Divine Michelangelo. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel "Last Judgment"

In 1534, Michelangelo begins work on one of the most grandiose frescoes in the history of world painting.

When he found himself alone with the giant white wall into which he was supposed to breathe life, he set to work, although at that time he was no longer young. At 60, he looked like a decrepit old man - wrinkled, hunched over, tired. His joints ached, his teeth ached, he was plagued by migraines and neuralgia. It took the great master six years to complete his creation.

Michelangelo believed in God, but he also believed in the free thought of man, in his physical strength and beauty. The artist interprets the scene of the Last Judgment as a universal, universal catastrophe. In this fresco, huge in scale and grandiose in design, there are no (and could not be) images of life-affirming power, similar to those that were created when painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. If earlier creativity Michelangelo was imbued with faith in man, the belief that he is the creator of his own destiny, but now, painting the altar wall, the artist shows a person helpless in the face of this fate.

On the last day of October 1541, the higher clergy and invited laity gathered in the Sistine Chapel to attend the unveiling of a new fresco on the altar wall. The tense expectation and the shock of what he saw were so great, and the general nervous excitement so inflamed the atmosphere that the pope (already Paul III Farnese) fell to his knees in reverent horror in front of the fresco, begging God not to remember his sins on the day of the Last Judgment.

Michelangelo, stepping back from traditional image of this plot, depicted the scene of the court, when the King of glory had already divided all the resurrected into sinners and the righteous, and the moment that precedes it (adventus Domini): Christ, raising his right hand in a formidable gesture, is more like Zeus the Thunderer than the Christian God. He is no longer the messenger of the world and not the Prince of Mercy, but the Supreme Judge, formidable and frightening. He raises his right hand to deliver final judgment.

The Apocalypse and Dante are the sources of the Last Judgment.
Michelangelo portrayed all the characters naked, and this was the deep calculation of the great master. In the bodily, in the infinite variety of human poses, he, so able to convey the movements of the soul, through a person and through a person depicted the whole huge psychological range of feelings that overwhelmed them. But to depict God and the apostles naked - for this, great courage was needed in those days. In addition, the understanding of the Last Judgment as a tragedy of universal existence was inaccessible to Michelangelo's contemporaries. This can be seen from the correspondence of the Venetian writer and pamphleteer Pietro Aretino with the artist. Aretino wanted to see in the "Last Judgment" the traditional medieval interpretation, that is, the image of the Antichrist. He wanted to see the whirlwinds of the elements - fire, air, water, earth, the faces of the stars, the moon, the sun. Christ, in his opinion, should have been at the head of a host of angels, while Michelangelo's main character is a man. Therefore, Michelangelo replied that the description of Aretino caused him grief and he could not portray him. A few centuries later, the researcher of Italian art Dvořák, who also did not perceive the Last Judgment as a cosmic catastrophe, saw only “wind swirling dust” in giant images.
The center of the composition is the figure of Jesus Christ, the only one that is stable and does not succumb to the whirlwind of movement of the actors.

The face of Christ is impenetrable, so much strength and power has been invested in the punishing gesture of his hand that it is interpreted only as a gesture of retribution. Maria turned away in dismay, unable to do anything to save humanity. Compassionate, as if suppressed by what is happening, Madonna turns away, she is motherly close to human sorrows.

They are surrounded by countless figures of prophets, apostles, where Adam and St. Peter, who are believed to be depicted there: the first as the founder of the human race, the second as the founder Christian religion. In the formidable glances of the apostles, approaching Christ in a close crowd with instruments of torture in their hands, only the demand for retribution and punishment of sinners is also expressed.
The holy martyrs and those who have found salvation crowd around Christ. Among the individual images of the fresco, the viewer's attention is attracted by the holy martyrs with the attributes of their torment:
St. Sebastian with arrows
St. Lawrence with the iron grate on which he was burned, and especially the figure of St. Bartholomew, located at the left foot of Christ.

The most magnificent St. Bartholomew shows the skin torn from him. There is also a nude figure of St. Lawrence, and in addition, countless holy men and women and other male and female figures around, nearby and at a distance, and they all kiss and rejoice, having been awarded eternal bliss by the grace of God and as a reward for their deeds.
At the feet of Christ are seven angels, described by the evangelist St. John, who, blowing seven trumpets, call for judgment, and their faces are so terrible that the hairs stand on end in those who look at them; among others are two angels, each holding a book of lives; and right there, according to a plan that cannot but be recognized as the most beautiful, we see on one side the seven deadly sins, which, in the guise of devils, fight and drag souls aspiring to heaven to hell, depicted in beautiful positions and very wonderful reductions.

Seven angels proclaim the hour of judgment with a trumpet, saved souls rise up, tombs open, the dead rise, skeletons rise from the ground, a man dragged down by the devil covers his face in horror with his hands.

2 And I saw seven angels standing before God; and seven trumpets were given to them.
3 And another angel came and stood before the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he, with the prayers of all the saints, offered it on the golden altar which was before the throne.
(Rev. 8:2-3)

Above Christ, on the left, the angels are overturning the cross, a symbol of martyrdom and humiliation, and on the right, they are throwing down a column, a symbol of passing earthly power.
Art historian V.N. Lazarev wrote about the Last Judgment: “Here you cannot distinguish angels from saints, sinners from the righteous, men from women. All of them are carried away by one inexorable stream of movement, they all writhe and writhe from the fear and horror that gripped them ... and new human lives, none of which can escape doom. In such an interpretation of the cosmic catastrophe, there is no longer room for the hero and heroic deed, there is no room for mercy either. It is not for nothing that Mary does not ask Christ for forgiveness, but shyly cuddles up to him, overwhelmed by fear of the raging elements ... As before, Michelangelo depicts powerful figures with courageous faces, with broad shoulders, with a well-developed torso, with muscular limbs. But these giants are no longer able to resist fate. That is why their faces are distorted by grimaces, that is why all their movements, even the most energetic ones, are so hopeless, tense and convulsive.

Christ, with a fiery lightning in his hand, inexorably divides all the inhabitants of the earth into the saved righteous, depicted on the left side of the composition, and sinners descending into Dante's hell ( left side frescoes).

In the lower part of the fresco, Charon, the ferryman across the infernal river, savagely drives those condemned to eternal torment from his boat into hell with blows of the oars. The devils in a joyful frenzy drag the naked bodies of the proud, the heretics, the traitors... men and women rush into the bottomless abyss.

He did not fail to show the world how, at the time of the resurrection of the dead, the latter again receive their bones and their flesh from the same earth, and how, with the help of other living beings, they ascend to heaven, whence the souls, having already tasted bliss, rush to their aid; not to mention all those numerous considerations that can be considered necessary for such a work as this, - after all, he put a lot of all sorts of labors and efforts, as this, in particular, is especially clear in the boat of Charon, who with a desperate movement urges the overthrown devils with an oar of the soul, just as Dante, beloved by him, put it when he wrote:
And the demon Charon calls a flock of sinners,
Rotating eyes like coals in the ashes,
And he drives them, and beats the unhurried oar.
Dante Alighieri "The Divine Comedy"

And it is impossible to imagine the variety of faces of devils, monsters of truly infernal. In sinners, sin is also visible, and at the same time the fear of eternal condemnation. In addition to the extraordinary beauty in this creation, one can see such a unity of painting and its execution that it seems as if it was written on the same day, and you will not find such a subtlety of decoration in any miniature, and, in truth, the number of figures and the amazing grandeur of this creation are as follows, that it is impossible to describe it, because it is overflowing with all possible human passions, and all of them are amazingly expressed by him. In fact, any spiritually gifted person should easily recognize the proud, the envious, the stingy, the voluptuous, and all the rest like them, because in their depiction, all the differences appropriate to them are observed both in facial expression, and in movement and in all their other natural features: and this, although something wonderful and great, did not, however, become impossible for this person, who was always observant and wise, saw many people and mastered that knowledge of worldly experience, which philosophers acquire only by reflection and from books. So a sensible person and knowledgeable in painting sees the amazing power of this art and notices in these figures thoughts and passions that no one but him has ever depicted. Again, he will see here how the variety of so many positions is achieved in the various and strange movements of young men, old people, men and women, in which the amazing power of his art, combined with the grace inherent in him by nature, is revealed to any spectator. That is why it excites the hearts of all the unprepared, as well as those who understand this craft. The abbreviations there seem to be in relief, while generalizing them, he achieves their softness; and the subtlety with which he painted gentle transitions shows what the pictures of a good and real painter should really be, and only the outlines of things turned by him in a way that no one else could do, show us a true Judgment, a true condemnation and resurrection .. .

You will not immediately capture these countless characters with your eyes, and it seems that everything in the fresco is in motion. Here are the crowds of sinners, who are being dragged into the dungeon of hell in a violent interweaving of their bodies; and the rejoicing righteous ascending to heaven; and hosts of angels and archangels; and the transporter of souls across the underground river Charon, and Christ administering his angry judgment, and the Virgin Mary timidly clinging to him.

Previously, the composition of the Last Judgment was built from several separate parts. In Michelangelo, it is an oval whirlpool of naked muscular bodies.

To replace the logical clarity of division and the stable architectonics of the ceiling painting Sistine Chapel came the feeling of spontaneous dynamics of a single compositional flow. In this stream, either individual characters or entire groups stand out.

If in the Sistine ceiling the titanic human figures were the source of movement, now they are carried away, like a whirlwind, by an external force that surpasses them; the characters lose their beauty, their titanic bodies seem to swell with tubercles of muscles that break the harmony of lines; movements full of desperation and gestures are sharp, disharmonious; carried away by the general movement, the righteous are indistinguishable from sinners.

This movement is given a rotational character, and the viewer has no doubt that the bundles, clusters of powerful bodies in their complexion are controlled by some higher one, the power of which they cannot counteract. Once again, Michelangelo was disappointed. He failed to create an integral scene. Figures and groups look detached from each other, there is no unity between them. But the artist managed to express something else - the great drama of all mankind, disappointment and despair individual person. No wonder he depicted himself as torn off from St. Bartholomew skin.

11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.
12 And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and the books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged according to what was written in the books, according to their deeds.
13 Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell gave up the dead that were in them; and every one was judged according to his works.
14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
15 And whoever was not written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

(Rev. 20:11-15)

The facial features of St. Bartholomew are reminiscent of Pietro Aretino, who passionately attacked Michelangelo because he considered his interpretation of a religious subject indecent. Other researchers believe that this is a self-portrait of Michelangelo himself.

He holds a knife in one hand, and in the other the skin that the tormentors tore off alive from him; in the form of a distorted face on this skin, Michelangelo depicted his own face. This detail of the Last Judgment testifies to Michelangelo's growing pessimism, and represents his bitter "signature". The inclusion of such an unusual and bold motif in the fresco, the tragic intensity of this image is evidence of the sharpness of the artist's personal attitude to the theme being embodied.

People, their actions and deeds, their thoughts and passions - that was the main thing in the picture. In the crowd of overthrown sinners was also Pope Nicholas III - the one who allowed the sale of church positions.

Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" has caused fierce controversy among both his admirers and opponents. Even during the life of the artist, Pope Paul IV, who was very disapproving of the Last Judgment, while still Cardinal Caraffa, generally wanted to destroy the fresco, but then decided to “dress” all the characters and ordered the naked bodies to be recorded with drapery. When Michelangelo found out about this, he said, “Tell dad that this is a small matter and easy to handle. Let him bring the world into a decent form, and with pictures this can be done quickly. Did the pope understand the full depth of Michelangelo's ironic causticity, but he gave the appropriate order. And again, scaffolding was built in the Sistine Chapel, on which the painter Daniele da Volterra climbed with paints and brushes. He worked long and hard, because he had to add a lot of all kinds of draperies. For his work, during his lifetime, he received the nickname "brachetone", which literally means "trousered", "underwear". With this nickname, his name has forever remained associated in history.

In 1596, another pope (Clement VIII) wanted to knock down the entire Last Judgment altogether. Only through the intercession of artists from the Academy of St. Luke in Rome was it possible to convince the pope not to commit such a barbaric act.

The misadventures of the Last Judgment continued for a long time, which caused great damage to the fresco. Because of them, the harmony of colors and lines suffered.

Centuries have passed, the names of detractors and enemies of the great Buonarotti have been forgotten, and his imperishable frescoes remain eternal. The Last Judgment still fascinates people. This - wonderful picture, against which stupidity, hypocrisy and hypocrisy of the people turned out to be powerless.

According to materials:
Excerpt from the book - "100 great paintings", Nadezhda Ionina, "Veche", Moscow, 2006.
Giorgio Vasari on the Last Judgment fresco in The Life of Michelangello Buanarroti

“And this in our art serves as an example great painting sent by God to the earthly, so that they can see how fate guides the descended minds of a higher order, which have absorbed grace and divine wisdom.
[Vasari on the fresco "The Last Judgment"]

Divine Michelangelo. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel "Last Judgment". Part I . Photo and description of fragments of the fresco of the Sistine Chapel “The Last Judgment”.

In 1534 Michelangelo again and forever returned to Rome.

Pope Clement VII, who was going to entrust him with the painting "Resurrection" for the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, died on the second day after the artist's arrival.

The new Pope Paul III offered Michelangelo the position of chief architect and painter of the Vatican, and the artist gratefully accepted this honorable offer. Pope Paul decided to realize the noble intention of his predecessor and complete the picturesque decoration of the Sistine Chapel. But he chose the theme of the Last Judgment on the altar wall, and on the opposite wall above the entrance - "The Fall of Lucifer." Of these two grandiose frescoes, only the first, The Last Judgment, was executed.

Previously, the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel was painted with frescoes by Pietro Perugino on the themes "The Finding of Moses" and "The Birth of Christ", which are known to us only in descriptions. To give space to the new fresco, it was necessary to destroy not only them, but also the paintings by Michelangelo in the lunettes of the altar wall. In addition, two huge lancet windows were walled up, which changed both the lighting and the perception of other works. And now at this place Michelangelo had to recreate the Last Judgment - a fresco that became the last great work of the Renaissance and a harbinger of the new style of Rome - baroque.

This is the last piece great era was going to create her last Great master: by that time, his main fellow rivals Leonardo da Vinci and Rafael had long since passed away.

The younger generation idolized Michelangelo, but this could not get him out of a deep depression: after all, he witnessed the slow extinction of the era of humanist geniuses, whose faith crumbled to dust. It was replaced by a new ideology and a new art. The events of that time, especially the rise of Protestantism and the destructive effect of the Reformation, increased Michelangelo's emotional intoxication. In addition, the artist had serious health problems: he suffered from arthritis, migraine, neuralgia, he had a toothache. At 60, he looked like a hunched and tired old man. In such an environment and in such a state, Michelangelo set about creating a story about last tragedy humanity - the Last Judgment. The fresco, which Michelangelo spent about six years of hard work on, is striking in its monumentality. The mural is about 200 sq. m (1370x1220 cm) depicts four hundred figures in different, and never repeating, poses. This world of diverse movements reflects the whole range of human feelings.

The very theme of the Last Judgment in religion is intended to embody the triumph of justice over evil. But Michelangelo abandoned the affirmative idea of ​​the Last Judgment and presented the religious theme as a human tragedy on a cosmic scale, when the Second Coming of Christ became a day of anger and horror, the struggle of passions and hopeless despair.

In this grandiose fresco there are no images of life-affirming power, the artist shows a person powerless in the face of fate. If the frescoes of the ceiling are dedicated to the first days of creation and imbued with faith in man, then the Last Judgment carries the idea of ​​the collapse of the world and retribution for what has been done. Michelangelo managed to solve a difficult task - to combine in one ensemble the ceiling painting, which is complex system compositions and images, with a huge composition of the "Last Judgment" on the altar wall in such a way that they do not interfere with the perception of each. Michelangelo's solution to the theme of the Last Judgment differs from the traditional one: it depicts not the moment of the Judgment, when the righteous are already separated from the sinners, but its beginning. But at the same time, he retained the most important element of iconography, dividing the space of the fresco into two planes - heavenly (with Christ, the Mother of God and saints) and earthly, with scenes of the resurrection of the dead and dividing them into righteous and sinners.

The appearance of the beardless young Christ, personifying the Supreme Court, is also unconventional. He goes back to the early Christian type of Christ Emmanuel and is completely free from signs of a conventional religious hierarchy. No one before Michelangelo dared to violate the ancient Byzantine canons of the image of Christ.

The center of the composition of The Last Judgment is the only stable figure of Christ, not amenable to the movement of the characters. Michelangelo's Christ is not a merciful protector, but a punishing Lord. His face is impartial, and the cursing hand gesture can only be interpreted as a gesture of retribution. With this punishing gesture, Christ sets in motion a slow but inexorable circular movement, which draws into its stream both the righteous, and sinners, and angels, and saints, indistinguishable from each other. This external force that captivates the figures and which they cannot resist is so great that the characters lose their beauty, the harmony of hardships is broken by exaggeratedly powerful muscles and bodies, their sharp gestures are full of despair.

Compassionate, depressed by what is happening, Maria turned away in confusion, unable to help people. Christ and Mary are surrounded by figures of saints who have found salvation, apostles and prophets, among which stand out: Adam, as the initiator human race and Saint Peter as the founder of the Christian religion. In the hands of the martyrs, instruments for torture are symbols of the suffering they endured for their faith: Saint Sebastian with arrows, Saint Lawrence with an iron grate on which he was burned.

At the left foot of Christ, Michelangelo placed St. Bartholomew, who holds in his hand the skin that was torn alive from him by the persecutors of the first Christians. Own emotional condition and Michelangelo conveyed his personal attitude to the embodied theme very boldly and unusually, giving the face distorted by suffering on the torn skin of St. Bartholomew its own features.

Above Christ on the left, wingless angels (which was new for traditional iconography) overturn the cross - a symbol of martyrdom and humiliation, and on the right they overthrow a column - a symbol of passing earthly power.

At the feet of Christ, seven trumpeting angels, described by the evangelist St. John, announce the beginning of the Last Judgment, two angels hold the book of lives in their hands, where all human deeds are recorded.

The whole fresco is filled with movement: the saved soul rises to heaven along a garland of roses. The dead rise from the earth, again receiving their bones and flesh from the same earth, and go with hope and fear to the judgment of God. Those who have few sins rise easily and freely, and those who are strong in spirit help those who need support to rise.

With continuation - Divine Michelangelo. Fresco of the Sistine Chapel "Last Judgment". Part II . Photo and description of fragments of the fresco of the Sistine Chapel “Last Judgment” - you can find

Probably, the pope wanted his name to stand in line with the names of his predecessors: Sixtus IV, commissioned by Florentine artists in the 1480s to create cycles of frescoes on subjects from the stories of Moses and Christ, Julius II, in whose pontificate Michelangelo painted ceiling (1508-1512) and Leo X, at whose request the chapel was decorated with tapestries based on the cardboards of Raphael (c. 1514-1519). In order to be among the pontiffs who took part in the foundation and decoration of the chapel, Clement VII was ready to call on Michelangelo, despite the fact that the elderly artist worked for him in Florence without the same energy and with the involvement of all more assistants from among their students.

It is not known when the artist entered into an official contract, but in September 1534 he arrived from Florence in Rome to take up a new work (and continue work on the tomb of Julius II). A few days later, dad died. Michelangelo, believing that the order had lost relevance, left papal court and took on other projects.

Pavel III

However new dad, Paul III, did not give up the idea of ​​decorating the altar wall with a new fresco. Michelangelo, on the other hand, from whom the heirs of Julius II demanded the continuation of work on his tomb, tried to postpone the start of work on the painting.

At the direction of the Pope, the frescoes made in the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century were to be hidden. new painting. This was the first "intervention" in the history of the chapel in a complex of images, thematically related to each other: Finding Moses, Ascension of the Virgin Mary with kneeling Sixtus IV and Nativity, as well as portraits of some popes between the windows and two lunettes from the cycle of frescoes on the ceiling of the chapel with the ancestors of Jesus, painted by Michelangelo more than twenty years ago.

During the preparatory work, with the help of brickwork, the configuration of the altar wall was changed: it was given a slope inside the room (its top protrudes by about 38 cm). Thus, they tried to avoid dust settling on the surface of the fresco during work. Two windows that were in the altar wall were also closed up. Destroying the old frescoes must have been a difficult decision, at first preparatory drawings Michelangelo tried to preserve part of the existing wall decoration, but then, in order to preserve the integrity of the composition in the spatial abstractness of the boundless sky, this was also abandoned. Surviving sketches (one in the Bayonne Museum Bonnet, one in Casa Buonarotti and one in british museum) highlight the artist's work on the fresco in development. Michelangelo left the usual division of the composition into two worlds in iconography, however, he interpreted the theme of the Last Judgment in his own way. He built an extremely dynamic rotational movement from a mass of chaotically intertwined bodies of the righteous and sinners, the center of which was Christ the Judge.

When the wall was ready for painting, a dispute arose between Michelangelo and Sebastiano del Piombo, until then a friend and collaborator of the master. Del Piombo, who found support in this matter with the pope, argued that for the sixty-year-old Michelangelo, work in the pure fresco technique would be physically difficult, and suggested preparing a surface for painting. oil paint. Michelangelo categorically refused to fulfill the order in any other technique than "pure fresco", stating that painting a wall with oil "is an occupation for women and rich lazy people like Fra Bastiano". He insisted that the already completed oil base be removed and a layer intended for fresco painting be applied. According to archival documents, work on the preparation for painting continued from January to March 1536. The fresco painting was delayed for several months due to the acquisition of the necessary paints, mainly a very expensive blue, the quality of which was fully approved by the artist.

Scaffolding was installed and Michelangelo began painting in the summer of 1536. In November of the same year, the pope, in order to release Michelangelo from obligations to the heirs of Julius II, mainly Guidobaldo della Rovere, issued a motu proprio, which gave the artist time to complete the Judgment without being distracted by other orders. In 1540, when the work on the fresco was coming to an end, Michelangelo fell from the scaffolding, he needed a break of a month to recover.

The artist, as in the period of work on the ceiling of the chapel, painted the wall on his own, using help only when preparing paint and when applying a preparatory layer of plaster for painting. Only one Urbino assisted Michelangelo, he probably painted the background. In later studies of the fresco, in addition to the addition of draperies, no interference with the author's painting by Michelangelo was found. Experts counted in the "Last Judgment" approximately 450 jornat(daily fresco painting norms) in the form of wide horizontal stripes - Michelangelo began work from the top of the wall and gradually descended, dismantling the scaffolding.

The fresco was completed in 1541, its opening took place on the eve of All Saints' Day, on the same night 29 years ago, the frescoes of the ceiling of the chapel were presented.

Criticism

Even in the process of work, the fresco caused, on the one hand, boundless and unconditional admiration, on the other, harsh criticism. The artist soon faced the threat of being accused of heresy. The Last Judgment caused a conflict between Cardinal Carrafa and Michelangelo: the artist was accused of immorality and obscenity, as he depicted naked bodies, without hiding the genitals, in the most important Christian church. A censorship campaign (known as the "Fig Leaf Campaign") was organized by Cardinal and Ambassador Mantua Sernini to destroy the "obscene" fresco. The ceremonial master of the pope, Biagio da Cesena, saw the painting and said that “it’s a shame that in such sacred place naked bodies are depicted, in such an obscene form" and that this is not a fresco for the pope's chapel, but rather "for public baths and taverns". Michelangelo, in response, portrayed Cesena in hell in the Last Judgment in the form of King Minos, the judge of the souls of the dead (lowest right corner), with donkey ears, which was a hint of stupidity, naked, but covered by a snake wrapped around him. It was said that when Cesena asked the pope to force the artist to remove the image from the fresco, Paul III jokingly replied that his jurisdiction did not extend to the devil, and Cesena himself had to agree with Michelangelo.

censored records. fresco restoration

Marcello Venusti, copy fragment doomsday. Saint Biagio and Saint Catherine (1549), Naples, Museo di Capodimonte

The nudity of the characters in the Last Judgment was covered up 24 years later (when the Council of Trent condemned nudity in religious art) by order of Pope Paul IV. Michelangelo, having learned about this, asked me to tell the pope that “it is easy to remove nudity. May he bring the world into a decent form. The draperies on the figures were painted by the artist Daniele da Volterra, whom the Romans awarded with a derogatory nickname Il Braghettone("trouser", "undershirt"). A great admirer of the work of his teacher, da Volterra limited his intervention to the fact that he "covered" the bodies with clothes painted in dry tempera, in accordance with the decision of the Council of January 21, 1564. The only exceptions were the images of St. Biagio and St. Catherine of Alexandria, which provoked the strongest outrage from critics, who considered their poses obscene, reminiscent of copulation. Yes, Volterra remade this fragment of the fresco, cutting out a piece of plaster with the author's painting by Michelangelo, in the new version, St. Biagio looks at Christ the Judge, and St. Catherine is dressed. Most of the work was completed in 1565, after the death of the master. Censored recordings continued later, after the death of da Volterra, they were performed by Giloramo da Fano and Domenico Carnevale. Despite this, the fresco was also criticized in subsequent years (during the 18th century, in 1825), it was even proposed to destroy it. During the last restoration, completed in 1994, all later edits to the fresco were removed, while records To XVI century remained as historical evidence of the requirements for work of art presented by the era of the Counter-Reformation.

Pope John Paul II put an end to the centuries-old controversy on April 8, 1994 during a mass held after the restoration of the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel:

Composition

In The Last Judgment, Michelangelo somewhat departed from traditional iconography. Conventionally, the composition can be divided into three parts:

• The upper part (lunettes) - flying angels, with attributes of the Passion of Christ.
• The central part is Christ and the Virgin Mary between the blessed.
• The lower one is the end of time: angels playing the trumpets of the Apocalypse, the resurrection of the dead, the ascent to heaven of the saved and the casting of sinners into Hell.

The number of characters in The Last Judgment is a little over four hundred. The height of the figures varies from 250 cm (for the characters in the upper part of the fresco) to 155 cm in the lower part.

lunettes

Angels with attributes of the Passion of Christ, left lunette

Two lunettes show groups of angels carrying symbols of the Passion, a sign of Christ's sacrifice, which he brought in the name of the salvation of mankind. This is the starting point for reading the fresco, anticipating the feelings that the characters of the Last Judgment embrace.

Contrary to tradition, angels are depicted without wings. apteri, which Vasari called simply Ignudi, they are presented in the most complex angles and stand out clearly against the ultramarine sky. Probably, among all the figures of the fresco, the angels are closest to the ideals of beauty, anatomical strength and proportion of the sculptures of Michelangelo, this unites them with the figures of naked youths on the ceiling of the chapel and the heroes of the Battle of Kashin. In the tense expressions of wide-eyed angels, a gloomy vision of the end of time is anticipated: not the spiritual calm and enlightenment of the saved, but anxiety, awe, depression, which sharply distinguish Michelangelo's work from his predecessors who took up this topic. The virtuoso work of the artist, who painted angels in the most difficult positions, aroused the admiration of some viewers, and criticism of others. So Giglio wrote in 1564: “I do not approve of the efforts that the angels demonstrate in Michelangelo’s Judgment, I am talking about those that support the Cross, the column and others sacred objects. They look more like clowns and jugglers than like angels."

Christ the Judge and the Virgin Mary with Saints

Christ and Mary

The center of the whole composition is the figure of Christ the Judge with the Virgin Mary, surrounded by a crowd of preachers, prophets, patriarchs, sibyls, heroes of the Old Testament, martyrs and saints.

In traditional versions doomsday Christ the Judge was depicted on the throne, as the Gospel of Matthew describes, separating the righteous from the sinners. Usually Christ right hand raised in a blessing gesture, while the left one is lowered as a sign of a sentence to sinners, stigmata are visible on his hands.

Michelangelo only partially follows the established iconography - his Christ against the background of clouds, without the scarlet mantle of the ruler of the world, is shown at the very moment of the beginning of the Judgment. Some researchers saw here a reference to ancient mythology: Christ is depicted as the Thunderer Jupiter or Phoebus (Apollo), in his athletic figure they find Buonarotti's desire to compete with the ancients in the image of a naked hero with extraordinary physical beauty and power. His gesture, imperious and calm, attracts attention and at the same time calms the surrounding excitement: he gives rise to a wide and slow rotational movement in which everyone is involved. characters. But this gesture can also be understood as threatening, emphasized by a focused, albeit impassive, without anger or rage, appearance, according to Vasari: "... Christ, who, looking at sinners with a terrible and courageous face, turns and curses them."

The figure of Christ Michelangelo wrote, making various changes, ten days. His nudity drew condemnation. In addition, the artist, contrary to tradition, depicted Christ the Judge as beardless. On numerous copies of the fresco, he appears in a more familiar form, with a beard.

Next to Christ is the Virgin Mary, who with humility turned her face away: not interfering in the decisions of the Judge, she is only waiting for the results. Mary's gaze, unlike Christ's, is directed to the Kingdom of Heaven. In the guise of the Judge there is neither compassion for sinners, nor joy for the blessed: the time of people and their passions has been replaced by the triumph of divine eternity.

Surrounding Christ

The first ring of characters around Christ and Mary

Saint Bartholomew

Michelangelo abandoned the tradition that artists at the Last Judgment surrounded Christ with enthroned apostles and representatives of the Tribes of Israel. He also shortened the Deesis, leaving the sole (and passive) intermediary between the Judge and human souls Mary without John the Baptist.

Two central figures surrounds the ring of saints, patriarchs and apostles - a total of 53 characters. This is not a chaotic crowd, the rhythm of their gestures and glances harmonizes this giant funnel of human bodies, receding into the distance. The faces of the characters express various shades of anxiety, despair, fear, they all take an active part in the universal catastrophe, calling on the viewer to empathize. Vasari noted the richness and depth of expression of the spirit, as well as an unsurpassed talent in depicting the human body "in strange and various gestures of young and old, men and women."

Some characters in the background, not provided for in the preparatory cardboard, were drawn in a secco, without detail, in a free pattern, with an emphasized spatial division of the figures: unlike those closest to the viewer, they seem darker, with blurry, fuzzy contours.

At the feet of Christ, the artist placed Lawrence with a lattice and Bartholomew, perhaps because the chapel was also dedicated to these two saints. Bartholomew, recognizable by the knife in his hand, holds the flayed skin on which Michelangelo is believed to have painted his self-portrait. Sometimes this is taken as an allegory for the atonement of sin. The face of Bartholomew is sometimes considered a portrait of Pietro Aretino, an enemy of Michelangelo who slandered him, in retaliation for the fact that the artist did not take his advice when working on The Last Judgment. A hypothesis was also put forward, which received wide public outcry, but refuted by most researchers, that Michelangelo depicted himself on flayed skin, as a sign that he did not want to work on the fresco and executed this order under duress.

Some of the saints are easily recognizable by their attributes, while various hypotheses have been built regarding the definition of other characters, which cannot be confirmed or refuted. To the right of Christ is St. Andrew with the cross on which he was crucified, the drapery that appeared on it as a result of censored records was removed during the restoration. Here you can also see John the Baptist in a fur coat, Daniele da Volterra also covered him with clothes. The woman addressed by Saint Andrew is possibly Rachel.

The second ring of characters. Left-hand side

This group consists of martyrs, spiritual fathers of the Church, virgins and blessed.

On the left side, almost all the characters are women: virgins, sibyls and heroines of the Old Testament. Among other figures, two women stand out: one with a naked torso and the other, kneeling in front of the first. They are considered the personifications of the mercy of the Church and piety. Numerous figures of this series are not identifiable.

Notes

1. Stefano Zuffi, La pittura rinascimentale, 2005.
2. , p. 84
3. , p. 12
4. , p. 112
5. , p. 214
6. De Vecchi-Cerchiari, cit., pag. 151.
7. The Sistine Chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in which the papal court celebrated the Ascension Day of the mother of Christ.
8. , p. 104
9. , p. 216
10. Zuffi, 109
11. These words are quoted by Vasari in the biography of Sebastiano Lel Piombo.
12. It was the lowest tier.
13. Della notizia dà un resoconto Vasari.
14. According to Ldoviko Domenici in Historia di detti et fatti notabili di diversi Principi & huommi privati ​​moderni(1556), p. 668
15. Mahov A. Caravaggio. - M .: Young Guard, 2009. - (Life wonderful people). - ISBN 978-5-235-03196-8
16. , p. 235
17. Letter from the Dominican theologian Andrea Giglio to the Pope
18. , p. 266
19. , p. 227
20. Blech B. Doliner R. The Michelangelo Mystery: What is the Vatican hiding about the Sistine Chapel? - M.: Eksmo, 2009. p. 261.
21. , p. 219
22. , p. 102
23. , p. 225
24. Camesasca, cit., pag. 104.
25. , p. 226
26. Copy from Casa Buonarotti
27. Vasari
28. Camesasca, cit., pag. 102.
29. Dixon, John W. Jr. The Terror of Salvation: The Last Judgment

Literature

• Ettore Camesasca. Michelangelo pittore. - Milano: Rizzoli, 1966.
• Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell "arte, volume 2, Bompiani, Milano 1999. ISBN 88-451-7212-0
• Pierluigi de Vecchi. La Cappella Sistina. - Milano: Rizzoli, 1999. - ISBN 88-17-25003-1

Michelangelo Buonarroti "Last Judgment", fresco on the altar wall 1535-1541

Buonarroti Michelangelo
Terrible Judgment. Altar wall fresco, 1535-1541
17 x 13.3 m.
Sistine Chapel, Vatican, Rome

The Last Judgment is, first of all, a colossal world drama. Only a mighty genius can convey the entire horror of a global catastrophe in one episode, in several separate plots. Corruption of morals, debauchery and cynicism, effeminacy and deceit, venality and frivolity - all this causes a moral decline and requires the atonement of violated divine laws. With love in his heart and with anger on his lips, the great Michelangelo addresses the world here.

Only a passionate striving for perfection and truth can give a person the strength to go towards his goal with courageous patience and will. The creation of the "Last Judgment" took more than five years - more than the painting of the Sistine Chapel vault. Two frescoes by Perugino and paintings by Michelangelo in the lunettes of the altar wall had to be destroyed in order to give full play to the epic of the Last Judgment. The building had to close up the window openings, which changed both the lighting and the perception of other works.

The fresco strikes with its monumentality and scope. It depicts about 400 figures in various, never repeating poses. Thanks to the skill of the artist, each figure seems to be three-dimensional, as if it was not painted, but sculpted. The plot of such an extensive composition is fully consistent with the power of knowledge and the courage of the imagination, the richness of lines and contours, the effects of light and shadow. The whole world a variety of movements displays internal movements. All kinds of feelings, passions, movements of thought, hope, despair, envy, impotent anger, horror, pain and moral decline find their place next to tenderness, joy and admiration.

Michelangelo's solution to the theme of the Last Judgment differs from the traditional one: the moment was chosen not for the execution of the judgment, but for its beginning. The appearance of a beardless Christ (dating back to the early Christian type of Christ Emmanuel) and naked wingless angels is unusual. The inclusion of a reminder of the Passion of Christ in the scene of the Last Judgment is also unusual. Main literary source for the master it was the "Gospel of Matthew" and individual motives go back to other sources - from the "Vision of Ezekiel" (Old Testament) to " Divine Comedy» Dante (scene with Charon).

The author's unusual decision in the construction of the composition preserves the most important traditional elements of iconography. The space is divided into two main planes: heavenly - with Christ the judge, the Mother of God and saints, and earthly - with scenes of the resurrection of the dead and dividing them into righteous and sinners.

Trumpeting angels announce the beginning of the Last Judgment. A book is opened in which all human deeds are recorded. Christ Himself is not a merciful redeemer, but a punishing Master. The gesture of the Judge sets in motion a slow but inexorable circular movement that draws in its stream the ranks of the righteous and sinners. The Mother of God, sitting next to Christ, turned away from what was happening. She abandons her traditional role as intercessor and trembles at the final verdict. Around saints: apostles, prophets. In the hands of the martyrs are tools for torture, symbols of the suffering they endured for their faith.

The dead, opening their eyes with hope and horror, rise from their graves and go to the judgment of God. Some rise easily and freely, others more slowly, depending on the severity of their own sins. Strong-willed help those in need to get up.

The faces of those who have to go down to be cleansed are full of horror. Anticipating terrible torments, sinners do not want to go to hell. But the forces aimed at upholding justice push them to where the people who caused suffering are supposed to be. And the devils pull them to Minos, who, with his tail wrapped around the body, indicates the circle of hell, to which the sinner should descend. (The artist gave the features of the master of ceremonies, Papa Biagio da Cesena, to the judge of dead souls, who often complained about the nakedness of the depicted figures. His donkey ears are a symbol of ignorance.) And next to it is a barge driven by the carrier Charon. With one movement, he takes sinful souls. Their despair and rage are conveyed with tremendous power. To the left of the barge gapes the abyss of hell - there is the entrance to purgatory, where demons await new sinners. It seems that screams of horror are heard and the gnashing of teeth of the unfortunate

Above, outside the mighty cycle, above the souls awaiting salvation, wingless angels hover with symbols of the suffering of the Redeemer himself. At the top right, beautiful and young beings carry the attributes of the salvation of sinners.

All the years spent working on this picture, Michelangelo lived in solitude, only occasionally taking advantage of the company of a few friends. Despite the patronage of the Pope, and perhaps precisely because of this, misunderstanding, envy and anger pursued the artist. There were many critics who declared the creation of Michelangelo obscene. When Pope Paul IV suggested that he put the picture “in order,” that is, “cover the shameful parts,” the master replied: “Tell dad that this is a trifling matter ... Let him, in the meantime, put things in order in the world, and you can put things in order in painting quickly ... " Nevertheless, the Council of Trent decided to cover the nakedness of the figures with draperies.

It is no coincidence that Michelangelo placed St. Bartholomew at the feet of Christ. In his left hand, the saint holds the skin that was torn alive from him by the persecutors of the first Christians. Giving his own features to the face distorted by suffering, which is depicted on the flayed skin, Michelangelo captured the unbearable mental anguish that he experienced while creating his great creation.

The glory of Michelangelo exceeded any expectations. Immediately after the consecration of the Last Judgment fresco, pilgrims from all over Italy and even from abroad rushed to the Sistine Chapel. “And this in our art serves as an example of great painting, sent down by the earthly god, so that they can see how fate guides the minds of a higher order that have descended to earth, having absorbed grace and divine wisdom” (Vasari).

16th century Italian art
Fresco by Michelangelo Buonarroti The Last Judgment. The size of the painting is 1370 x 1220 cm. The largest painting by Michelangelo during the second quarter of the 16th century was The Last Judgment - a huge fresco on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo embodies the religious theme as a human tragedy on a cosmic scale. A grandiose avalanche of mighty human bodies – the righteous being lifted up and sinners being cast into the abyss, Christ doing judgment, like a thunderer bringing down a curse on the evil that exists in the world, full of anger saints-martyrs who, pointing to the instruments of their torment, demand retribution for sinners – all this still full of rebellious spirit. But although the theme of the Last Judgment is intended to embody the triumph of justice over evil, the fresco does not carry an affirmative idea - on the contrary, it is perceived as an image of a tragic catastrophe, as the embodiment of the idea of ​​the collapse of the world. People, despite their exaggeratedly powerful bodies, are only victims of the whirlwind that lifts and overthrows them. It is not for nothing that in the composition there are such images full of frightening despair as Saint Bartholomew, holding in his hand the skin torn off from him by the tormentors, on which, instead of the face of Saint Michelangelo, he depicted his own face in the form of a distorted mask.

The compositional solution of the fresco, in which, in contrast to the clear architectonic organization, the elemental principle is emphasized, is in unity with ideological concept. The individual image that previously dominated in Michelangelo is now captured by the general human stream, and in this the artist takes a step forward in comparison with the isolation of the self-sufficing individual image in the art of the High Renaissance. But, unlike the Venetian masters late Renaissance, Michelangelo has not yet reached that degree of interconnection between people, when the image of a single human collective arises, and the tragic sound of the images of the Last Judgment only intensifies from this. New for the painting of Michelangelo Buonarroti is the attitude towards color, which acquired from him here an incomparably greater figurative activity than before. The very juxtaposition of naked bodies with the phosphorescent ash-blue tone of the sky introduces a sense of dramatic tension into the fresco.

Note. Above the Last Judgment fresco, the artist Michelangelo placed the image of the Old Testament biblical prophet Jonah, who religious theme apocalypse has some allegorical relation. The ecstatic figure of Jonah is located above the altar and below the scene of the first day of creation, to which his eyes are turned. Jonah is the herald of the Resurrection and eternal life for he, like Christ, who spent three days in the tomb before ascending into heaven, spent three days in the belly of the whale, and then was brought back to life. Through participation in the mass at the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel with a grandiose fresco of the Last Judgment, believers partake of the mystery of the salvation promised by Christ.