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

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Michelangelo, The Last Judgment

Michelangelo, David

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"Mysteries of Michelangelo" documentary

Sculpture. Michelangelo's David.

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History of creation

Clement VII

In 1533 Michelangelo worked in Florence on various projects in San Lorenzo for Pope Clement VII. On September 22 of this year, the artist went to San Miniato to meet the pope. Perhaps it was then that the Pope expressed a desire that Michelangelo painted the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel on the theme of the Last Judgment. In this way, the thematic completion of the cycles of paintings on subjects from the Old and New Testaments that adorned the chapel would have been achieved.

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). 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 an increasing number of assistants from among his 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 the papal court and took up other projects.

• At the direction of the pope, the frescoes made in the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century were to be hidden by new paintings. 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. The destruction of the old frescoes must have been a difficult decision, in the first preparatory drawings Michelangelo tried to preserve part of the existing wall decoration, but then, in order to maintain the integrity of the composition in the spatial abstraction of the boundless sky, this had to be abandoned. The surviving sketches (one in the Bayonne Museum Bonnet, one in the Casa Buonarroti and one in the 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 the surface for painting with 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, in order to free Michelangelo from obligations to the heirs of Julius II, mainly Guidobaldo della Rovere, the pope 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, not 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 Pope's master of ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, upon seeing the painting, said that "it is a shame that naked bodies are depicted in such a sacred place in such an obscene form" and that this fresco is not 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

  The nudity of the characters in the Last Judgment was hidden 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. 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 exception was the images of St. Blaise and St. Catherine of Alexandria, which caused the strongest indignation of 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. Blaise 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 in subsequent years (during the 18th century, when the author's painting appeared through later recordings in 1825) was criticized, it was even proposed to destroy it. The first restoration attempts were made in 1903 and in 1935-1936. During the last restoration, completed in 1994, all later edits of the fresco were removed, while the records dating back to the 16th century remained as historical evidence of the requirements for a work of art made 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 the 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

  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 other sacred objects. They look more like clowns and jugglers than like angels."

  Christ the Judge and the Virgin Mary with Saints

  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's right hand is raised in a blessing gesture, while the left 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 Buonarroti'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 all the actors are involved. But this gesture can also be understood as threatening, emphasized by a concentrated, 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: without 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

  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 only (and passive) mediator between the Judge and human souls, Mary, without John the Baptist.

  The two central figures are surrounded by a 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 that goes 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 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 left 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 (about fifty figures).

    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. Some of the blessed from among the resurrected rush upward, involved in a general powerful rotational movement. Gestures, facial expressions of the characters show much more excitement than those who are next to Christ.

    The second ring of characters. Right side

    The right group - martyrs, confessors and other blessed ones, male figures predominate (approximately eighty characters). Far right is an athletic man holding a cross. It is assumed that this is Simon the Cyrene who helped Jesus carry the cross on the way to Golgotha. Another identification option is Dismas, the prudent robber.

    Below him, Saint Sebastian rises to the cloud, clutching arrows in his left hand, a sign of his martyrdom. The figure of Sebastian is seen as the artist's tribute to ancient eroticism.

    Slightly to the left are Blasius of Sebaste and Saint Catherine of Alexandria, this part of the fresco was repainted by Daniele da Volterra. They are followed by St. Philip with a cross, Simon Kananit with a saw, and Longinus.

    end times

    The bottom of the fresco, in turn, is divided into five parts: in the center, angels with trumpets and books announce the Last Judgment; at the bottom left is the resurrection of the dead, at the top - the ascension of the righteous; top right - the capture of sinners by devils, below - hell.

    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.

Ipatiev Monastery - the pearl of Kostroma. It is connected in a special way with Russian history. The Godunovs were the patrons of the monastery, their family burial vault was located here. From here began a new era of Russian statehood: in the monastery, where since the autumn of 1612 the young Mikhail Romanov lived with his mother, the nun Martha, on March 13, 1613, the embassy of the Zemsky Sobor, which elected Mikhail as king, arrived, and the next day, March 14, in the Trinity Cathedral monastery, a solemn ceremony of calling to the kingdom was performed, which put an end to the Time of Troubles. Trinity Cathedral - the main temple of the monastery. The frescoes of the cathedral - a wonderful example of fresco painting of the second half of the 17th century - are unique in their execution, composition and variety of subjects.

About the murals of this temple, the features of Orthodox art and its differences from Western European art, about what and how this art can teach our contemporaries, especially young ones, we talk with Lyudmila Burdina, the guide of the Ipatiev Monastery.

Tragedy or transformation of the world?

The monumental fresco "The Last Judgment" on the western wall of the Trinity Cathedral of the Ipatiev Monastery attracts attention as soon as you enter the temple. And I noticed that all tourists are told about it in particular detail. Why is there such interest in this fresco?

Firstly, this is one of the most ancient frescoes of the cathedral - 1654. And besides, we all face the Judgment of God. This affects every person in the most direct way.

And the fresco is interesting not only for its size and detailed composition, but also for the importance and significance of the topic. After all, she speaks about the fate of the entire human race, and about the posthumous fate of an individual before the Second Coming of the Savior and the Last Judgment. The images of the fresco allow us to clearly imagine the moment of the meeting of the soul with God, to prepare for it.

The Last Judgment is the theme of many works of art. And the first thing that comes to mind is Michelangelo's famous fresco in the Sistine Chapel. It was painted a century earlier than the frescoes of the Ipatiev Monastery, in the middle of the 16th century. Tell me, is it appropriate to compare these two frescoes?

Michelangelo embodies the theme of the Last Judgment as a tragedy of a cosmic scale. The composition is perceived as a catastrophe, the collapse of the world.

Yes, on the fresco of the Sistine Chapel, the figures are executed with amazing knowledge of the proportions of the human body and the laws of harmony: one can study anatomy from them. Each person has its own unique personality and psychological characteristics. But at the same time, the fresco is made in an emphatically naturalistic style, full of emotions and passions. In it, the Heavenly is transferred to the earthly plane, unregenerate materiality - to the sphere of Heaven; the earthly and sensual are replaced by the spiritual and eternal.

And look how the Mother of God is depicted on the fresco by Michelangelo: in Her posture there is rejection, complete rejection of the horror and suffering of sinners who are thrown into hellish abysses.

In Orthodox art, the image of the Last Judgment (like any Orthodox icon) is a prayer. There is no anguish, broken postures, horror, faces distorted by suffering.

The main compositional lines of our fresco "The Last Judgment", painted by Vasily Ilyin Zapokrovsky, are an oval, a circle: the lines are smooth, harmonious. The compositional lines of the main part of the fresco are directed towards Heaven, towards God. Yes, here you will see the “serpent of ordeals”, and the “merciful fornicator”, hanging between heaven and hell, and the falling wave of sinners driven into hellfire. But the main idea here is in overcoming sin, death, hell, in the transfiguration of the world, in the final triumph of God's truth and love.

The Lord sits on the Throne of Glory. The Queen of Heaven, John the Baptist, at the feet of the Savior, the Sign of the Son of Man - the Cross, on which He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the world, is coming to Him in prayer. Adam and Eve stand before the Cross in prayer. They love us all - we are all their children. Further - the Throne Prepared with the opened Book of Life: the names of the righteous are inscribed in it. It is terrible if your name is crossed out from the Book of Life. But after all, we ourselves cross out our name from this Book - with our dislike, untruth.

In Michelangelo, the righteous surround Christ the Savior. In their postures and facial expressions, extreme tension and anguish. In our fresco - the apostles sit on thrones, along with them the Angels of God, above - the feast of the righteous in the Kingdom of God.

The main idea of ​​Michelangelo's "Last Judgment" is the horror of the inevitability of punishment and the endless torment of sinners, the fear of the formidable Judge. However, the fear of punishment alone is difficult to change a person.

In the fresco of the Trinity Cathedral - a call to repentance and faith in the possibility of salvation. The Lord did everything to make it happen: He took our sins upon Himself, washed them away with His blood. However, our salvation is impossible without our participation. We are God's workers in this.

The truth about ourselves

- And how did our ancestors perceive the fresco "The Last Judgment"? How clear were her stories to them?

The middle of the 17th century in the history of Russia is a turbulent time. The year 1654, when the fresco was painted, is the beginning of the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. This is a time of great confusion, confusion in the minds and rebellion of the "zealots of ancient piety." At that time, the teaching of the Judgment of God, of the final triumph of God's truth and love, was perceived by the Russian people with particular acuteness.

But, strange as it may sound, the fresco "The Last Judgment" is a surprisingly light story.

- Please explain why the Last Judgment is a bright plot.

This is definitely a light story. Yes, sinners experience all sorts of torments; yes, human souls have to overcome ordeals... There is a struggle between good and evil, and this struggle already begins here, in our earthly life, and there it comes to an end.

What does the fresco say? That everything is directed towards God. “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 1:8), says the Savior. And the meaning of this fresco is the overcoming of sin, overcoming death, overcoming evil and, ultimately, victory over evil - over death.

Already here, in this life, towards its end, we are determined in our choice: either you finally choose God and enter heaven, or, without overcoming sin - this snake, you end up in hell.

The fresco speaks of the resurrection of the dead, that righteous people will enter the abode of the Heavenly Father, that the final triumph of God's truth and love will come. This is how the fresco "The Last Judgment" should be understood.

We do not know how much more time will pass before the Last Judgment, which will be blessed for the righteous and terrible for sinners. But while we have the opportunity to look around us and understand ourselves, we must decide which side each of us will stand on. And there is no need to be deceived and think that someone will put us somewhere. We ourselves will run away in shame from the Face of God, as Adam did when he hid in the bushes, hearing the voice of God calling to him: “Adam, where are you?”

You need to answer yourself: do I fulfill the commandments of the Lord, do I love my neighbor, do I help those who need my help, or do I drive away from myself so that they do not disturb me?

In eternity, the whole truth about ourselves is exposed

The defining principle of the Last Judgment is the real empathy we show for our fellow man. During the Second Coming, we will not be asked how strictly we fasted, how many vigils we performed, how many prostrations we made. We will be asked: have we fed the hungry? did you give a drink to the thirsty? Did they invite a stranger into their house, did they clothe the naked, did they visit the sick and those in prison? (cf. Matt. 25:34-46). This is what we will be asked about. In eternity, the whole truth about ourselves is revealed. Therefore, the last Judgment will be terrible precisely because this truth, which, perhaps, we often hide from others and, most of all, from ourselves, will be presented to us in all its ugliness.

following the canon

But is there a “zest” in the fresco of the Ipatiev Monastery, some unique detail that is not on the images of the Last Judgment in other famous Russian churches?

The Ipatiev fresco was made within the framework of the canon. Our art is just interesting not by some innovations, but by fidelity to the canon. The foundations of iconography were formed in Byzantium. This is the embodiment in a visible image of the dogmatic teaching of the Church. And the more committed the artist to the canon, the more valuable his art.

Is it possible to say that it is precisely this - following the canon - that Orthodox church art differs from Western European?

Yes. In addition, the development of art in the Christian West and in the Christian East proceeded in different ways.

For the first time, a fundamental instruction regarding the nature of the sacred image was formulated by the Fifth-Sixth Trulli Council of 691-692. Canon 82 of the Council reveals the content of the sacred image in the way the Church understands it. This rule concerns the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. It prescribes to represent Christ in human form. In the first centuries, they often resorted to symbolic images of the Lord in the form of a fish, a lamb. Just like the fish, the lamb meant not only the Savior Himself, but also the Christian in general. The Fathers of the Council speak of the ancient symbols as of a stage already passed by the Church. The Council prescribes to replace the symbols of the Old Testament and the first centuries of Christianity with a direct image, because the image that was contained in these symbols became a reality in the incarnation.

Following the assertion of the need for a direct image, in the next part of the 82nd rule, a dogmatic justification of this image is given, and this is precisely the main meaning of this rule. This first conciliar expression of the Christological basis of the icon was subsequently widely used and refined by the defenders of icons during the period of iconoclasm. The church image represents to us the human face of God incarnate, the historical face of Jesus Christ.

- But after all, the icon of Christ should show that we are talking about the incarnate God ...

Undoubtedly, the image should not only remind of the Savior's earthly life, His suffering and death, it should also point to His glory, "the height of God the Word." The very manner in which the Son of Man is depicted must reflect His Divine glory. The teaching of the Church is expressed not only in the plot, but also in the way this plot is conveyed. In the field of her art, the Church develops an artistic language corresponding to her experience and her knowledge of Divine Revelation. The purpose of church art is to faithfully convey a specific historical image and in it to reveal the spiritual and prophetic reality.

The 82nd canon of the Trullo Council lays the foundation for the icon-painting canon

The 82nd canon of the Trullo Council lays the foundation for what we call the iconographic canon, that is, the well-known criterion for the liturgy of an image, just as in the field of verbal canon determines the liturgy of a particular text.

- And what is the essence of the icon-painting canon? Why is it so important to follow it?

The iconographic canon is a well-known principle that makes it possible to judge whether a given image is an icon or not. He establishes the correspondence of the icon to the Holy Scripture and determines what this correspondence consists in, that is, the authenticity of the transmission of Divine Revelation in historical reality in the way that we call symbolic realism.

The Council of Trulli marked the end of the dogmatic struggle of the Church for the correct confession of two natures - Divine and human - in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Acts of the Fifth-Sixth Council were sent to Rome. However, the Pope refused to sign them. He declared the decisions of the Council null and void. Thus, the Roman Church remained aloof from the formulation of the Church's teaching on the Christological basis of the sacred image.

Western sacred art to this day remains true to some purely symbolic images (in particular, the Savior in the form of a lamb), as well as naturalistic images. In Orthodox art, the symbol and allegory were relegated to the background: symbolic and allegorical images remained in the decorative church art, for example, in the carving of iconostasis.

Can we depict God the Father?

You said that the painting of the Trinity Cathedral is canonical. However, in the skufia of the central dome there is an image of the New Testament Trinity.

Yes, this is one of the images against which the clerk Ivan Viskovaty opposed back in the 16th century. He objected to the depiction of the Lord of Hosts as an old man. Nobody has ever seen God. God can be seen and depicted only in incarnation. In the image of God the Father, Viskovaty saw an attempt to portray the indescribable being of God. For Viskovaty, the main provisions of the Orthodox dogma were the guiding principle in the judgment of icon painting. Viskovaty was jealous of truth, that is, of iconographic realism.

Why do these images appear?

The rules of the cathedrals forbid depicting God the Father in the form of an old man

God the Father - the first Hypostasis of the Holy Trinity - cannot be depicted at all. And the rules of Orthodox cathedrals forbid depicting God the Father in the form of an old man, as well as the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove (except for the icon of the Epiphany). According to St. John the Theologian: “No one has ever seen God; He revealed the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father” (John 1:18), therefore the image (in Greek - an icon) of God the Father is the Son of God Jesus Christ. In Orthodoxy, the Fathers of the Church associated this image with the theme of the incarnation of the eternal Son of God and the atoning sacrifice, as well as with the image of the coming Judge of the Second Coming.

Archbishop Andrew of Caesarea, in his Commentary on the Revelation of John the Theologian, says: “Sacrificed for us in these last times, He is, however, ancient, more precisely, He is eternal, as evidence of which is His white hair.” Metropolitan Michael Choniates of Athens understands this image in the same way: “White hair means eternity, but He, who was sacrificed for us, is the Infant in incarnation.”

- Why did this image come to be understood as the image of God the Father?

The reason for the transformation of the "Old Denmi" (Ancient of Days) into the iconography of God the Father is the ambiguity of the text of the vision of the prophet Daniel, who, after describing the "Old Denmi" as a gray-haired old man, writes: brought up to Him” (Dan. 7:13). Proceeding from the fact that the Son of Man - Jesus Christ - is brought to the "Old Denmi", the latter began to be understood precisely as God the Father. The image of the "Old Denmi" for the image of God the Father began to be used from the 11th century. The image of God the Father in the form of an old man was forbidden by the Great Moscow Cathedral of 1666-1667, however, the Council contradicted itself, allowing the depiction of the "Father in gray hair" in the scenes of the Apocalypse.

Earthly beauty and heavenly beauty

There are many everyday details on the frescoes of the Trinity Church: a fire is put out, someone is feasting, and here is a funeral ... Frescoes can tell us about how our ancestors lived?

The penetration of everyday life into the temple painting is a sad sign

Some household details are already appearing in the murals of the 17th century. And by them you can judge the life of people of that time. But this penetration of everyday life into church painting is a sad sign: the desacralization of church art begins. In ancient icons, all external details were removed, no attention was paid to them at all, since the icon represents the heavenly world, the transfigured world. But, starting from the 16th century, under the influence of Western art - secularized, grounded - everydayism also penetrates into Orthodox art. In the 17th century, these tendencies intensified, in the 18th century there was a deviation from the canon, well, in the 19th century it was already customary to write as in the West.

Eastern Christian art departed from the canons and became dependent on Western European art. Such art, perhaps, is beautiful from an artistic point of view, but... An unpurified, fallen world, a world that has departed from God, breaks into the icon. And now a lot of attention is paid to ornament, architectural details, landscape, everyday genre scenes...

Kostroma art of the 17th century was strongly influenced by Dutch culture. So, for example, at this time, illustrated Dutch editions of the Piscator Bible were often taken to develop iconographic plots. It was they who served as the basis for constructing the compositions of the frescoes of the Trinity Cathedral.

- In the Trinity Church, not only the frescoes are amazing, but also the iconostasis.

Yes, the iconostasis of the cathedral is admirable. And I say with pride: Kostroma residents worked on it. The frame of the iconostasis is the work of Pyotr Zolotarev and Makar Bykov, made in the 50s of the 18th century in the Naryshkin baroque style.

Vasily Ilyin Zapokrovsky painted the icons of the three upper tiers of the iconostasis in the 50s of the 17th century. The two lower tiers of icons were painted in the 50s of the 18th century by Vasily Nikitin Voshchin.

Russian Baroque is a style born under the influence of Western art. So, this influence was not always, shall we say, negative?

Russian baroque is a remarkable phenomenon. Beautiful works of art and architectural structures are created in this style. And yet ... Yes, Western art is admired - but this is purely an aesthetic pleasure. The Holy Fathers teach that man has three parts - spirit, soul and body make up human nature. The sphere of activity of the soul is an intellectual, aesthetic comprehension of the world. Eastern Christian art is a higher sphere, the sphere of activity of the spirit, and not of the soul. But the human spirit comes from God. Our art is deeper, of a higher spirit. And we are not talking about aesthetic expression, about the aesthetic perception of this art.

Western European art is beautiful, but it is the beauty of our earthly, yet untransformed world. In the beauty of the ornaments of the carved iconostasis, the perception of the icon recedes into the background. The icon is "immersed" in a bizarre, magnificent frame. The same processes are observed in the icon. Starting from the 16th century, the landscape, architectural buildings, and ornaments invaded the space of the icon more and more persistently. I have already spoken about this. In the 18th century, these elements of iconography relegated sacred images to the background. It was at this time that much attention was paid to everyday sketches, genre scenes. These images may differ in grace, beauty of forms, but they “earth” the sacred image, transfer it to another plane.

people of high spirit

These were people of high spirit. The same requirements were imposed on icon painters and masters of temple painting as on a protege to the priesthood. The icon painter had to be a man of spiritual life, a man of prayer. He was allowed to have a family, but he had to raise his children in strictness, to build on a Christian basis both his personal life and the life of his family.

Gury Nikitin, the author of most of our frescoes, was an ascetic and ascetic. In order not to be distracted by worldly problems, he lived in celibacy. A scribe book of the 17th century has been preserved, in which the courts of Kostroma are listed with a detailed indication of who had what, who owned what. The yard of the icon-bearer Gury Nikitin is also named, about whom there is only one phrase: “The belongings are good thin,” that is, he was a very poor man. Although he could, like his father or brother, engage in trade, since he was from a merchant family. But he preferred to remain a poor man, almost a beggar, and devoted his whole life to serving God: he painted icons, painted temples. He painted the main churches of Russia, including those in the Moscow Kremlin: the Assumption and Archangel Cathedrals. In the Kremlin of Rostov Veliky - Assumption and Resurrection Church. He worked in many cities: in Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Tutaev.

Who else worked on the frescoes of the temple? After all, the cathedral was painted for quite a long time ...

Gury Nikitin painted the temple in four months, but later, in the following centuries, the frescoes in some parts of the temple were renewed. The painting of the gallery, for example, is the work of masters from Palekh, the beginning of the 20th century. But there are also two ancient frescoes by Vasily Ilyin Zapokrovsky - these are the 50s of the 17th century. In the 20th century, the painting of the vestibule was completed. And already in our time, in the 21st century, the chapel of St. Michael Malein was painted, also by masters from Palekh.

The most important icon is a man

What can you learn from old frescoes?

We underestimate our calling

First of all, a very deep attitude towards life. Demanding attitude towards yourself. We underestimate our role in this world, we underestimate our calling. But man is called to a very lofty goal: he is a citizen of the Kingdom of God in the final perspective. And we must during our lives create an icon of ourselves - the ideal image of God. The most important icon is a person. We are created in the image and likeness of God. Church art, and above all Orthodox art, and especially ancient art, reminds us of our vocation. It educates us, obliges us to conform to the ideal, although sometimes we don’t want this conformity, oh how hard, because it’s difficult. It is easier to do nothing, to know nothing, to be weak, not to answer for anything...

Do you think church art resonates with young people today? Many tourists come to the Ipatiev Monastery, including non-believers. Do they understand the meaning of what they see here?

Alas, we modern people are very far from the Church, from God. I always remember the reproaches of the Grand Inquisitor from the novel "The Brothers Karamazov" by F.M. Dostoevsky, thrown to the Savior: “Why did you come? Why did you give them freedom? They are so calm without you! They are small and insignificant, Your burden is unbearable for them ... "

Of course, each person needs to find their own approach. It is not recommended to feed babies - babies according to the level of spiritual development - with theology. It is necessary to talk about the universal, about what will be understood and perceived. After all, Orthodox art is very deep and high. And you need to pay attention to this.

But I noticed, and I have a lot of experience in communicating with people, that Russian people are deeply religious. Their faces light up when they leave the Trinity Cathedral. From our world, where it is so difficult to live, they suddenly find themselves thrown into a sea of ​​light, love, joy, beauty. And they intuitively feel that this is their world, that this is the House of the Father.

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 the ideological concept. The individual image that previously dominated Michelangelo is now captured by the general human flow, and in this the artist takes a step forward in comparison with the isolation of the self-contained individual image in the art of the High Renaissance. But, unlike the Venetian masters of the late Renaissance, Michelangelo has not yet reached that degree of interconnection between people, when the image of a single human team 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 has some allegorical relation to the religious theme of the Apocalypse. 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 to heaven, spent three days in the belly of a 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.

Michelangelo

Last Judgment, 1537-1541

Il Giudizio universale

Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, Vatican

The Last Judgment (Italian: Giudizio universale, lit. “Last Judgment” or “Last Judgment”) is a fresco by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The artist worked on the fresco for four years - from 1537 to 1541. Michelangelo returned to the Sistine Chapel twenty-five years after he completed painting its ceiling. A large-scale fresco occupies the entire wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. Its theme was the second coming of Christ and the Apocalypse.

The Last Judgment is considered a work that ended the Renaissance in art, to which Michelangelo himself paid tribute in the ceiling and vault paintings of the Sistine Chapel, and opened a new period of disappointment in the philosophy of anthropocentric humanism.

History of creation

Clement VII

In 1533 Michelangelo worked in Florence on various projects in San Lorenzo for Pope Clement VII. On September 22 of this year, the artist went to San Miniato to meet the pope. Perhaps it was then that the Pope expressed a desire that Michelangelo painted the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel on the theme of the Last Judgment. In this way, the thematic completion of the cycles of paintings on subjects from the Old and New Testaments that adorned the chapel would have been achieved.

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 the request of which the chapel was decorated with tapestries based on the cardboards of Raphael (c. 1514-1519). 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 an increasing number of assistants from among his 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 the papal court and took up other projects.

Pavel III

Preparatory drawing for a fresco. British Museum, pencil, 38.5x25.3 cm Preparatory drawing. Bonn Museum, Bayonne, pencil, 17.9x23.9 cm

However, the new pope, Paul III, did not give up on the idea of ​​decorating the chancel wall with a new fresco. Michelangelo, 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 by new paintings. This was the first "intervention" in the history of the chapel in the complex of images, thematically related to each other: the Finding of Moses, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary with the kneeling Sixtus IV and the Nativity of Christ, 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 over 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. The destruction of the old frescoes must have been a difficult decision, in the 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 abstraction of the boundless sky, this had to be abandoned. The surviving sketches (one in the Bayonne Museum Bonnet, one in the Casa Buonarotti and one in the British Museum) highlight the artist's development of the fresco. 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 the surface for painting with 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, in order to release Michelangelo from obligations to the heirs of Julius II, mainly Guidobaldo della Rovere, the pope 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 interventions were found in Michelangelo's author's painting. Experts counted approximately 450 jornats (daily fresco painting norms) in the Last Judgment 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. Soon the artist 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, not 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 pope's master of ceremonies, Biagio da Cesena, upon seeing the painting, said that "it is a shame that naked bodies are depicted in such a sacred place in such an obscene form" and that this fresco is not for the pope's chapel, but rather "for public baths and taverns." Michelangelo, in response, portrayed Cesena in hell in the Last Judgment as 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, fragment of a copy of the Last Judgment. Saint Blaise and Saint Catherine (1549), Naples, Museo di Capodimonte

The nudity of the characters in the Last Judgment was hidden 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 gave the pejorative nickname Il Braghettone (“pants-writer”, “undershirt”). A great admirer of the work of his teacher, da Volterra limited his intervention to "covering" the bodies with clothes painted in dry tempera, in accordance with the decision of the Council of January 21, 1564. The only exception was the images of St. Blaise and St. Catherine of Alexandria, which caused the strongest indignation of 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. Blaise 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 in subsequent years (during the 18th century, when the author's painting appeared through later recordings in 1825) was criticized, it was even proposed to destroy it. The first restoration attempts were made in 1903 and in 1935-1936. During the last restoration, completed in 1994, all later edits to the fresco were removed, while the 16th century inscriptions remained as historical evidence of the requirements for a work of art made 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:

It seems that Michelangelo expressed his own understanding of the words from the book of Genesis: "And they were both naked, Adam and his wife, and were not ashamed of it" (Genesis 2:25). The Sistine Chapel is, so to speak, the sanctuary of the theology of the human body.

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 the 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, wingless apteri angels, which Vasari simply called Ignudi, are depicted 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 other sacred objects. They look more like clowns and jugglers than 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 of the Last Judgment, Christ the Judge was depicted on the throne, as the Gospel of Matthew describes, separating the righteous from the sinners. Usually, Christ's right hand is raised in a blessing gesture, while the left is lowered as a sign of the 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 all the actors are involved. 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."

Michelangelo painted the figure of Christ, making various changes, for 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: without 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 only (and passive) mediator between the Judge and human souls, Mary, without John the Baptist.

The two central figures are surrounded by a 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, stretching 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, indistinct 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 left of Christ - 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.

On the right is St. Peter, with keys that will no longer be needed to open the Kingdom of Heaven. Next to him, in a red cloak, perhaps St. Paul and a naked young man, almost next to Jesus, probably John the Theologian. The character kneeling behind Peter is usually considered Saint Mark.

The second ring of characters. Left-hand side

Left-hand side

This group consists of martyrs, spiritual fathers of the Church, virgins and blessed (about fifty figures).

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. Some of the blessed from among the resurrected rush upward, involved in a general powerful rotational movement. Gestures, facial expressions of the characters show much greater excitement than those who are close to Christ.

The second ring of characters. Right side

The right group - martyrs, confessors and other blessed ones, male figures predominate (approximately eighty characters). Far right is an athletic man holding a cross. It is assumed that this is Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry the cross on the way to Golgotha. Another identification option is Dismas, the prudent robber.

Below him, Saint Sebastian rises to the cloud, clutching arrows in his left hand, a sign of his martyrdom. The figure of Sebastian is seen as the artist's tribute to ancient eroticism.

Slightly to the left are Blasius of Sebastia and St. Catherine of Alexandria, this part of the fresco was rewritten by Daniele da Volterra. They are followed by Saint Philip with a cross, Simon the Zealot with a saw, and Longinus.

end times

The bottom of the fresco, in turn, is divided into five parts: in the center, angels with trumpets and books announce the Last Judgment; at the bottom left is the resurrection of the dead, at the top - the ascension of the righteous; top right - the capture of sinners by devils, below - hell.

Pope Clement VII decided, like his predecessor Julius II, to perpetuate the memory of himself and wanted a grandiose fresco to be painted on the main altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, and in 1534 he settled on the theme of the Last Judgment. Michelangelo was called upon to complete the picturesque decoration of the Sistine Chapel with the image of the Last Judgment on its altar wall, and on the opposite wall it was ordered above the main doors to show how Lucifer was expelled from heaven for his pride and how all the angels who sinned along with him..

Of these two colossal frescoes, only the first was executed, in 1534 - 1541, already under Pope Paul III
On September 25, 1534, Pope Clement VII died. Michelangelo, fortunately for him, was not then in Florence. He had lived in constant fear for a long time. The nephew of Clement VII, Duke Alessandro, hated him and, if not for the protection of the pope, would have ordered his death long ago. This dislike grew even more when Michelangelo, not wanting to contribute to the greater enslavement of Florence, refused to build a citadel that would dominate the city.

Michelangelo was very busy and, relieved, decided that Pope Clement's order had been cancelled. At the age of sixty, on September 23, 1534, Michelangelo moved to Rome, where he remained until his death, in 1546 he even received Roman citizenship.

It is known that the master from time to time returned to work on the tomb of Pope Julius II, but the last thirty years of Michelangelo's life were marked by his gradual departure from sculpture and painting and turning mainly to architecture and poetry.

After the short reign of Pope Andrian, the aged Paul III of the house of Farnese was elected to the papacy. Immediately after his election, the new pope summoned Michelangelo, insisting that he work for him and remain with him. He also wanted to immortalize himself and confirmed the order of Pope Clement

But Michelangelo was at that time bound by an agreement with the Duke of Urbino. Hearing this, the angry old man declared: “For thirty years I have had such a desire, can it be that, having become a pope, will I not fulfill it? I will break the contract: I want you to serve me.

According to Vasari, Michelangelo wanted to flee Rome again, but in the end he "wisely feared the power of the pope" and obeyed him. The power of the Pope is enormous. The punishing sword of the Vatican is terrible for the recalcitrant. Under the same Paul III, the fires of the Inquisition will blaze in Italy, and the new Jesuit order with the slogan "The end justifies the means" will soon show its cruel activity.

Pope Paul III instructed Michelangelo to paint the gospel scene of the Last Judgment on the altar wall of the same Sistine Chapel (the order was received in 1533-1534).

Over this fresco of almost two hundred square meters, the largest fresco of the Renaissance, Michelangelo worked (with some interruptions) for six years, alone, without the participation of assistants.

Many years have passed since the completion of the ceiling frescoes (1508-1512). The master has changed. If the early work is dedicated to the first days of creation and glorified the mighty creative energy of man, then the Last Judgment contains the idea of ​​the collapse of the world and retribution for the deeds committed on earth.

The artist decided to show, departing from all Christian traditions, the Second Coming of Christ as a day of anger, horror, the struggle of passions and hopeless despair. He carried out his plan. The fresco evokes horror and delight.
Apocalypse and Dante are the sources of the Last Judgment

To implement the plan, it was necessary to prepare a wall. I had to close 2 windows, remove two paintings with relatives of Christ (the work of Michelangelo), 2 frescoes with figures of popes and frescoes of Perugino (baby Moses is found by the river, Adoration of the shepherds who learned about the birth of Christ).

The tempera painting process is complex
The fresco was painted on wet plaster, which sets in ten minutes and requires skill and experience: as soon as the brush, which had previously been easily gliding, begins to “harrow” the base and “smear” the paint, the painting stops, since the paint layer will no longer penetrate deep into the base and won't stick.

The layer of plaster that has not been recorded is cut obliquely outward, the new part is plastered to the previous layer. Only minor corrections are possible, it cannot be redone: unsuccessful places simply go astray and the painting process is repeated.
Getting to work, the artist must imagine what the colors used by him will become after the final drying (after 7 - 10 days). They usually light up a lot. During the day, artists usually paint 3-4 square meters of the wall.

In addition, Michelangelo solved the most difficult task - to combine the painting of the altar wall with the previously executed fresco of the vault in such a way as not to interfere with the perception of each of them and at the same time combine them in one ensemble.

“Born and raised in an era when his humanistic ideals and the feeling of a naked body could be appreciated ... Michelangelo was forced to live in an era that he could not help but despise ... His passion was a naked figure, his ideal was strength. But what was he to do if plots like The Last Judgment, according to the imperious immutable laws of the Christian world, were supposed to express humility and sacrifice? But humility and patience were as unfamiliar to Michelangelo as they were to Dante, as to brilliant creative natures of all epochs.

Even while experiencing these feelings, he would not be able to express them, because his naked figures are full of power, but not weakness, horror, but not fear, despair, but not humility ... "The Last Judgment" is conceived as grandiose as it is generally possible, as the last moment before the disappearance of the universe in chaos, as the dream of the gods before its sunset ... For when a catastrophe comes, no one will survive it, not even the supreme deity itself.
Therefore, in the concept of this plot, Michelangelo failed, and it could not be otherwise.
But where else, even if we take the entire world of art as a Whole, to feel such a grandiose charge of energy, as in that dream or, rather, the nightmare of a giant?
Burnson

The section is based on materials
http://www.wga.hu/
http://http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/