Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Vegetation

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Plafond de la chapelle Sixtine.

La fresque du plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, peinte par Michel-Angeentre 1508 et 1512 et inaugurée par le pape Jules II le 31 octobre1512, est un chef-d’œuvre de la peinture de la Renaissance italienne. Elle recouvre l’intégralité du plafond de la chapelle construite au Vaticansous le pape Sixte IV, entre 1477 et 1483, pour abriter des cérémonies solennelles, dont les conclaves.

Le thème central en est la Genèse. Ces représentations impressionnantes, qui démontrent une parfaite maîtrise de l’anatomie humaine et du mouvement des corps, ont radicalement transformé la peinture occidentale. La scène de La Création d’Adam a acquis une renommée universelle.

Commande

La décoration du plafond de la chapelle Sixtine est commandée par le pape Jules II, au début de son pontificat, pour remédier aux dégâts engendrés par la construction de la basilique Saint-Pierre et de la tour Borgia. En 1504, l’équilibre de la chapelle est menacé par les travaux voisins. Une longue fissure cause des dégâts si importants que le pape charge Michel-Ange de refaire la décoration. La voûte alors en place aurait été ornée, par Maestro dell’Annunciazione Gardner, d’un ciel bleu constellé où de petites boules de cire dorée, collées sur la peinture, représentaient les étoiles. Un tel décor, plus simple à réaliser que des fresques à personnages, était fréquent dans les chapelles contemporaines, comme à l’église de l’Arena de Padoue, décorée de fresques par Giotto. Toutefois, les examens effectués lors des dernières restaurations n’ont mis à jour aucune trace de bleu¹.

Le nouveau programme, établi par le pape en 1506, est retardé par les campagnes militaires qu’il entreprend alors pour prendre Pérouse aux Baglioni et Bologne à Bentivoglio, mais aussi par les tergiversations de Michel-Ange, qui se prétend sculpteur et non peintre².

Le 8 mai 1508, grâce à l’intervention de son ami florentin Giuliano da Sangallo³, Michel-Ange signe le contrat prévoyant la représentation des douze apôtres dans les pendentifs, agrémentée de motifs ornementaux dans les parties restantes. Mais il juge ce sujet trop pauvre. Sur sa requête, et grâce à l’aide des théologiens de la cour papale, il conçoit neuf scènes centrales inspirées du néoplatonisme. Représentant les épisodes de la Genèse, elles commencent par la Séparation de la lumière d’avec les ténèbres et se poursuivent par la célèbre Création d’Adam, (où Dieu effleure la main tendue d’Adam pour lui donner la vie), suivies de la Tentation et d’autres épisodes. Michel-Ange travaille tout d’abord avec six aides. Mais perfectionniste et irascible, il est rapidement déçu par leurs essais. Il s’en sépare pour ne garder avec lui qu’un apprenti, qui confectionne ses couleurs, et un maçon, qui prépare les enduits de fresque sur lesquels il appliquera des tonalités acides (violine, jaune citron, vert menthe…)².

Dans son roman historique Le ciel de la chapelle Sixtine, Leon Morell⁴décrit dans le détail, avec vraisemblance, les différentes étapes de la réalisation de la fresque par Michel-Ange.

Réalisation

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

Le plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, une « réalisation artistique sans précédent⁵ ».

Pour atteindre le plafond, Michel-Ange fait retirer l’échafaudagecourbé (suivant les courbes de la voûte), suspendu par des cordes, installé par Bramante. Il en conçoit un autre qui, plutôt que de monter du sol (ce qui exigerait une énorme base vu la hauteur de l’édifice), s’appuie sur des tenons fixés en partie haute des murs, en dessous des lunettes. Ces installations retrouveront leur utilité lors de la campagne de restauration menée de 1981 à 1989. De plus, ce système permet, selon Mancini, de réduire les coûts d’un échafaudage en bois⁶. La structure, occupant un tiers de la surface totale du plafond, est démontée puis remontée en trois phases successives. Michel-Ange commence les travaux le 10 mai 1508⁷.

Michel-Ange se représentant en train
de peindre le plafond de la Sixtine.

Ascanio Condivi, son élève et biographe, rapporte qu’un filet de toile était tendu sous l’échafaudage, afin que les gouttes de plâtre et de peinture ne tombent pas au sol. Un mythe très répandu veut que Michel-Ange ait peint allongé sur le dos⁸, comme le figure Charlton Hestondans le film L’Extase et l’Agonie, de Carol Reed en 1965. En réalité, il travaillait debout, peignant au-dessus de sa tête les bras en l’air et la tête basculée vers l’arrière, ce qui explique qu’il souffraitt de crampes, de spasmes musculaires et de maux de tête⁹. Il le décrivit dans un sonnet assez humoristique écrit en 1510, accompagné d’un croquis :

« À travailler tordu j’ai attrapé un goitre […]
Et j’ai le ventre, à force, collé au menton.

Ma barbe pointe vers le ciel, je sens ma nuque
Sur mon dos, j’ai une poitrine de harpie,
Et la peinture qui dégouline sans cesse
Sur mon visage en fait un riche pavement.

Mes lombes sont allés se fourrer dans ma panse,
Faisant par contrepoids de mon cul une croupe
Chevaline et je déambule à l’aveuglette¹⁰. »

Durant la première campagne, il transfère la plupart de ses cartons à l’aide du procédé du poncif, en soufflant de la poussière de charbon de bois à travers les trous qui marquent le tracé. Pendant la seconde étape, pressé par le pape vieillissant qui veut voit l’œuvre achevée avant sa mort, il trace directement les contours dans le plâtre humide avec un style. Dans les années 1980, la lumière rasante utilisée par les restaurateurs mettra en évidence les petits points charbonneux et les incisions laissés par ces méthodes de travail¹¹.

Il rencontre de constantes difficultés : visites intempestives du pape ; apparition de chancis(l’architecte du pape, Giuliano da Sangallo, comprend vite – heureusement – que les moisissures proviennent de la chaux utilisée pour l’enduit, qui est trop liquide) ; paiements partiels dus à la lenteur du chantier¹²…

En août 1510, la première moitié de la voûte, du mur d’entrée jusqu’à la Création d’Ève, est achevée. Le 19 septembre 1510, Michel-Ange se résout à enlever son échafaudage pour que le pape, impatient, puisse contempler les grandes compositions occupant le milieu de la voûte¹³. Les travaux sont probablement achevés avant le 31 octobre1512, où Jules II préside les vêpres solennelles de la Toussaint avant de célébrer la messe dès le lendemain¹⁴.

Architecture et trompe-l’œil

La chapelle Sixtine mesure 40,5 mde long sur 14 mètres de large ; sa voûte s’élève à 20 mètres et déploie une surface de 1 000 m²². Son jeu complexe de voussures n’était pas censé recevoir une composition aussi élaborée.

La voûte se structure en six lunettes(ou demi-lunes) verticales, situées au-dessus des fenêtres latérales. Des pendentifs les séparent et définissent des intrados triangulaires et concaves au-dessus des lunettes. Au-dessus des pendentifs, la voûte se fait presque plate.

Sur cette base, Michel-Ange conçoit une architecture en trompe-l’œil qui servira de structure aux arcs de travertin rejoignant les pendentifs. En faisant courir deux corniches, l’une en haut des lunettes et l’autre à la pointe des intrados, il accentue la division de l’espace. Ce procédé traduit l’influence de Melozzo da Forlì.

Plan des éléments architecturaux.

Iconographie

Le thème iconographique de la chapelle Sixtine résume le salut de l’humanité, offert par Dieu en la personne de son fils Jésus. L’ancienne alliance, passée entre Dieu et le peuple d’Israël par l’entremise de Moïse, et la nouvelle alliance, passée entre Dieu et l’humanité tout entière à travers le Christ, sont représentées sur les murs latéraux de la chapelle. La partie centrale du plafond représente la Création, le Paradis terrestre puis la chute de l’humanité, Adam et Ève et le péché originel, qui rompt l’alliance entre Dieu et l’humanité. Entourant ce thème central, les prophètes et les sybillesrappellent constamment que Dieu n’a jamais abandonné les hommes, mais qu’il leur offre le salut. Tout autour est illustrée la lignée qui, d’Adam au roi David, mène à Jésus-Christ, sauveur de l’humanité : rappel du plan divin qui, dès l’expulsion du Paradis terrestre, inclut la possibilité du salut. Tel est, dans ses grandes lignes, le programme iconographique du plafond¹⁵.

Schéma des éléments iconographiques.

Mais il y a plus. Le Cinquecento se passionna pour l’humanisme, et pas plus Jules II que Michel-Ange ne sont étrangers à cette passion pour l’Homme. On peut voir, dans le David de Michel-Ange, le symbole de la république florentine, frondeuse, fragile, mais invaincue ; toutefois c’est aussi – et surtout – la représentation de l’avènement de l’Homme, faillible certes, mais indomptable face à la puissance spirituelle de l’Église et au pouvoir temporel d’une féodalité dont le déclin s’amorce alors. Cette vision humaniste n’est pas incompatible avec la doctrine de l’Église, qui considère l’Homme comme un être faillible et pécheur devant rechercher son salut. Les deux visions divergent quant à la voie de ce salut : pour la doctrine catholique, il n’est point de salut hors de l’Église, intermédiaire indispensable, alors que pour l’humanisme un contact direct avec Dieu s’avère possible.

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

La Création d’Adam.

Avec la Création d’Adam – scène centrale du plafond – Michel-Ange résume cet idéal humaniste d’un lien direct entre l’Homme et Dieu.

Neuf scènes de la Genèse

Le long de la partie centrale du plafond, Michel-Ange représente neuf scènes du livre de la Genèse, le premier livre de la bible. Les neuf compositions centrales se divisent en trois sections :

• la première montre la création du monde (Dieu créant les cieux et la terre),
• la seconde dépeint la création du premier homme et de la première femme, Adam et Ève ainsi que leur désobéissance à Dieu et l’expulsion consécutive du jardin d’Éden,
• la troisième montre le sort de l’humanité et narre l’histoire de Noé.

Les tableaux ne sont pas dans un ordre strictement chronologique. S’ils sont perçus comme formant trois groupes, les tableaux, dans chacune des trois unités, renvoient vers un autre, comme c’était l’habitude dans les peintures médiévales et les vitraux . Les trois sections de la création, la chute et le destin de l’humanité apparaissent dans l’ordre inverse, lorsqu’il est regardé à partir de l’entrée de la chapelle. Cependant, chaque scène est à considérer en regardant vers l’autel. Cela n’est pas évident, lorsqu’on regarde une reproduction du plafond, mais ça devient clair lorsque l’observateur regarde vers le haut en direction de la voûte. Paoletti et Radke suggèrent que cette progression inversée symbolise un retour à un état de grâce. Cependant, les trois sections sont généralement décrites dans l’ordre de la chronologie biblique.

La création du monde représente successivement la séparation de la lumière et des ténèbres, la création des planètes (dont le Soleil, la Lune et la Terre), et la séparation des eaux d’avec la terre. Ces trois scènes, les premières dans l’ordre chronologique du récit biblique, ont été réalisées en dernier et s’avèrent les plus dynamiques. Vasari souligne, dans Le Vite, que « Michel-Ange dépeint Dieu séparant la lumière des ténèbres, le montrant dans toute Sa majesté, flottant avec ses bras ouverts en une révélation de Son amour et de Son pouvoir créateur. »

La section centrale montre, en trois images fortes, l’histoire d’Adam et Ève : la création d’Adam, celle d’Ève qui sort de la côte d’Adam endormi, et l’expulsion du paradis terrestre. Les contemporains de Michel-Ange ont immédiatement reconnu dans ces fresques un chef-d’œuvre ; Vasari écrit « c’est une figure [Adam] dont la beauté, la pose et les contours sont tels qu’ils semblent être issu de cet instant même où Dieu créa Adam et de la main du Créateur suprême lui-même plutôt que du dessin et de la brosse d’un mortel. »

Détail du visage de Dieu.

Les scènes, de l’autel vers la porte principale, sont ordonnées comme suit :

• La séparation de la lumière et les ténèbres
• La création du soleil, de la lune et de la terre
• La séparation des terres et des eaux
• La création d’Adam
• La création d’Ève
• La tentation et l’expulsion
• Le sacrifice de Noé
• Le déluge
• L’ivresse de Noé

La création

Les trois peintures de la création montrent des scènes du premier chapitre de la Genèse, qui relate que Dieu créé la terre et tout ce qui s’y trouve en six jours et se repose le septième jour. Dans la première scène, le premier jour de la création, Dieu crée la lumière et sépare la lumière des ténèbres¹⁶. Chronologiquement, la scène suivante se déroule dans le troisième panneau, qui traite du deuxième jour : Dieu sépare les eaux des cieux¹⁷. Dans le panneau central, le plus grand des trois, il y a deux représentations de Dieu. Le troisième jour, Dieu crée la terre et fait pousser les plantes. Le quatrième jour, Dieu met le soleil et la lune en place pour régir la nuit et le jour, l’heure et les saisons de l’année¹⁸. Selon la Genèse, le cinquième jour, Dieu créé les oiseaux, les poissons et les créatures des profondeurs, sans que cela ne soit présenté. La création des créatures terrestres, le sixième jour, n’y est pas présentée.

Adam et Eve

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L’histoire de Noé

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Les boucliers

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Douze voyants : sept prophètes et cinq sibylles

Giacobbe Giusti, Michel-Ange: plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, Rome

La sibylle lybique.

Les personnages les plus grands – donc les mieux mis en évidence – sont douze voyants : des prophèteset des sibylles choisis à dessein, car ils annoncèrent la venue du Christ. Sept prophètes d’Israël et cinq prophétesses du monde antique, assis sur des sièges dans des poses plus ou moins contorsionnées, sont identifiés par des cartouches portant leur nom latin, que soutiennent des putti.

Jonas (IONAS) est placé au-dessus de l’autel (et sur sa droite pour le spectateur). Puis sont successivement représentés Jérémie (HIEREMIAS), la sibylle persique (PERSICHA), Ézéchiel(EZECHIEL), la sibylle d’Érythrées (ERITHRAEA) et Joël (IOEL). Au-dessus de la porte d’entrée (et face à Jonas) se trouve Zacharie, qui a annoncé la venue du Messie et la conversion de nombreux peuples. À gauche se succèdent la sibylle delphique (DELPHICA), Isaïe(ESAIAS), la sibylle de Cumes(CVMAEA), Daniel (DANIEL) et, enfin, la sibylle lybique (LIBICA).

Ignudi

L’un des 20 ignudi.

Vingt ignudi¹⁹, personnifiés par de jeunes hommes athlétiques, sont placés aux coins des scènes centrales. Ils portent divers objets ou s’en entourent, tels un ruban rose, une guirlande de glands²⁰, un coussin vert…

Si l’on considère le déroulement chronologique de la composition (Michel-Ange commence, au-dessus de l’autel, par l’histoire de Noé et continue vers la porte d’entrée), on ne peut qu’être frappé par la liberté progressive dans la pose des ignudi : tout d’abord sagement et symétriquement assis de part et d’autre de la scène qu’ils encadrent, ils s’animent de plus en plus pour devenir presque dansants… Ils démontrent, de manière éclatante, la puissance créatrice de l’artiste.

Dans un cadre aussi religieux, à l’iconographie soigneusement choisie, le moins qu’on peut dire est qu’ils détonnent. Ils suscitèrent jadis la réprobation. Le pape Adrien VIsouhaitait même leur destruction, n’y voyant qu’« un pot-au-feu de corps nus » au plafond…

Selon la Bible, les séraphins et les chérubins sont des créatures ailées, mais les anges, dépourvus d’ailes, ont une apparence humaine. Le Jugement dernier, au-dessus de l’autel, comporte quarante personnages nus qui, portant la croix, sonnant de la trompette ou appelant les morts à la résurrection, ne peuvent qu’être des anges. Certains²¹ en ont conclu que les ignudi sont, eux aussi, bel et bien des anges. Ils seraient donc des messagers divins, omniprésents, mais impavides face au destin de l’humanité, et participeraient pleinement au programme iconographique.

Lunettes et pendentifs

Dans les lunettes, les ancêtres de Jésus-Christ sont représentés de part et d’autre des fenêtres, surmontées d’un panonceau qui porte leur nom. L’ensemble est un peu désordonné : certaines lunettes comportent un ancêtre, d’autre deux, certaines trois – voire quatre ; de plus, leur succession est loin de suivre un ordre chronologique.

En raison du contre-jour et de leur emplacement ingrat autour des fenêtres, qui les exposait à la pollution urbaine, ces fresques étaient les plus sales, mais aussi les plus méconnues et les moins appréciées. La restauration des années 1980 a révélé leur beauté.

Références anatomiques

Plusieurs auteurs ont suggéré que Michel-Ange a représenté, dans la Création d’Adam ou la Séparation de la lumière et des ténèbres, des détails anatomiques relatifs au cerveau, voire à l’utérus humain (voir l’article La Création d’Adam).

Restauration

:Restauration des fresques de la chapelle Sixtine.

Chute et expulsion d’Adam et Ève
du paradis terrestre.
États avant (à gauche) et après (à droite) restauration.

Une restauration générale de la chapelle Sixtine a lieu de 1981 à 1989. Elle est financée par la Nippon Television, en échange de droits sur les images. Les tonalités, assombries (voire dénaturées) par les fumées d’encens, le suif des chandelles, la pollution atmosphérique (en particulier au-dessus des fenêtres, souvent ouvertes pour aérer) et le passage du temps, avaient valu à Michel-Ange le surnom – manifestement non justifié – de « terrible souverain de l’ombre ». À leur place sont apparues d’étonnantes couleurs, tour à tour pastel ou acides, critiquées par certains mais pourtant typiques du maniérisme. Jadis dissimulée par l’encrassement, la technique du cangiante, utilisée par Michel-Ange pour traduire la diaprure de certains vêtements, se trouve aujourd’hui pleinement mise en évidence.

L’instabilité du bâtiment ayant provoqué des crevasses dans les fresques, une opération de comblement s’est avérée nécessaire pour rétablir leur visibilité. Il a aussi fallu remédier aux effets des restaurations antérieures. Pour supprimer le blanchiment dû à la salinisation, on avait jadis appliqué une couche de graisse animale et végétale. Celle-ci avait certes rendu les sels transparents mais elle constituait un dépôt collant, qui avait attiré poussière et saleté.

Le bien-fondé de cette restauration a donné lieu à polémique. En effet, si le nettoyage a permis d’enlever les dépôts carboniques (de suif notamment) accumulés au cours des siècles, il a aussi supprimé les ombres ajoutées au noir de charbon par Michel-Ange lui-même, en surface de la fresque.

Notes et références

1. ↑Sixte IV Della Rovere [archive]
2. ↑ ^a, b et cSabine Gignoux, « Au cœur de la chapelle Sixtine » [archive], sur la-croix.com, 15 avril 2005
3. ↑Eugène Müntz, Michel-Ange, Parkstone International, 2012, p. 109-110
4. ↑Leon Morell, Le ciel de la chapelle Sixtine, Paris, HC éditions, 2014 (traduit de l’allemand par Lydia Beutin).
5. ↑Gabriele Bartz et Eberhard König, Michelangelo, 1998
6. ↑(en) Fabrizio Mancinelli, The Sistine Chapel, Massimo Giacometti, 1986, p. 220–259
7. ↑Charles Clément, Michel-Ange, Léonard de Vinci, Raphaël, Michel Lévy frères, 1831, p. 94
8. ↑(en) Peter Jackson, Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the Pope watching from far below [archive], 2010, site Look and Learn
9. ↑(en) Andrew Graham-Dixon, Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008, p. 65
10. ↑Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rime, in Anthologie de la poésie italienne, Gallimard, Bibliothèque de la Pléiade, 1994, pp. 498-499
11. ↑Marcia B. Hall, Michel-Ange et la chapelle Sixtine, Renaissance Du Livre, 2002(lire en ligne [archive]), p. 19.
12. ↑Eugène Müntz, op. cité, p.117
13. ↑Marcel Brion, Michel-Ange, Albin Michel, 1995, p. 157
14. ↑« La voûte de la chapelle Sixtine fête ses 500 ans » [archive], sur la-croix.com, 31 octobre 2012
15. ↑John O’Malley, The Theology behind Michelangelo’s Ceiling in The Sistine Chapel, Massimo Giacometti, editor, 1986.
16. ↑Premier jour de la création
17. ↑Séparation des eaux et des cieux
18. ↑Création de la terre et des corps célestes
19. ↑Pluriel de l’italien ignudo(« nus »). Le vocabulaire artistique parle d’« académie » pour une représentation dessinée d’un homme nu et de kouros pour une sculpture d’un jeune homme nu. Un « nu » décrit pour sa part, le plus souvent, la représentation d’une femme dénudée.
20. ↑Les glands rappellent le blason des Della Rovere et de Jules II, le commanditaire du plafond.
21. ↑George L. Hersey, High Renaissance Art in St. Peter’s and the Vatican, University of Chicago Press, (1993) (ISBN0226327825)

Annexes

• Plafond de la chapelle Sixtine, sur Wikimedia Commons

• Michel-Ange
• Chapelle Sixtine
• La Création d’Ada
  m

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plafond_de_la_chapelle_Sixtine

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, GIAMPIETRINO: Magdalena Penitente, Hermitage

Giacobbe Giusti, GIAMPIETRINO: Magdalena Penitente, Hermitage

 

 

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• Chilton, Bruce (2005), Mary Magdalene: A Biography, New York City, New York, London, England, Toronto, Ontario, Sydney, Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand: Image Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-51318-0
• Dalton, Stephen (February 27, 2018), « Mary Magdalene: Film Review », The Hollywood Reporter
• DeConick, April D. (2011), Holy Misogyny: Why the Sex and Gender Conflicts in the Early Church Still Matter, New York City, New York and London, England: Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1-4411-9602-6
• Ehrman, Bart D. (2004), Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Constantine, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-518140-9
• Ehrman, Bart D. (2006), Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene: The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-530013-0
• Ehrman, Bart D. (2014), How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee, New York City, New York: HarperOne, ISBN 978-0-06-177818-6
• Erhardt, Michelle; Morris, Amy (2012), « Introduction », Mary Magdalene: Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, Studies in Religion and the Arts, Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, ISBN 978-90-04-23224-2
• Ferguson, George (1976) [1954], « St. Mary Magdalene », Signs and Symbols in Christian Art, Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, pp. 134–135
• Foss, Clive (1979), Ephesus After Antiquity: A Late Antique, Byzantine and Turkish City, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-22086-6
• Geneva Press (2008), The Presbyterian Handbook for Pastors, Louiseville, Kentucky: Geneva Press, ISBN 978-0-664-50299-7
• Green, Mary E. (2014), « Mary Magdalene, the Myrrh Bearer », Eyes to See: The Redemptive Purpose of Icons, New York City, New York, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Denver Colorado: Morehouse Publishing, ISBN 978-0-8192-2939-7
• Haag, Michael (2016), The Quest For Mary Magdalene: History & Legend, London, England: Profile Books, ISBN 978-1847659385
• Hailes, Sam (March 6, 2018), « Why Mary Magdalene is the Hollywood film Christians have been waiting for: This new movie paints a clear picture of Jesus, says Sam Hailes », Premiere Christianity
• Haskins, Susan (2005) [1993], Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor, New York City, New York: Pimplico, ISBN 1-8459-5004-6
• Herzog, William R. (2005), Prophet and Teacher: An Introduction to the Historical Jesus, Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster Knox Press, ISBN 0-664-22528-4
• Hinkle, Mary (2003) [1986], « Mary Magdalene », in Fahlbusch, Erwin; Lochman, Jan Milič; Mbiti, John; Pelikan, Jaroslav; Vischer, Lukas; Bromiley, Geoffrey W.; Barrett, David B., The Encyclopedia of Christianity, J-O, 3, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Cambridge, England, Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston, Massachusetts: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company and Brill, pp. 446–448, ISBN 0-8028-2415-3
• Johnston, Barbara, « Sacred Kingship and Royal Patronage in the La Vie de la Magdalene: Pilgrimage, Politics, Passion Plays, and the Life of Louise of Savoy » (Florida State), R. Neuman, Dissertation, PDF, 88–93
• Jones, Roger; Penny, Nicholas (1983), Raphael, New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0300040524
• Kelly, Henry Ansgar (2006), Satan: A Biography, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521604024
• Kim, Young Richard (2015), Epiphanius of Cyprus: Imagining an Orthodox World, Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, pp. 37–39, ISBN 978-0-472-11954-7
• King, Ross (2012), Leonardo and the Last Supper, New York City, New York and London, England: Bloomsbury, ISBN 978-0-7475-9947-0
• Kugelmann, Robert (1983), The Windows of Soul: Psychological Physiology of the Human Eye and Primary Glaucoma, London, England and Toronto, Canada: Associated University Presses, ISBN 0-8387-5035-4
• Lang, J. Stephen (2003), What the Good Book Didn’t Say: Popular Myths and Misconceptions About the Bible, New York City New York: Citadel Press, ISBN 0-8065-2460-X
• Levine, Amy-Jill; Allison, Dale C. Jr.; Crossan, John Dominic (October 16, 2006), The Historical Jesus in Context, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-00992-9
• Maisch, Ingrid (1998) [1996], Mary Magdalene: The Image of a Woman through the Centuries, translated by Maloney, Linda M., Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Presss, ISBN 0-8146-2471-5
• Powell, Mark Allen (1998), Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee, Louiseville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, p. 168, ISBN 978-0-664-25703-3
• Pringle, Denys (1998), « Magdala », The Churches of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem: A Corpus, II: L-Z (excluding Tyre), Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-39037-0
• Roper, Lyndal (2016), Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet, New York City, New York: Random House, ISBN 9780812996203
• Sabar, Ariel (2016), « The Scholar Who Discovered the ‘Jesus’s Wife’ Fragment Now Says It’s Likely a Fake », The Atlantic
• Sanders, E. P. (1993), The Historical Figure of Jesus, London, England, New York City, New York, Ringwood, Australia, Toronto, Ontario, and Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-014499-4
• Schaberg, Jane (2004) [2002], The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene: Legends, Apocrypha, and the Christian Testament, New York City, New York and London, England: Continuum International Publishing Group, ISBN 0-8264-1645-4
• Strong, Steven; Strong, Evan (2008), Mary Magdalene’s Dreaming: A Comparison of Aboriginal Wisdom and Gnostic Scripture, Lanham, Maryland, Boulder, Colorado, New York City, New York, Toronto, Ontario, and Plymouth, England: University Press of America, ISBN 978-0-7618-4281-1
• Wilson, Kenneth (2011), Methodist Theology, Doing Theology, London, England and New York City, New York: Bloomsbury T & T Clark, ISBN 978-0-5670-8135-3
• Witcombe, Christopher L. C. E. (June 2002), « The Chapel of the Courtesan and the Quarrel of the Magdalens », The Art Bulletin, New York City, New York: College Art Association, 84 (2): 273–292, doi:10.2307/3177269, JSTOR 3177269
• Wright, N. T. (March 1, 2003), The Resurrection of the Son of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God, 3, Eugene, Oregon: Fortress Press, ISBN 978-0800626792

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob’s Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican

 

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Jacob’s Dream, fresco Palazzo Apostolico, Vatican

 

RAPHAEL (RAFFAELLO SANZIO OR SANTI) 1483 – 1520

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL

Raphael 1506
Self Portrait

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino ( March 28 or April 6, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael , was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace, where the frescoed Raphael Rooms were the central, and the largest, work of his career. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking.
After his death, the influence of his great rival Michelangelo was more widespread until the 18th and 19th centuries, when Raphael’s more serene and harmonious qualities were again regarded as the highest models. His career falls naturally into three phases and three styles, first described by Giorgio Vasari: his early years in Umbria, then a period of about four years (1504–1508) absorbing the artistic traditions of Florence, followed by his last hectic and triumphant twelve years in Rome, working for two Popes and their close associates

References

• Blunt, Anthony, Artistic Theory in Italy, 1450–1660, 1940 (refs to 1985 edn), OUP, ISBN 0-19-881050-4
• Gould, Cecil, The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, National Gallery Catalogues, London 1975, ISBN 0-947645-22-5
• Ettlinger, Leopold D., and Helen S. Ettlinger, Raphael, Oxford: Phaidon, 1987, ISBN 0714823031
• Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael, Yale, 1983, ISBN 0-300-03061-4
• Landau, David in:David Landau & Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale, 1996, ISBN 0-300-06883-2
• Pon, Lisa, Raphael, Dürer, and Marcantonio Raimondi, Copying and the Italian Renaissance Print, 2004, Yale UP, ISBN 978-0-300-09680-4
• Shearman, John; Raphael in Early Modern Sources 1483–1602, 2003, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-09918-5
• Vasari, Life of Raphael from the Lives of the Artists, edition used: Artists of the Renaissance selected & ed Malcolm Bull, Penguin 1965 (page nos from BCA edn, 1979)
• Wölfflin, Heinrich; Classic Art; An Introduction to the Renaissance, 1952 in English (1968 edition), Phaidon, New York.

http://artsviewer.com/raphael-home.html

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Raphaël: Prédelle du polyptyque Colonna

Giacobbe Giusti, Raphaël: Prédelle du polyptyque Colonna

Prédelle Colonna, élément bas du retable Colonna par Raffaello Sanzio. De gauche à droite : Saint François d’assise (25,8 x 16,8 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London) – L’Agonie au jardin (23,5 x 28,8 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) – La Montée au Calvaire (24,4 x 85,5 cm, National Gallery, London) – Pietà (23,5 x 28,8 cm, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston) – Saint Antoine de Padoue (25,6 x 16,4 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery)

Giacobbe Giusti, Raphaël: Prédelle du polyptyque Colonna

Prédelle du polyptyque Colonna de Raphaël

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyptyque

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Portrait of a Young Woman

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Portrait of a Young Woman

La Fornarina

Portrait of a Young Woman
Italian: La fornarina Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Portrait of a Young Woman
Artist	Raphael
Year	1518–1519
Medium	Oil on wood
Dimensions	85 cm × 60 cm (33 in × 24 in)
Location	Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome

The Portrait of a Young Woman(also known as La fornarina) is a painting by the Italian High Renaissance master Raphael, made between 1518 and 1519. It is in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini, Rome.

It is probable that the picture was in the painter’s studio at his death in 1520, and that it was modified and then sold by his assistant Giulio Romano.^[1] In the 16th century the picture was in the house of the Countess of Santafiora, a Roman noblewoman, and subsequently became property of the Duke Boncompagni and then of the Galleria Nazionale which still possesses it.

The woman is traditionally identified with the fornarina (baker) Margherita Luti, Raphael’s Roman lover, though this has been questioned. The woman is pictured with an oriental style hat and bare breasts. She is making the gesture to cover her left breast, or to turn it with her hand, and is illuminated by a strong light coming from outside. Her left arm has a narrow band carrying the signature of the artist, RAPHAEL URBINAS. It has been suggested that the right hand on the left breast reveals a cancerous breast tumourdisguised in a classic pose of love. Another speculation is that she is touching her left breast to remind herself which side she last fed her child on, the child being Raphael’s.^[2]

X-Ray analyses have shown that in the background was originally a Leonardesque-style landscape in place of the myrtle bush, which was sacred to Venus, goddess of love and passion.

• La velata, another Raphael painting of the same sitter

References

1. Jump up^ Galleria BorgheseArchived 2012-05-19 at the Wayback Machine..
2. Jump up^ The Lancet article.

External links

• Official website page (in Italian) (in English)
• Page at artonline.it (in Italian)

hide v t e Raphael
List of paintings List of works
Early works	Resurrection of Christ Baronci Altarpiece St. Sebastian Oddi Altar Solly Madonna Mond Crucifixion Three Graces St Michael Portrait of a Man Connestabile Madonna Madonna and Child The Marriage of the Virgin Vision of a Knight St George Colonna Altarpiece Portrait of Perugino 1 Madonna and Child with the Book
Florentine period	Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga 2 Portrait of Emilia Pia da Montefeltro 2 Portrait of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro Self-portrait Madonna of the Grand Duke Ansidei Madonna Young Man with an Apple Christ Blessing Madonna Terranuova Madonna of the Goldfinch Madonna of the Meadow Esterhazy Madonna Small Cowper Madonna St George and the Dragon La donna gravida Portrait of Agnolo Doni Portrait of Maddalena Doni Madonna of the Pinks Young Woman with Unicorn Madonna with Beardless St Joseph Saint Catherine of Alexandria Canigiani Holy Family La belle jardinière Deposition of Christ Portrait of a Young Woman Tempi Madonna Madonna Colonna Madonna de Bogota
Roman period	Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese La disputa The School of Athens Madonna of Loreto Aldobrandini Madonna Madonna with the Blue Diadem Portrait of a Cardinal Alba Madonna Niccolini-Cowper Madonna The Parnassus Cardinal and Theological Virtues The Prophet Isaiah The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple Portrait of Pope Julius II Madonna of Foligno Madonna with the Fish Triumph of Galatea Sistine Madonna Madonna of the Candelabra Madonna della seggiola Madonna dell’Impannata Madonna della tenda The Fire in the Borgo The Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila Deliverance of Saint Peter The Mass at Bolsena Portrait of Bindo Altoviti The Sibyls Ecstasy of St. Cecilia Portrait of Balthasar Castiglione La donna velata Portrait of Tommaso Inghirami Palazzo Branconio dell’Aquila Portrait of Andrea Navagero and Agostino Beazzano Portrait of Cardinal Bibbiena Church of Sant’Eligio degli Orefici Creation of the World Transfiguration Portrait of Pope Leo X with Two Cardinals Christ Falling on the Way to Calvary The Holy Family of Francis I Ezekiel’s Vision St. Michael Vanquishing Satan Madonna of the Rose Self-Portrait with a Friend La Fornarina Visitation Portrait of a Young Man Miraculous Draught of Fishes Christ’s Charge to Peter Healing of the Lame Man Death of Ananias Stoning of St. Stephen Conversion of the Proconsul Sacrifice at Lystra St Paul in Prison St Paul Preaching in Athens Palazzo Jacopo da Brescia St Margaret and the Dragon
Related	Giovanni Santi (father) Margarita Luti Adoration of the Shepherds (drawing) Raphael (1894 opera) La Fornarina (1944 film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Fornarina

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

 

 

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)

 

Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)

 

Italian: Madonna del cardellino Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)
Giacobbe Giusti, RAPHAEL: Madonna of the Goldfinch (Madonna del cardellino)   Il dipinto prima del restauro. Oltre all’ingiallimento sono evidenti i segni delle antiche fratture
Artist	Raphael
Year	1505–1506
Medium	Oil on wood
Dimensions	107 cm × 77 cm (42 in × 30 in)
Location	Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

The Madonna del cardellino or Madonna of the Goldfinch is a painting by the Italianrenaissance artist Raphael, from c. 1505-1506. A 10-year restoration process was completed in 2008, after which the painting was returned to its home at the Uffizi in Florence.^[1]During the restoration, an antique copy replaced the painting in the gallery.

Painter

Raphael is considered to be a “master” of the High Renaissance, a title he shares with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. He was born in 1483 and died in 1520, living a mere thirty-seven years. Despite his relatively short lifespan, he was highly influential throughout his time on earth. He produced a vast quantity of work in a variety of media. He was active in architecture, printmaking, painting, and drawing. During the first half of his career, he spent years traveling across Northern Italy and was influenced by the Florentine styles he saw there, causing this stage to be called his Florentine Period. After which, in 1508, he moved to Rome where he continued to work. Many of his commissions came from the Vatican, including the Apostolic Palace, which brought about one of his most famous works, School of Athens.^[2] Due to his relationship with the church, he and Michelangelo were fierce rivals throughout both of their careers, and often competed for the same commissions. During his Florentine period, this work, The Madonna Del Cardellino, was painted along with several other well-known Madonnas: The Madonna of the Meadow and La Belle Jardinière. All three share several characteristics: Madonna is clothed in red and blue, the same three subjects are painted, the pyramidal composition, the natural background, and the connection to the church through the representation of books, crosses, or, indeed, the goldfinch.

Painting

In this painting, as in most of the Madonnas of his Florentine period, Raphael arranged the three figures – Mary, Christ and the young John the Baptist – to fit into a geometrical design. Though the positions of the three bodies are natural, together they form an almost regular triangle. The Madonna is shown young and beautiful, as with Raphael’s various other Madonnas.^[3] She is also clothed in red and blue, also typical, for red signifies the passion of Christ and blue was used to signify the church. Christ and John are still very young, only babies. John holds a goldfinch in his hand, and Christ is reaching out to touch it. The background is one typical of Raphael.^[3]The natural setting is diverse and yet all calmly frames the central subject taking place.

The Madonna was a wedding gift from Raphael to his friend Lorenzo Nasi. On November 17, 1548 Nasi’s house was destroyed by an earthquake and the painting broke into seventeen pieces. It was immediately taken to be salvaged, and was hastily put back together, though the seams were quite visible. In 2002, George Bonsanti of the Precious Stones organization gave the task of restoration to Patrizia Riitano. During the six-year process that followed, her team worked to remove the years of grime that had degraded the painting’s color, and to fix the damage done by the earthquake long ago. Before beginning the project, they studied the work as closely as possible, utilizing resources such as X-rays, CAT scans, reflective infra-red photography, and even lasers. Riitano closely studied the past quick fix layers that had been applied and removed them until the original by Raphael finally shone through. The restoration was completed in 2008, and the painting was put on display in Uffizi.^[4]

In Madonna Del Cardellino, the goldfinch represents Christ’s crucifixion. The reason for its association comes from the legend that its red spot was born at the time of the crucifixion. It flew down over the head of Christ and was taking a thorn from His crown, when it was splashed with the drop of His blood. The book in Mary’s hand reads Sedes Sapientiae or The Throne of Wisdom. This term usually is applied to images in which Mary is seated upon a throne, with Jesus on her lap, but in this case, the inscription implies the rock on which Mary sits is her natural throne.

In some versions of Vasari another similar painting is described as the Vallombrosa version but it has never been identified.

External video

Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch, Smarthistory[5]

References

1. Jump up^ Pullella, Philip (October 28, 2008). « Technology helps restore Raphael masterpiece ». Reuters. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
2. Jump up^ Beck, James H. Raphael. New York : H.N. Abrams, 1994.
3. ^ Jump up to:^a b Cuzin, Jean Pierre. Raphael : His Life and Works. Secaucus, N.J.: Chartwell Books, 1985.
4. Jump up^ Popham, Peter. “Return of the Fallen Madonna ». Independent (October 29, 2008): 2.
5. Jump up^ « Raphael, Madonna of the Goldfinch ». Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved April 30, 2013.

Further reading

• Beck, James H. (1976). « The Madonna of the Goldfinch ». Raphael. New York: Harry N. Abrams. pp. 106–107. ISBN 0-8109-0432-2. LCCN 73-12198.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_cardellino

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Venus, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Giacobbe Giusti, BOTTICELLI: Venus, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Berlin Venus, workshop of Botticelli. Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.

The Gemäldegalerie (German pronunciation:[ɡəˈmɛːldəɡaləˌʁiː], Picture Gallery) is an art museum in Berlin, Germany, and the museum where the main selection of paintings belonging to the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) is displayed. It holds one of the world’s leading collections of European paintings from the 13th to the 18th centuries. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein, Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Raphael, Botticelli, Titian, Caravaggio, Giambattista Pittoni, Peter Paul Rubens, David Teniers the Younger, Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, and Antonio Viviani. It was first opened in 1830, and the current building was completed in 1998. It is located in the Kulturforum museum district west of Potsdamer Platz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, GIOTTO: The Marriage of the Virgin

Giacobbe Giusti, GIOTTO: The Marriage of the Virgin

The Marriage of the Virgin by Giotto (Scrovegni Chapel)

 

Giacobbe Giusti, GIOTTO: The Marriage of the Virgin

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, The Rods Brought to the Temple

Giacobbe Giusti, GIOTTO: The Marriage of the Virgin

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Wedding Procession of Mary

The Marriage of the Virgin by Giotto(Scrovegni Chapel)

The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Maryand Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources, and later redactions, notably the 14th century compilation the Golden Legend. Unlike many other scenes in Life of the Virgin cycles (like the Nativity of Mary and Presentation of Mary), it is not a feast in the church calendar.

In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, essentially the same scene, with very similar iconography, is considered to represent the earlier scene of the « Entrusting of Mary to Joseph », with Joseph being made Mary’s guardian by the temple authorities.

In art the subject could be covered in several different scenes, and the betrothal of Mary, with Joseph’s blossoming rod, was often shown, despite its apocryphal origin. Wedding processions are also shown, especially in the Early Medieval period.

The Betrothal legend in the Golden Legend

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Wedding Procession of Mary

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, The Rods Brought to the Temple

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The Golden Legend, which derives its account from the much older Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, recounts how, when Mary was 14 and living in the Temple, the High Priest gathered all male descendents of David of marriageable age including Saint Joseph (though he was much older than the rest). The High Priest ordered them to each bring a rod; he that owned the rod which would bear flowers was divinely ordained to become Mary’s husband. After the Holy Spirit descended as a dove and caused Joseph’s rod to blossom, he and Mary were wed according to Jewish custom. The account, quoted in its entirety, runs thus:

“

When [Mary] had come to her fourteenth year, the high priest announced to all that the virgins who were reared in the Temple, and who had reached the age of their womanhood, should return to their own, and be given in lawful marriage. The rest obeyed the command, and Mary alone answered that this she could not do, both because her parents had dedicated her to the service of the Lord, and because she herself had vowed her virginity to God…. When the high priest went in to take counsel with God, a voice came forth from the oratory for all to hear, and it said that of all the marriageable men of the house of David who had not yet taken a wife, each should bring a branch and lay it upon the altar, that one of the branches would burst into flower and upon it the Holy Ghost would come to rest in the form of a dove, according to the prophecy of Isaias, and that he to whom this branch belonged would be the one to whom the virgin should be espoused. Joseph was among the men who came…. [and he] placed a branch upon the altar, and straightaway it burst into bloom, and a dove came from Heaven and perched at its summit; whereby it was manifest to all that the Virgin was to become the spouse of Joseph.

”

In fact, neither the Golden Legend nor any of the early apocryphal accounts describe the actual ceremony, and they differ as to its timing, other than that it preceded the « Journey to Bethlehem ». It is unclear whether this story was set before or after the Annunciation which, in the New Testament account, occurred after their betrothal but before their marriage. In the Gospel of James it comes after the Annunciation, but in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, the primary source in the West, it comes before it.^[1]

Artists

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Wedding Procession of Mary

Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Wedding Procession of Mary

The scene, or scenes, was a common component in larger cycles of the Life of the Virgin and thus very frequently found, especially in the Middle Ages; it is not found in the typical cycle in a Book of hourshowever. The marriage scene has been painted by, among others, Giotto, Perugino, Raphael, Ventura Salimbeni (1613, his last painting), Domenico Ghirlandaio (1485-90, at the Tornabuoni Chapel), Bernardo Daddi(now in the Royal Collection), Pieter van Lint(1640, Antwerp Cathedral), Tiburzio Baldini, Alfonso Rivarola, Francesco Caccianiga, Niccolò Berrettoni, Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio, Filippo Bellini, Veronese (in San Polochurch, Venice), Giulio Cesare Milani, Franciabigio (in the Santissima Annunziata, Florence), and Giacomo di Castro.^[2]

Marriage of the Virgin.

• Aquinas, Thomas. « Summa Theologica III q29. Of the espousals of the Mother of God »
• Sansonvino, Andrea. The Wedding, marble sculpture, Loretto, Italy, (1526)

References

1. Jump up^ The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, G. Ryan and H. Rippergar (editors), New York and London, 1941, pages 204-205
2. Jump up^ Iconology of Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin: A Study Archived 2009-01-06 at the Wayback Machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_of_the_Virgin

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Pietà for Vittoria Colonna

Michelangelo – Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Artist	Michelangelo Buonarroti
Year	about 1538–44
Type	Black chalk on cardboard
Dimensions	28.9 cm × 18.9 cm (11.4 in × 7.4 in)
Location	Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

The Pietà for Vittoria Colonna is a black chalk drawing on cardboard (28.9×18.9 cm) by Michelangelo Buonarroti, dated to about 1538–44 and kept at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.^[1]

History

Michelangelo became acquainted with Vittoria Colonna around 1538.^[2] Their lively friendship gained Michelangelo admission to her social circles, and he became acquainted with issues of church reform. For Colonna, Michelangelo executed several paintings in the fifth decade of the sixteenth century. All of them are now lost or of controversial attribution, but several sketches and copies by students and admirers of Michelangelo have been preserved.

Apart from a famous Crucifixion, Michelangelo’s most notable work for Vittoria Colonna is a Pietà, of which a remarkable drawing is exhibited at Boston. It is not certain that this work was painted by Michelangelo, but it is described by Ascanio Condivi. It has at any rate proved influential: There are several copies by students of lesser skill in Florence and Rome, a reworking by Ludovico Buti and an adaptation by Lavinia Fontana.^[1]

In 2007, the Milanese restaurator and art historian Antonio Forcellino announced that an oil painting of the same subject had been discovered in a private home in Rochester, New York. The painting had come to the U.S. in 1883 and had hung over the fireplace of a middle-class family home until the 1970s. In a 2011 book, The Lost Michelangelos, Forcellino expresses the opinion that the painting is Michelangelo’s. This attribution is not yet widely shared. According to Kristina Herrmann Fiore, a curator at the Borghese Gallery in Rome, the painting’s underdrawing is conceivably by the hand of Michelangelo, whereas Alexander Nagel, a professor at New York University Institute of Fine Arts believes that the painting is merely a copy of a composition by Michelangelo.^[3]

Description and style

The theme of the Pietà, so dear to the sculptor Michelangelo, is addressed in a highly emotional composition, as in the Crucifixion for Colonna. The dead Jesus is cradled between the grieving Mary’s legs, who raises her arms to heaven as two angels also raise Christ’s arms at right angles. Mary’s gesture balances the forceful vertical lines of Jesus’ body, which lies on a rock. Above the two stands a beam, the Cross, on which is inscribed, vertically, a quotation by Dante: Non vi si pensa quanto sangue costa – « There they don’t think of how much blood it costs ».^[1]

In this verse from canto 29 of the Paradiso, Beatrice deplores the lack of appreciation for the martyrs‘ sacrifices. The quote reflects Michelangelo’s and Colonna’s religious convictions. Both belonged to Roman groups that focused on achieving salvation by faith through prayerful contemplation of sacred history, as does their poetry of this period. « Michelangelo’s gift », according to James M. Saslow, « thus offered consoling testimony to their shared conviction that the savior’s tragic death is also a cause for joy, the climax of God’s divine comedy that offers each believing soul the hope of a happy ending. »^[1]

Gallery of other versions

• 

  The Rochester Pietà

• 

  The Florence Pietà

• 

  The Pietà by Ludovico Buti

Bibliography

• Antonio Forcellino, The Lost Michelangelos, Blackwell Pub., 2011, ISBN 978-0-7456-5203-0
• Lutz Heusinger, Michelangelo, in I protagonisti dell’arte italiana, Scala Group, Firenze 2001. ISBN 88-8117-091-4
• James M. Saslow, « Pietà, » in Eye of the Beholder, ed. by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003), p. 81.

References

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. « Pietà ». Retrieved 29 May 2011.
2. Jump up^ De Tolnay, Charles (1953). « Michelangelo’s Pieta Composition for Vittoria Colonna ». Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University. 12 (2): 44–62. doi:10.2307/3774312. JSTOR 3774312.
3. Jump up^ Flynn, Kevin; Kennedy, Randy (26 May 2011). « The Pietà Behind the Couch ». New York Times. Retrieved 29 May 2011.

Giacobbe Giusti, MICHELANGELO: Pietà for Vittoria Colonna, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Gardner Museum viewed from the Fenwayparkway (new wing is not visible at rear)
Location within Boston
Former name	Fenway Court
Established	1903
Location	25 Evans Way Boston, MA 02115
Type	Art museum
Accreditation	American Alliance of Museums
Founder	Isabella Stewart Gardner
Director	Peggy Fogelman
Public transit access	Green Line (E Branch) Museum of Fine Arts
Website	gardnermuseum.org
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Gardner Museum in 2012, original building at right
Built	1896–1903
Architect	Willard T. Sears[1]
NRHP reference #	83000603[1]
Added to NRHP	January 27, 1983

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (called Fenway Courtduring Isabella Stewart Gardner‘s lifetime) is a museum in the Fenway–Kenmore neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts near the Back Bay Fens. It houses an art collection of world importance, including significant examples of European, Asian, and American art, from paintings and sculpture to tapestries and decorative arts.

In 1990, thirteen of the museum’s works were stolen; the high-profile crime remains unsolved and the works have not been recovered.

History

The museum was opened in 1903 by Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924), an American art collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts. It is housed in a building designed to emulate a 15th-century Venetian palace, drawing particular inspiration from the Venetian Palazzo Barbaro.

Gardner began collecting seriously after she received a large inheritance from her father in 1891. Her purchase of Vermeer‘s The Concert at auction in Paris in 1892 was her first major acquisition. In 1894, Bernard Berenson offered his services in helping her acquire a Botticelli. With his help, Gardner became the first American to own a painting by the Renaissance master. Berenson helped acquire nearly 70 works of art for her collection.

The Rape of Europa (1562) by Titian is one of the most famous works in the museum

After her husband John L. Gardner’s death in 1898, Isabella Gardner realized their shared dream of building a museum for their treasures. She purchased land in the marshy Fenway area of Boston, and hired architect Willard T. Sears to build a museum modeled on the Renaissance palaces of Venice. Gardner was deeply involved in every aspect of the design, leading Sears to quip that he was merely the structural engineer making Gardner’s design possible. After the construction of the building was complete, Gardner spent a year installing her collection in a way that evokes intimate responses to the art, mixing paintings, furniture, textiles and objects from different cultures and periods among well-known European paintings and sculpture. The gallery installations were very different than they appear today; the Room of Early Italian Paintings, for example, served as her Chinese Room until about 1914.

The museum opened on January 1, 1903 with a grand celebration featuring a performance by members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and a menu that included champagne and doughnuts. In 1909 the Museum of Fine Arts moved to its new home close by.

During Gardner’s lifetime, she welcomed artists, performers, and scholars to Fenway Court to draw inspiration from the rich collection and dazzling Venetian setting, including John Singer Sargent, Charles Martin Loeffler, and Ruth St. Denis, among others. Gardner also occasionally hosted artists’ exhibitions within Fenway Court, including one of Anna Coleman Ladd. Today, the museum’s contemporary artist-in-residence program, courtyard garden displays, concerts, and innovative education programs continue Isabella Gardner’s legacy.

When Gardner died in 1924, her will created an endowment of $1 million and outlined stipulations for the support of the museum, including the charge that her collection be permanently exhibited « for the education and enjoyment of the public forever » according to her aesthetic vision and intent.

Gardner appointed her secretary and the former librarian of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Morris Carter (1877–1965) as the museum’s first director. Carter catalogued the entire collection and wrote Gardner’s definitive biography, Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court. George L. Stout (1897–1978) was the second director. The father of modern conservation, Stout ensured the long-term preservation of the collection and historic structure. Rollin Van Nostrand Hadley (1927–1992) became the third director in 1964. Leaving with a mixed legacy in 1988, Hadley published several catalogues and articles about the collection during his tenure but also disposed of much of the museum’s Asian artwork in 1971. Anne Hawley was director from 1989 until 2015.^[2]

The museum’s current director is Peggy Fogelman.

Design

Glass skylights illuminate the central atrium

Built to evoke a 15th-century Venetian palace, the museum itself provides an atmospheric setting for Gardner’s inventive creation. Gardner hired Willard T. Sears to design the building near the marshy Back Bay Fens to house her growing art collection.^[3] Inside the museum, three floors of galleries surround a garden courtyard blooming with life in all seasons.

It is a common misconception that the building was brought to America from Venice and reconstructed.^[4] It was built from the ground up in Boston out of new materials, incorporating numerous architectural fragments from European Gothic and Renaissance structures.

The garden courtyard in October

Antique elements are worked into the design of the turn-of-the-century building. Special tiles were custom designed for the floors, modern concrete was used for some of the structural elements, and antique capitals sit atop modern columns. The interior garden courtyard is covered by a glass roof, with steel support structure original to the building.

The Gardner Museum is much admired for the intimate atmosphere in which its works of art are displayed and for its flower-filled courtyard. Most of the art pieces are unlabeled, and the generally low lighting is more akin to a private house than a modern art museum.

In 2013, the museum was designated a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.

Collection

Sandro Botticelli, The Story of Lucretia (1496–1504

Leather wall covering in one of the rooms

Gardner collected and carefully displayed a collection of more than 7500 paintings, sculptures, furniture, textiles, silver, ceramics, 1500 rare books, and 7000 archival objects from ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world, and 19th-century France and America. Among the artists represented in the galleries are Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent. The first Matisse to enter an American collection is housed in the Yellow Room.

Well-known artworks in the museum’s collection include Titian’s The Rape of Europa, John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo and Portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Fra Angelico’s Death and Assumption of the Virgin, Rembrandt’s Self-Portrait, Aged 23, Cellini’s Bindo Altoviti, Piero della Francesca’s Hercules, and Botticelli’s The Story of Lucretia.

The archives hold more than 7,000 letters from 1,000 correspondents, including Henry Adams, T.S. Eliot, Sarah Bernhardt, and Oliver Wendell Holmes, in addition to travel albums, dealer receipts, and guest books.

The galleries also contain Gardner’s little-known but extensive book collection that includes early-print editions and manuscripts of Dante, works by miniaturist Jean Bourdichon, incunables, and illuminated manuscripts.

Extension and preservation project

View of original building from inside the new wing. A glassed-in passageway connecting the buildings is visible at lower center of photo.

In 2002, after a two-year master planning process, the museum’s board of trustees determined that a new wing was necessary to preserve the historic building and to provide improved spaces for programs that continue Isabella Gardner’s legacy. In 2004, Pritzker Prize–winning architect Renzo Pianoand the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (Genoa, Italy) were selected to design the new wing. The design for the new wing is conceived as a respectful complement to the historic Museum building in scale, form, and materials.

The new expansion includes spaces for visitor services, concerts, special exhibitions, and education and landscape programs, furthering Isabella Gardner’s legacy in art, music, and horticulture while reducing 21st-century strain on the collection and galleries. The completion date was 2012,^[5] and the project cost $118 million.^[6]

Art theft of 1990

 Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers robbed the museum of thirteen works of art worth an estimated $500 million – the greatest known property theft in history.^[7] Among the works was The Concert, one of only 34 known by Vermeer and thought to be the most valuable unrecovered painting at over $200 million.^[when?] Also missing is The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt‘s only known seascape.

Despite efforts by the FBI, the works have not yet been recovered. The museum initially offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to recovery of the art, doubled in May 2017 to $10 million.^[8]. Empty frames hang in the Dutch Room gallery as placeholders for the missing works. The selection of stolen works puzzled experts, as more valuable artworks were present in the museum.^[9] According to the FBI, the stolen artwork was moved through the region and offered for sale in Philadelphiaduring the early 2000s. They believe the thieves were members of a criminal organization based in the mid-Atlantic and New England.

Current programs

The museum regularly produces scholarly exhibitions, lectures, family programs, and symposia that provide insights into the historic collection. Through the Artist-in-Residence program, artists in many disciplines are invited to live at and draw inspiration from the museum. The museum often hosts exhibitions of contemporary art, performances, and programs by those selected.

The Gardner’s concert series welcomes musicians and emerging artists to perform classical masterpieces, new music, and jazz on Sunday afternoons and select Thursday evenings. The musical program is also available through concert videos, audio recordings, and a free classical music podcast.

Reflecting Isabella Gardner’s passion for horticulture and garden design, the Gardner’s interior courtyard combines ever-changing horticultural displays with sculpture and architectural elements. The interplay between the courtyard and the museum galleries offers visitors a fresh view from almost every room, inviting connections between art and landscape. Programs like the Landscape Visions lecture series and special Ask the Gardner hours further engage visitors to embrace the art of landscape.

In keeping with Isabella Gardner’s enthusiasm for the Boston Red Sox baseball team, visitors wearing Red Sox paraphernalia receive discounted admission. Visitors named Isabella, or visiting on their birthday, enter free.^[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet%C3%A0_for_Vittoria_Colonna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Museum

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo, lunetta, Jacob – Joseph

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Perugino: Taufe Christi

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Botticelli: Begebenheiten aus dem Leben des Mose

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Ghirlandaio: The.Calling.of.the.First.Apostles

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Perugino, Consegna delle chiavi

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Botticcelli, Sandro – The Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

V&A – Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Signorelli: Testament und Tod Mose

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Sistine Chapel ceiling, Michelangelo, The Libyan Sibyl

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Rosselli: Die Bergpredigt

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Detail from The Last Judgement by Michelangelo

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Rosselli: Das letzte Abendmahl

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Hendrick van den Broeck Resurrection of Christ

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo – Fresco of the Last Judgement

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Creazione di Adamo

Michelangelo Buonarroti 

Sistine Chapel Cappella Sistina(Italian) Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel
Sistine Chapel, from the altar end
Location on a map of Vatican City
Basic information
Location	Vatican City
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
District	Diocese of Rome
Country	Vatican City
Year consecrated	15 August 1483
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Papal oratory
Leadership	Francis
Website	mv.vatican.va
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Baccio Pontelli, Giovanni de Dolci[1]
Architectural type	Church
Groundbreaking	1473[1]
Completed	1481[1]
Specifications
Length	40.9 metres (134 ft)
Width (nave)	13.4 metres (44 ft)
Height (max)	20.7 metres (68 ft)
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name: Vatican City
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iv, vi
Designated	1984[2]
Reference no.	286
State Party	Holy See
Region	Europe and North America

The Sistine Chapel(/ˌsɪstiːn ˈtʃæpəl/; Latin: Sacellum Sixtinum; Italian: Cappella Sistina[kapˈpɛlla siˈstiːna]) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope, in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who restored it between 1477 and 1480. Since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today it is the site of the Papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescos that decorate the interior, and most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment by Michelangelo.

During the reign of Sixtus IV, a team of Renaissance painters that included Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Pinturicchio, Domenico Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, created a series of frescos depicting the Life of Moses and the Life of Christ, offset by papal portraits above and trompe l’oeil drapery below. These paintings were completed in 1482, and on 15 August 1483 Sixtus IV celebrated the first mass in the Sistine Chapel for the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.^[3][4]

Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo painted the chapel’s ceiling, a project which changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization.^[5][6] In a different climate after the Sack of Rome, he returned and between 1535 and 1541, painted The Last Judgment for Popes Clement VII and Paul III.^[7]The fame of Michelangelo’s paintings has drawn multitudes of visitors to the chapel ever since they were revealed five hundred years ago.

History

While known as the location of Papal conclaves, the primary function of the Sistine Chapel is as the chapel of the Papal Chapel(Cappella Pontificia), one of the two bodies of the Papal household, called until 1968 the Papal Court(Pontificalis Aula). At the time of Pope Sixtus IV in the late 15th century, the Papal Chapelcomprised about 200 people, including clerics, officials of the Vatican and distinguished laity. There were 50 occasions during the year on which it was prescribed by the Papal Calendar that the whole Papal Chapel should meet.^[8] Of these 50 occasions, 35 were masses, of which 8 were held in Basilicas, in general St. Peter’s, and were attended by large congregations. These included the Christmas Day and Easter masses, at which the Pope himself was the celebrant. The other 27 masses could be held in a smaller, less public space, for which the Cappella Maggiore was used before it was rebuilt on the same site as the Sistine Chapel.

The Cappella Maggiore derived its name, the Greater Chapel, from the fact that there was another chapel also in use by the Pope and his retinue for daily worship. At the time of Pope Sixtus IV, this was the Chapel of Pope Nicholas V, which had been decorated by Fra Angelico. The Cappella Maggiore is recorded as existing in 1368. According to a communication from Andreas of Trebizond to Pope Sixtus IV, by the time of its demolition to make way for the present chapel, the Cappella Maggiore was in a ruinous state with its walls leaning.^[9]

The Sistine Chapel as it may have appeared in the 15th century (19th-century drawing)

The present chapel, on the site of the Cappella Maggiore, was designed by Baccio Pontelli for Pope Sixtus IV, for whom it is named, and built under the supervision of Giovannino de Dolci between 1473 and 1481.^[1] The proportions of the present chapel appear to closely follow those of the original. After its completion, the chapel was decorated with frescoes by a number of the most famous artists of the High Renaissance, including Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Pietro Perugino, and Michelangelo.^[9]

The first mass in the Sistine Chapel was celebrated on 15 August 1483, the Feast of the Assumption, at which ceremony the chapel was consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary.^[10]

The Sistine Chapel has maintained its function to the present day, and continues to host the important services of the Papal Calendar, unless the Pope is travelling. There is a permanent choir, the Sistine Chapel Choir, for whom much original music has been written, the most famous piece being Gregorio Allegri‘s Miserere.^[11]

Papal conclave

Main article: Papal conclave

One of the functions of the Sistine Chapel is as a venue for the election of each successive pope in a conclave of the College of Cardinals. On the occasion of a conclave, a chimney is installed in the roof of the chapel, from which smoke arises as a signal. If white smoke appears, created by burning the ballots of the election, a new Pope has been elected. If a candidate receives less than a two-thirds vote, the cardinals send up black smoke — created by burning the ballots along with wet straw and chemical additives — it means that no successful election has yet occurred.^[12]

The conclave also provided for the cardinals a space in which they can hear mass, and in which they can eat, sleep, and pass time attended by servants. From 1455, conclaves have been held in the Vatican; until the Great Schism, they were held in the Dominican convent of Santa Maria sopra Minerva.^[13] Since 1996, John Paul II‘s Apostolic ConstitutionUniversi Dominici gregis requires the cardinals to be lodged in the Domus Sanctae Marthae during a papal conclave, but to continue to vote in the Sistine Chapel.^[14]

Canopies for each cardinal-elector were once used during conclaves—a sign of equal dignity. After the new Pope accepts his election, he would give his new name; at this time, the other Cardinals would tug on a rope attached to their seats to lower their canopies. Until reforms instituted by Saint Pius X, the canopies were of different colours to designate which Cardinals had been appointed by which Pope. Paul VI abolished the canopies altogether, since, under his papacy, the population of the College of Cardinals had increased so much to the point that they would need to be seated in rows of two against the walls, making the canopies obstruct the view of the cardinals in the back row.

Architecture

Structure

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Exterior of the Sistine Chapel

The chapel is a high rectangular building, for which absolute measurements are hard to ascertain, as available measurements are for the interior: 40.9 metres (134 ft) long by 13.4 metres (44 ft) wide, the dimensionsof the Temple of Solomon, as given in the Old Testament.^[15]

Its exterior is unadorned by architectural or decorative details, as is common in many Italian churches of the Medieval and Renaissanceeras. It has no exterior façade or exterior processional doorways, as the ingress has always been from internal rooms within the Apostolic Palace (Papal Palace), and the exterior can be seen only from nearby windows and light-wells in the palace. Subsidence and cracking of masonry such as must also have affected the Cappella Maggiore has necessitated the building of very large buttresses to brace the exterior walls. The accretion of other buildings has further altered the exterior appearance of the Chapel.

The building is divided into three stories of which the lowest is a very tall basement level with several utilitarian windows and a doorway giving onto the exterior court. Internally, the basement is robustly vaulted to support the chapel. Above is the main space, the Sistine Chapel, the vaulted ceiling rising to 20.7 metres (68 ft). The building had six tall arched windows down each side and two at either end, several of which have been blocked. Above the vault is a third story with wardrooms for guards. At this level, an open projecting gangway was constructed, which encircled the building supported on an arcade springing from the walls. The gangway has been roofed as it was a continual source of water leaking in to the vault of the Chapel.

A reconstruction of the appearance of the chapel in the 1480s, prior to the painting of the ceiling.

The general proportions of the chapel use the length as the unit of measurement. This has been divided by three to get the width and by two to get the height. Maintaining the ratio, there were six windows down each side and two at either end. Defined proportions were a feature of Renaissance architectureand reflected the growing interest in the Classical heritage of Rome.

The ceiling of the chapel is a flattened barrel vault springing from a course that encircles the walls at the level of the springing of the window arches. This barrel vault is cut transversely by smaller vaults over each window, which divide the barrel vault at its lowest level into a series of large pendentives rising from shallow pilasters between each window. The barrel vault was originally painted brilliant-blue and dotted with gold stars, to the design of Piermatteo Lauro de’ Manfredi da Amelia.^[9] The pavement is in opus alexandrinum, a decorative style using marble and coloured stone in a pattern that reflects the earlier proportion in the division of the interior and also marks the processional way from the main door, used by the Pope on important occasions such as Palm Sunday.

A screen or transenna in marble by Mino da Fiesole, Andrea Bregno, and Giovanni Dalmata divides the chapel into two parts.^[16] Originally these made equal space for the members of the Papal Chapel within the sanctuary near the altar and the pilgrims and townsfolk without. However, with growth in the number of those attending the Pope, the screen was moved giving a reduced area for the faithful laity. The transenna is surmounted by a row of ornate candlesticks, once gilt, and has a wooden door, where once there was an ornate door of gilded wrought iron. The sculptors of the transenna also provided the cantoriaor projecting choir gallery.

Decoration

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Diagram of part of the vertical fresco decoration of the Sistine Chapel

The first stage in the decoration of the Sistine Chapel was the painting of the ceiling in blue, studded with gilt stars, and with decorative borders around the architectural details of the pendentives. This was entirely replaced when Michelangelo came to work on the ceiling in 1508.

Of the present scheme of frescos, the earliest part is that of the side walls. They are divided into three main tiers. The central tier of the walls has two cycles of paintings, which complement each other, The Life of Moses and The Life of Christ. They were commissioned in 1480 by Pope Sixtus IV and executed by Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli, Pietro Perugino, Cosimo Roselli and their workshops. They originally ran all round the walls, but have since been replaced on both end walls.

The project was perhaps supervised by Perugino, who arrived at the chapel prior to the Florentines. It is probable that the commission of Ghirlandaio, Botticelli and Roselli was part of a reconciliation project between Lorenzo de’ Medici, the de facto ruler of Florence, and Pope Sixtus IV. The Florentines started to work in the Sistine Chapel in the Spring of 1481.

Beneath the cycles of The Life of Moses and The Life of Christ, the lower level of the walls is decorated with frescoed hangings in silver and gold. Above the narrative frescos, the upper tier is divided into two zones. At the lower level of the windows is a Gallery of Popespainted at the same time as the Lives. Around the arched tops of the windows are areas known as the lunettes which contain the Ancestors of Christ, painted by Michelangelo as part of the scheme for the ceiling.

The ceiling was commissioned by Pope Julius II and painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512. The commission was originally to paint the twelve apostles on the triangular pendentives which support the vault; however, Michelangelo demanded a free hand in the pictorial content of the scheme. He painted a series of nine pictures showing God’s Creation of the World, God’s Relationship with Mankind, and Mankind’s Fall from God’s Grace. On the large pendentives he painted twelve Biblical and Classical men and women who prophesied that God would send Jesus Christ for the salvation of mankind, and around the upper parts of the windows, the Ancestors of Christ.

In 1515, Raphael was commissioned by Pope Leo X to design a series of ten tapestries to hang around the lower tier of the walls.^[17] The tapestries depict events from the Life of St. Peter and the Life of St. Paul, the founders of the Christian Church in Rome, as described in the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Work began in mid-1515. Due to their large size, manufacture of the hangings was carried out in Brussels, and took four years under the hands of the weavers in the shop of Pieter van Aelst.^[18] Raphael’s tapestries were looted during the Sack of Rome in 1527 and were either burnt for their precious metal content or were scattered around Europe. In the late 20th century, a set was reassembled from several further sets that had been made after the first set, and displayed again in the Sistine Chapel in 1983. The tapestries continue in use at occasional ceremonies of particular importance. The full-size preparatory cartoonsfor seven of the ten tapestries are known as the Raphael Cartoons and are in London.^[19]

At this point, the decorative scheme displayed a consistent iconographical pattern. The tier of Popes, which, in the scheme intended by Pope Julius, would have appeared immediately below the Twelve Apostles, would have emphasised the apostolic succession. It has been argued that the present scheme shows the two Biblical Testaments merged in order to reveal the Old predicting and framing the New, synthesizing, the logic of the Christian Bible.^[20]

This was disrupted by a further commission to Michelangelo to decorate the wall above the altar with The Last Judgment, 1537–1541. The painting of this scene necessitated the obliteration of two episodes from the Lives, the Nativity of Jesus and the Finding of Moses; several of the Popes and two sets of Ancestors.

Frescoes

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Trials of Moses by Botticelli

The southern wall is decorated with the Stories of Moses, painted in 1481–1482. Starting from the altar, they include:

• Moses Leaving to Egypt by Pietro Perugino and assistants
• The Trials of Moses by Sandro Botticelli and his workshop
• The Crossing of the Red Sea by Cosimo Rosselli, Domenico Ghirlandaio or Biagio di Antonio Tucci
• Descent from Mount Sinai by Cosimo Rosselli or Piero di Cosimo
• Punishment of the Rebels by Sandro Botticelli
• Testament and Death of Mosesby Luca Signorelli or Bartolomeo della Gatta

Northern wall

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

The Delivery of the Keys by Perugino

The northern wall houses the Stories of Jesus, dating to 1481–1482. They include:

• Baptism of Christ by Pietro Perugino and assistants
• Temptation of Christ by Sandro Botticelli
• Vocation of the Apostles by Domenico Ghirlandaio
• The Sermon on the Mount, attributed to Cosimo Rosselli
• The Delivery of the Keys by Pietro Perugino
• The Last Supper by Cosimo Rosselli

Eastern wall

• Resurrection of Christ

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

• 

  Resurrection of Christ

  by Hendrick van den Broeck (1572) over Domenico Ghirlandaio’s original

 

• Disputation over Moses’ Body by Matteo da Lecce (1574) over Luca Signorelli’s original

Michelangelo’s frescoes

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo

Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II in 1508 to repaint the vault, or ceiling, of the Chapel. It was originally painted as golden stars on a blue sky. The work was completed between 1508 and 2 November 1512.^[21] He painted the Last Judgment over the altar, between 1535 and 1541, on commission from Pope Paul IIIFarnese.^[22]

Michelangelo was intimidated by the scale of the commission, and made it known from the outset of Julius II’s approach that he would prefer to decline. He felt he was more of a sculptor than a painter, and was suspicious that such a large-scale project was being offered to him by enemies as a set-up for an inevitable fall. For Michelangelo, the project was a distraction from the major marble sculpture that had preoccupied him for the previous few years.^[23]

The sources of Michelangelo’s inspiration are not easily determined; both Joachite and Augustinian theologians were within the sphere of Julius influence.^[24]

Ceiling

: Sistine Chapel ceiling

: Gallery of Sistine Chapel ceiling

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

A section of the Sistine Chapel ceiling

To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo needed a support; the first idea was by Julius’ favoured architect Donato Bramante, who wanted to build for him a scaffold to be suspended in the air with ropes. However, Bramante did not successfully complete the task, and the structure he built was flawed. He had perforated the vault in order to lower strings to secure the scaffold. Michelangelo laughed when he saw the structure, and believed it would leave holes in the ceiling once the work was ended. He asked Bramante what was to happen when the painter reached the perforations, but the architect had no answer.

The matter was taken before the Pope, who ordered Michelangelo to build a scaffold of his own. Michelangelo created a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall, high up near the top of the windows. Contrary to popular belief, he did not lie on this scaffolding while he painted, but painted from a standing position.^[25]

Michelangelo used bright colours, easily visible from the floor. On the lowest part of the ceiling he painted the ancestors of Christ. Above this he alternated male and female prophets, with Jonah over the altar. On the highest section, Michelangelo painted nine stories from the Book of Genesis. He was originally commissioned to paint only 12 figures, the Apostles. He turned down the commission because he saw himself as a sculptor, not a painter. The Pope offered to allow Michelangelo to paint biblical scenes of his own choice as a compromise. After the work was finished, there were more than 300. His figures showed the creation, Adam and Evein the Garden of Eden, and the Great Flood.

The painted area is about 40 m (131 ft) long by 13 m (43 ft) wide. This means that Michelangelo painted well over 5,000 square feet (460 m²) of frescoes.^[26]

Last Judgement

Giacobbe Giusti, Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo’s The Last Judgement.

 The Last Judgment (Michelangelo)

The Last Judgement was painted by Michelangelo from 1535 to 1541, between two important historic events, the Sack of Rome by mercenary forces of the Holy Roman Empire in 1527 and the Council of Trent which commenced in 1545. The work was designed on a grand scale, and spans the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. The painting depicts the second coming of Christ on the Day of Judgment as described in the Revelation of John, Chapter 20. High on the wall is the heroic figure of Christ, with the saints clustered in groups around him. At the bottom left of the painting the dead are raised from their graves and ascend to be judged. To the right are those who are assigned to Hell and are dragged down by demons.

The Last Judgement was an object of a bitter dispute between Cardinal Carafa and Michelangelo. Because he depicted naked figures, the artist was accused of immorality and obscenity. A censorship campaign (known as the « Fig-Leaf Campaign ») was organized by Carafa and Monsignor Sernini (Mantua‘s ambassador) to remove the frescoes.

The Pope’s Master of Ceremonies Biagio da Cesena said « it was most disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns, »^[27] In response Michelangelo worked da Cesena’s semblance into the scene as Minos, judge of the underworld. It is said that when he complained to the Pope, the pontiff responded that his jurisdiction did not extend to hell, so the portrait would have to remain. Michelangelo also painted his own portrait, on the flayed skin held by St Bartholomew.

The genitalia in the fresco were later covered by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom history remembers by the derogatory nickname « Il Braghettone » (« the breeches-painter »).

Restoration and controversy

Main article: Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes

The Sistine Chapel’s ceiling restoration began on 7 November 1984. The restoration complete, the chapel was re-opened to the public on 8 April 1994. The part of the restoration in the Sistine Chapel that has caused the most concern is the ceiling, painted by Michelangelo. The emergence of the brightly coloured Ancestors of Christ from the gloom sparked a reaction of fear that the processes being employed in the cleaning were too severe and removed the original intent of the artist.

Daniel, before and after restoration.

The problem lies in the analysis and understanding of the techniques utilised by Michelangelo, and the technical response of the restorers to that understanding. A close examination of the frescoes of the lunettes convinced the restorers that Michelangelo worked exclusively in « buon fresco« ; that is, the artist worked only on freshly laid plaster and each section of work was completed while the plaster was still in its fresh state. In other words, Michelangelo did not work « a secco« ; he did not come back later and add details onto the dry plaster.

The restorers, by assuming that the artist took a universal approach to the painting, have taken a universal approach to the restoration. A decision was made that all of the shadowy layer of animal glue and « lamp black », all of the wax, and all of the overpainted areas were contamination of one sort or another: smoke deposits, earlier restoration attempts, and painted definition by later restorers in an attempt to enliven the appearance of the work. Based on this decision, according to Arguimbau’s critical reading of the restoration data that have been provided, the chemists of the restoration team decided upon a solvent that would effectively strip the ceiling down to its paint-impregnated plaster. After treatment, only that which was painted « buon fresco » would remain.^{[citation needed]}

Replicas

The only reproduction of the Sistine Chapel ceiling was painted by Gary Bevans at a church in Goring-by-Sea, West Sussex, England.^[28] A full-size architectural and photographic replica of the entire building was commissioned by the Mexican Government and funded by private donors.^[29] It was on view at Mexico City from June 1 to July 15, 2016; it may then be exhibited at other Mexican cities and possibly elsewhere in the world. It took 2.6 million high definition photographs to reproduce the totality of the frescoes and tapestries.^[30] A video of the history of the Chapel is shown to the visitors before entering the building; inside, a light-and-sound demonstration explains the content of each of the frescoes.

Quotes on Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel

« Without having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable idea of what one man is capable of achieving. »

— Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 23 August 1787, ^[31]

« This work has been and truly is a beacon of our art, and it has brought such benefit and enlightenment to the art of painting that it was sufficient to illuminate a world which for so many hundreds of years had remained in the state of darkness. And, to tell the truth, anyone who is a painter no longer needs to concern himself about seeing innovations and inventions, new ways of painting poses, clothing on figures, and various awe-inspiring details, for Michelangelo gave to this work all the perfection that can be given to such details. »

— Giorgio Vasari on Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Sistine Chapel

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References

Citations

1. ^ Jump up to:^a b c d Ekelund, Hébert & Tollison 2006, p. 313
2. Jump up^ Vatican City, Whc.unesco.org, retrieved 9 August 2011
3. Jump up^ Pietrangeli 1986, p. 28
4. Jump up^ Monfasani, John (1983), « A Description of the Sistine Chapel under Pope Sixtus IV », Artibus et Historiae, IRSA s.c., 4 (7): 9–18, doi:10.2307/1483178, ISSN 0391-9064, JSTOR 1483178.
5. Jump up^ Gardner, Helen (1970) Art through the Ages, p. 469, Harcourt, Brace and World. ISBN 978-0-15-508315-8
6. Jump up^ Robert Coughlan, The World of Michelangelo, Time-Life International, (1966) p. 116
7. Jump up^ Robert Coughlan, p. 127
8. Jump up^ Pietrangeli 1986, p. 24
9. ^ Jump up to:^a b c John Shearman, « The Chapel of Sixtus IV ». In Pietrangeli 1986
10. Jump up^ « The Sistine Chapel », Vatican Museums, retrieved 9 August 2013
11. Jump up^ Stevens, Abel & Floy, James. « Allegri’s Miserere ». The National Magazine, Carlton & Phillip, 1854. 531.
12. Jump up^ Saunders, Fr. William P. « The Path to the Papacy« . Arlington Catholic Herald, 17 March 2005. Retrieved on 2 June 2008.
13. Jump up^ Chambers, D. S. (1978), « Papal Conclaves and Prophetic Mystery in the Sistine Chapel », Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, The Warburg Institute, 41: 322–326, doi:10.2307/750878, JSTOR 750878.
14. Jump up^ « Interesting Conclave Facts ». ewtn.com.
15. Jump up^ Campbell, Ian (1981), « The New St Peter’s: Basilica or Temple? » (PDF), Oxford Art Journal, 4 (1): 3–8, doi:10.1093/oxartj/4.1.3, ISSN 0142-6540, archived from the original (PDF) on 16 October 2015.
16. Jump up^ Hersey 1993, p. 180
17. Jump up^ Talvacchia 2007, p. 150
18. Jump up^ Talvacchia 2007, p. 152
19. Jump up^ Cheney, Iris. Review of « Raphael’s Cartoons in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen and the Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel » by John Shearman ». The Art Bulletin, Volume 56, No. 4, December 1974. 607–609.
20. Jump up^ Oliveira, Paulo Martins « The Sistine Chapel and the two Testaments« , 2013, (online, academia.edu)
21. Jump up^ Graham-Dixon 2008, p. 2
22. Jump up^ Stollhans, Cynthia (1988), « Michelangelo’s Nude Saint Catherine of Alexandria », Woman’s Art Journal, Woman’s Art, Inc., 19 (1): 26–30, doi:10.2307/1358651, ISSN 0270-7993, JSTOR 1358651.
23. Jump up^ Graham-Dixon 2008, p. 1
24. Jump up^ Graham-Dixon 2008, p. xii
25. Jump up^ 7 Things You May Not Know About the Sistine Chapel
26. Jump up^ Michelangelo – The Sistine Chapel Ceiling, « Seven Common Questions About the Frescoes »
27. Jump up^ Vasari 1987, p. 379
28. Jump up^ Welcome to The Sistine Chapel Reproduction United Kingdom
29. Jump up^ Vatican Approves $2.4 Million Replica of Sistine Chapel in Mexico City
30. Jump up^ Full-size replica of Vatican’s Sistine Chapel opens in Mexico City
31. Jump up^ Letter. Original: (in German) Ich kann euch nicht ausdrücken, wie sehr ich euch zu mir gewünscht habe, damit ihr nur einen Begriff hättet, was ein einziger und ganzer Mensch machen und ausrichten kann; ohne die Sixtinische Kapelle gesehen zu haben, kann man sich keinen anschauenden Begriff machen, was ein Mensch vermag. Italian Journey, 2nd journey to Rome.^{Italienische Reise, Teil 21}

Bibliography

• Deimling, Barbara (2000), Sandro Botticelli 1444/45–1510, Köln: Taschen, ISBN 3-8228-5992-3
• Earls, Irene (1987), Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary, Westport: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-24658-0
• Ekelund, Robert B.; Hébert, Robert F.; Tollison, Robert D. (2006), The Marketplace of Christianity, Cambridge: MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-05082-X
• Graham-Dixon, Andrew (2008), Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0-297-85365-1
• Hersey, George (1993), High Renaissance Art in St. Peter’s and the Vatican, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-32782-5
• Michelangelo (1999), Bull, George, ed., Michelangelo, Life, Letters, and Poetry, Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-283770-2
• Pietrangeli, Carlo, ed. (1986), The Sistine Chapel, New York: Harmony Books, ISBN 0-517-56274-X
• Seymour, Charles (1972), Michelangelo, the Sistine Chapel Ceiling: illustrations, introductory essays, backgrounds and sources, critical essay, New York: W. W. Norton, ISBN 0-393-04319-3
• Stinger, Charles (1998), The Renaissance in Rome, Bloomington: Indianapolis, ISBN 0-253-21208-1
• Talvacchia, Bette (2007), Raphael, Oxford Oxfordshire: Phaidon Press, ISBN 978-0-7148-4786-3
• Vasari, Giorgio (1987), The Lives of the Artists, George Bull, New York: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-044500-5
• Wright, Lawrence (1983), Perspective in Perspective, London: Routledge & K. Paul, ISBN 0-7100-0791-4

Further reading

• Ettlinger, Leopold (1965), The Sistine Chapel before Michelangelo: Religious Imagery and Papal Primacy, Oxford: Clarendon Press, OCLC 230168041
• King, Ross (2003), Michelangelo & the Pope’s Ceiling, New York: Penguin Books, ISBN 0-14-200369-7
• Lewine, Carol (1993), The Sistine Chapel Walls and the Roman Liturgy, University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, ISBN 0-271-00792-3
• Hirst, Michael; Colalucci, Gianluigi; Mancinelli, Fabrizio; Shearman, John; Winner, Matthias; Maeder, Edward; De Vecchi, Pierluigi; Nazzareno, Gabrielli; et al. (1994), Pietrangeli, Carlo, ed., The Sistine Chapel: A Glorious Restoration, Takashi Okamura (photographer), New York: H.N. Abrams, ISBN 0-8109-3840-5
• Pfeiffer, Heinrich (2007), Die Sixtinische Kapelle neu entdeckt (in German), Stuttgart: Belser, ISBN 978-0-8109-3840-3
• Stone, Irving (2004), The Agony and the Ecstasy, London: Nal Trade, ISBN 0-451-21323-8. Previously publish by Doubleday in 1961; a novel.
• Blech, Benjamin; Doliner, Roy (2008), The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, New York: HarperOne, ISBN 978-0-06-146904-6
• The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1982. ISBN 0-87099-348-8.

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