Michelangelo

B

David

Michelangelo returned to Florence in 1501 to work on David (1501-1504, Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence). The subject of this work is the Old Testament story of David and Goliath, in which the young David, future king of Israel, flings a stone from his slingshot to kill the giant Goliath, thereby saving his nation. The statue expresses not only the daring of the young hero, but also of Michelangelo himself, who established himself as a master with this work. This massive statue, which stands 5.17 meters (17 ft) tall, was carved from a block of stone that another sculptor had left unfinished. Michelangelo drew on the classical tradition in depicting David as a nude, standing with his weight on one leg, the other leg at rest (see contrapposto). This pose suggests impending movement, and the entire sculpture shows tense waiting, as David sizes up his enemy and considers his course of action.

While David reveals Michelangelo's expert knowledge of anatomy (he had been dissecting corpses for about five years), the head and hands are much too large in comparison with the torso. Critics have suggested several reasons for this inconsistency, but the most convincing is that the statue was originally intended for the roof of the Florence Cathedral, and exaggerating the head and hands made them more visible from a distance. The statue was never placed there, but set instead in front of the Palazzo della Signoria, the center of government in Florence. As a result its meaning changed: Rather than a religious image (it would have been one of several Old Testament figures on the cathedral), it became a symbol of the political strength of Florence against the forces of tyranny.

C

The Tomb of Julius II

In 1505 Michelangelo began work on a tomb for Pope Julius II that was to have stood in the apse of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. Michelangelo’s earliest designs specify a freestanding structure with three levels: at the bottom, figures representing victory alternating with slaves; above them, four huge seated figures including Moses and Saint Paul; and finally, angels supporting either a coffin or an image of the pope. In all there would have been about 40 figures on a structure nearly as tall as a three-story building. But the scope of the work was drastically reduced as other projects delayed its completion.

In the end only three figures by Michelangelo's hand were placed on the tomb, which is now in Rome’s church of San Pietro in Vincoli. Of these, the most powerful figure is Moses (about 1515), a dynamic example of Michelangelo’s ability to infuse stone with a sense of movement and life. The muscular torso of Moses twists to the left, but his scowling face turns sharply to the right as if he has just seen the people worshiping their false god. His left leg is drawn back, as if he were about to rise to his feet in anger.

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Two of the slave statues originally planned for the tomb, the Rebellious Slave and the Dying Slave (both about 1513-1516, Louvre, Paris, France), were also completed. They demonstrate Michelangelo’s approach to carving, in which cutting away excess stone appears to release an entrapped human figure. Here, as in many of his sculptures, Michelangelo left parts of the block of stone rough and unfinished, either because he was satisfied with the statues as they were or because he no longer planned to use them.

IV

Sistine Ceiling

A major project preventing completion of the tomb of Julius II was a new commission from Julius himself, to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Between 1508 and 1512 Michelangelo created some of the most memorable images of all time on the vaulted ceiling of the papal chapel in the Vatican. His intricate system of decoration tells the biblical story of Genesis, beginning with God separating light and dark (above the altar), progressing to the story of Adam and Eve, and concluding with the story of Noah. Scenes from the biblical stories of David, Judith, Esther, and Moses are depicted in the corners, while images of prophets, sibyls (female prophets), and the ancestors of Christ are set in a painted architectural framework above the windows. Bright, clear colors enliven and unify the vast surface, and make the details more legible from the floor of the chapel.

The Creation of Adam from the Sistine Ceiling (1508-1512) is perhaps Michelangelo’s finest fusion of form and meaning. Adam’s pose echoes both the shape of the ground on which he reclines and the pose of God the Father, thus giving visual form to the biblical description of Adam as made from the earth in the likeness of God. We see Adam beginning to come to life, as he reaches listlessly toward the vigorous energy that the image of God embodies.

V

Church of San Lorenzo

The Tomb of Julius II required architectural planning, but Michelangelo’s activity as an architect began in earnest with a plan for the facade of the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence (designed 1516-1520, but never executed). Michelangelo probably had no formal training as an architect, but during the Renaissance it was not unusual for artists to be given architectural commissions simply because they had demonstrated the ability to draw and create designs. Michelangelo envisioned the San Lorenzo facade as a two-story marble screen supporting as many as 40 statues.

By 1520 funding was discontinued for the San Lorenzo facade, but Michelangelo remained occupied with other projects for this church. The commission for a sacristy (1519-1534) for San Lorenzo included plans for Medici family tombs. As did many of Michelangelo’s designs, this one went through numerous changes before it was executed, but in the end it consisted of two large wall tombs facing each other across a high, domed room. One was intended for Giuliano de’ Medici (duke of Nemours), the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent; the other for Giuliano’s nephew Lorenzo (di Piero) de’ Medici (duke of Urbino). Michelangelo conceived of the two tombs as representing opposite types: Giuliano symbolized the active, extroverted personality, Lorenzo , the contemplative, introspective one. He placed nudes representing Day and Night beneath Giuliano; nudes representing Dawn and Dusk beneath a seated Lorenzo. Plans for reclining river gods at the base of each tomb were never executed.

The elegant Laurentian Library (designed 1524-1534), adjoining the Church of San Lorenzo, confirmed Michelangelo’s architectural abilities. In this and subsequent architectural projects, he combined classical motifs–columns, pediments, niches, and brackets—in new ways and distorted their relative proportions to give his architecture the surging energy of his sculpture and painting. In the entrance hall of the library, he invented new forms for the capitals of columns and tapered the pilasters (flattened pillars attached to walls) downward instead of upward. The curving contours of the central staircase seem to flow downward and outward, while rectilinear steps to its sides maintain a steady, upward march, giving a sense of checked energy.

VI

The Last Judgment

Michelangelo was again called to work in the Sistine Chapel in 1534, when Clement VII (born Giulio de’ Medici, nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent) commissioned him to paint the wall above the altar. The Last Judgment (1536-1541), with which Michelangelo covered the wall, depicts Christ's second coming at the end of the world. The enormous scene is focused on the impassive figure of Christ whose right arm is poised to strike down the damned, while the left arm seems gently to call the blessed toward him. At his side is the Virgin Mary, traditionally included as a figure of mercy at the Last Judgment; she quietly looks downward toward those who emerge from their graves. The nude bodies of the saints and the figures rising to heaven are massive, perhaps to emphasize the belief that their physical bodies would be revived in a glorified state. The scene of hell in the lower right corner does not show Satan or various hellish torments as was customary, but is based instead on the Inferno, part of an early 14th-century epic poem, The Divine Comedy, by Italian writer Dante Alighieri. This and many other aspects of the Last Judgment (especially the nudity) were sharply criticized soon after the fresco was unveiled and helped it become one of the most talked about and most frequently copied works of art in the 16th century.

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