy. It is not for nothing that Mary does not ask Christ for forgiveness, but fearfully clings to him, overwhelmed by fear of the raging elements...
As before, Michelangelo depicts powerful figures with courageous faces, broad shoulders, a well-developed torso, and muscular limbs. But these giants are no longer able to resist fate. That’s why their faces are distorted by grimaces, that’s why all their movements, even the most energetic, are so tense and convulsive.”
On the last day of October 1541, the senior clergy and invited laity gathered in the Sistine Chapel to attend the unveiling of a new fresco on the altar wall. The intense anticipation and shock of what he saw were so great, and the general nervous excitement so charged the atmosphere that the pope (already Paul III Farnese) fell to his knees in front of the fresco with reverent horror, begging God not to remember his sins on the day of the Last Judgment.
Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" caused fierce controversy among both his admirers and his opponents. During the artist’s lifetime, Pope Paul IV, who was very disapproving of the “Last Judgment” while still Cardinal Caraffa, generally wanted to destroy the fresco, but then decided to “dress” all the characters and ordered the naked bodies to be recorded with drapery. When Michelangelo found out about this, he said: “Tell dad that this matter is small and easy to settle. Let him bring the world into decent shape, and with paintings this can be done quickly.”
Whether the pope understood the full depth of Michelangelo’s ironic barb, he gave the appropriate order. Once again, scaffolding was erected in the Sistine Chapel, onto which the painter Daniele da Volterra climbed with paints and brushes. He worked long and hard, because he had to paint a lot of all kinds of draperies. For his work, during his lifetime he received the nickname “brachetone”, which literally means “exhausted”, “underhand”. His name remained forever associated with this nickname in history.
In 1596, another pope (Clement VIII) wanted to bring down the entire “Last Judgment.” Only through the intercession of artists from the Roman Academy of St. Luke was it possible to convince the pope not to commit such a barbaric act.
The misadventures of the “Last Judgment”, which caused the fresco, continued for a long time big damage: because of them, the harmony of colors and lines suffered. Centuries have passed, the names of the detractors and enemies of the great Buonarotti have been forgotten, but his imperishable frescoes remain eternal. “The Last Judgment” still fascinates people, this wonderful picture, against which stupidity, hypocrisy and human hypocrisy were powerless.