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The Sistine Ceiling
Above is a photographic reproduction, at one-quarter scale, of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican Palace, which Michelangelo painted in the difficult medium of fresco between 1508 and 1512. Both of his commissions from Pope Julius II, the Sistine ceiling frescoes and the pontiff's marble tomb, rely on a similar concept of figures populating an architectural framework. Conceiving the design for the ceiling's monumental surface area, about 1,754 square feet, would have demanded a herculean effort. The works in this gallery are a sampling of the precious few records of this campaign: Michelangelo's two surviving sheets of sketches for the ceiling's overall program, which reveal his gradual thought process as he filled the large vault with figures, and his original figure studies in black or red chalk, drawn from life and from models in clay or wax.
In the final frescoes, as seen above, Michelangelo designed an illusionistic framework simulating white marble that contains, along the central spine of the vault, rectangular narrative scenes from the Book of Genesis. Around the perimeter are Prophets alternating with Sibyls (female prophets). Pairs of seated Ignudi (athletic nude youths) flank fictively painted bronze medallions depicting historical events from the Book of Maccabees. The four corners represent episodes in the deliverance of the Jewish people from mortal dangers. In the lower realms are the Ancestors of Christ in the order given by the Gospel of Matthew. |