MICHELANGELO

The Last Judgment

MICHELANGELO
The Last Judgment

TEXT BY

MARGARETTA SALINGER
Department of Paintings
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

THE LIBRARY OF GREAT PAINTERS

^ortfi>{i(y\^Edifi(yn-^

HARRY N. ABRAiMS Publishers NEW YORK

 ON THE COVER
The key figure in Michelangelo's awe-inspiring complex scene
is implacable Christ, "come again with glory," as
this youthful,
the Creed predicts, "to judge both the quick and the dead." His
muscular torso and classically beautiful features have led some
scholars to suppose that Michelangelo took his inspiration from
certainknown antique sculptures, but it is more likely that he
drew on a composite memory when shaping his heroic Judge.

Copyright 1955 by Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated. Copyright in the United States and foreign countries under Inter-

national Copyright Convention. All rights reserved under Pan-American Convention. No part of the contents of this

book may be reproduced without the written permission of Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated. Printed in U.S.A.

MILTON s. FOX, Editor • Walter neurath of Thames & Hudson Inc., Supervisor of Color Plates
Interior of Sistine Chapel, looking toward The Last Judgment

MICHELANGELO ^^475-^564)

The Last Judgment

MICHELANGELO HAD ALREADY PASSED HIS sixtieth moned him to Rome and forced upon him the
birthday when he finally realized that he could decoration of the Sistine ceiling.
no longer postpone the painting of the Last Judg- He was a young man then, but he regarded him-
ment in the Sistine Chapel. Two Popes had set self as primarily a sculptor; "Michelangelo, sculp-
their hearts on this heavy task and the scaffolds tor" was the way he customarily signed his letters.

were erected in April of 1535. Heartsick at the In the words of his pupil and biographer Condivi,
political and religious chaos of the times and he "knew the painting of the vault to be a very
mortally tired from the slavery of constantly labor- difficult undertaking," and "tried with all his
ing at commissions for works he did not want to power to get out of it, proposing Raphael and
do, he must have been even more reluctant to excusing himself, in that it was not his art and
attack a second great painting project than he that he would not succeed, refusing so many
had been in 1508 when Pope Julius II had sum- demands that the Pope was almost in a passion."
The Last Judgment
 —

Portrait of Michelangelo
by Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574)
PaUizzo dclla Canccllcria, Rome

But for four long years he did toil at the gigantic now be left alone and permitted to complete an
ceiling, dispensing with artist-assistants, and using order that had been pushed aside again and again
fresco, a medium requiring infinite skill in apply- for thirty years, the making of the figures for the
ing color to such small portions of wet plaster as tomb of his early patron. Pope Julius II. Scholarly
can be painted in a day. In 1512, utterly debili- biographers, following Condivi, habitually refer
tated and with health irreparably impaired, he to the undertaking as "the tragedx^ of the tomb"
presented to the civilized world one of the greatest a phrase that e\okes a truthful and not over-
monuments of art ever created. dramatized picture of the waste and frustration to
The Last Judgment, painted on the huge altar which Michelangelo's genius was subjected. Work
wall of the same chapel, is a vision of the end of on the tomb, begun in the enthusiasm of youth
all things temporal, an epilogue as Aretino pointed and in genuine affection for the aged Julius, had
out, to the vision of the world's beginnings pic- become a matter of conscience and reputation, for
tured on the ceiling. The idea of placing this sub- the sculptor had accepted and spent funds ad-
ject on the had come from Pope Clement
altar wall vanced to him for the monument. Thirty years had
VII, who was perhaps making reparation for the passed and the original grandiose plan calling for
sack of Rome in 1527, for which he had been at forty statues had been much diminished in scope
least partially responsible. Michelangelo had al- by a series of new contracts. Michelangelo felt

ready prepared sketches and designs before Cle- himself under a strong obligation to deliver the
ment died in September 1534. work, but now Pope Paul was just as determined
When a few weeks later Alessandro Famese as his predecessor to glorify Rome and ennoble
succeeded to the papal throne as Paul III, the himself in the eves of posterity b\' securing Michel-
artist briefly entertained the hope that he would angelo's services. He appointed him to the papal
Figures with Symbols of the Passion. Lunette, top lejt

household as "Chief architect, sculptor and painter altarpiece of the Assumption by the same artist,

of the Vatican," and with scant interest in a Delle had to be destroyed, but we cannot suppose that
Rovere funeral monument, arranged still another it caused Michelangelo much pain to see the gen-
contract, by which the heirs of Pope Julius should tle, ineffectual early Renaissance figures go. Two
be satisfied to have the tomb adorned with only of his own lunettes as well, Ancestors of Christ,
three figures from the hand of Michelangelo him- that belonged to the ceiling scheme at either side
self, and gave the order to proceed forthwith to of the prophet Jonah, were removed at this time,
the fresco of the Last Judgment. making way for the angels surging into the judg-
The Sistine Chapel, which had been built in the ment scene bearing the instruments of the Passion.
Vatican in 1473 by a Florentine architect for Pope
Sixtus IV, is a simple rectangular chamber, 133
feet long, 43 feet wide, and 85 feet high. The
COLOR PLATE
great space on which Michelangelo was to paint
Below Christ and the Virgin, in the center of the composition, is
the day of doom accordingly presented him with
an island of angels, who sound the note that shall raise the dead.
more than thirty-five hundred square feet on
They illustrate St. Matthew's description of the Last Day, when
which to work. Two frescoes by Perugino, a Na- "he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and
tivity and a Finding of Moses, that flanked an they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of
heaven to another." The instruments that Michelangelo has given
6 to the angels are arclmic, uncoiled trumpets like the ones that
are seen on classical reliefs.
 '

like awounded animal to his house, permitting no

doctor to come near him. A Florentine admirer,
who was also a physician, suspected the truth and
forced an entrance, staying with the artist until he
was healed.

; This incident reflects Michelangelo's habitual

defiance of all the natural laws that require nour-
ishment and rest in exchange for a reasonable

ii prospect of good health. He was often ill, or

V 4 fancied himself ill, and his letters are full of state-

ments that he was unutterably and de-

bb* tired
pressed. "I am more exhausted than man ever
^•%H was, " he wrote, "I am ill and sufi^ering greatly.
And again, in 1509, "I live here in great distress
and the utmost bodily fatigue, have no friends and
seek none. I have not even time enough to eat
what I require. While he was engaged on the
"

Medici tombs a report reached Rome that he was

working very hard, ate little and poorly, and slept

less,and Pope Clement himself wrote to his sculp-

tor, ordering him under pain of excommunication

to work less and to take better care of his health.

Most doctors admit that the diagnosis of the ail-
Study for a Man Rising from the Tomb
ments of living patients is still often difficult
Black chalk, ll'A x 9". British Museum, London
enough, and nothing is to be gained by guessing
over a span of four centuries about the ills of
The wall was rebuilt with carefully selected bricks, Michelangelo's body or their dependence on the
and one of Vasari's characteristically unreliable ills of his soul. But both body and soul were surely
stories recounts how Michelangelo's friend, the captives, slaves lashed to the fulfillment of his
artist Sebastiano del Piombo, was entrusted with genius, to the expression of that quality in his
the preparation of the plaster, and instead of lay- nature which Julius II described as his terribilitd
ing a ground for fresco, laid one suitable for his —the word that has come to be applied by Italians
own preferred medium of oil, hoping thereby to to his last style, the style initiated by the painting
be given a share in the work. Whatever the motive of the Last Judgment.
may actually have been, the wall had to be redone Tradition has it from Vasari's statement that the

and the other countless preparations for so enor- fresco was revealed to the amazement and admira-
mous an undertaking delayed the start of the tion of all Rome, indeed of all the world, on Christ-
actual painting until the late spring of 1536. mas Day of 1541. It seems, however, that it was
From this date on, assisted only by his helper exposed to view some time earlier, for an Italian
Francesco degli Amatori, called I'Urbino, Michel- diary records that was uncovered on the last day
it

angelo toiled in the secrecy and solitude he had of October, and this entry is confirmed by a Sistine

so rigorously preserved while working on the record stating explicitly that on that day, the Eve
ceiling in the same place almost thirty years be- of All Saints, the Pope himself chanted solemn
fore. Pope Paul, like his predecessor Julius, was vespers in the Sistine Chapel. Praise poured in
extremely curious and impatient, and on at least
two occasions went to the chapel to check the
progress of the work. Beside these visits only one COLOR PLATE
interruption is known to have distracted Michel- This is part of a section filled with figures of the resurrected in
angelo: Vasari tells how the painter fell from the many all of Michelangelo's great
varied postures that exploit
scaffolding, hurting his leg badly, and then retired talents in the representation ofmovement. Here a mighty angel
by means of a string of rosary beads, a pair of people who
raises,
8 undoubtedly deserved preservation because of their attention
to works as well as faith.
 —

Figure, identified by some as Adam,

BY OTHERS AS St. JoHN
Detail, top left center

from all over Italy and Michelangelo's modest, asked herself why she, like Babylon, that great

weary, courteous acknowledgment of two sonnets city,had fallen and had been made "to drink of
and a madrigal addressed to him reveals not only the wine of the wrath of God." A frantic, terrified

his essential character but a state of soul and body spirit of reform spread like wild fire, paralleling
in which he was too tired to care. He conceded that in the Lutheran North. Prudishness about the
that the tribute was "marvelously fine" and went unclothed human body was one of the forms that
on to say, "I perceive that you suppose me to be it assumed, and Michelangelo's superb nudes, who
just what God wishes that I were. I am a poor man
and of little merit, who plods along in the art
which God gave me, to lengthen out my life as far COLOR PLATE
as possible." The woman, with bared breast and pure
great figure of a heroic
The magnificent work, however, evoked more toward the Judge with a direct, alert gaze
classic features, looks

than the stupefied wonder with which Vasari says while she reassuringly places her hand on the more slender figure
it was received. A new spirit had been born out of
kneeling before her and apparently pleading for protection. She
exhibits the fierce, primitive maternal protection that is kin to the
the license and pagan freedom of the first half of
animal watchfulness of lions and tigers and even domestic cats,
the sixteenth century. Italy, sickened by iniquity
aggressively shielding their young against real or fancied danger.
—
and ravaged by wars the troops of France, Ger- Attempts have been made to identify her, but the strong remi-
many, and Spain had flowed over the peninsula niscence in the group of the classical sculpture of Niobe pro-
tecting her children suggests that Michelangelo intended here
JO a personification of pure maternity, watchful in any danger for
the safety of her offspring.
 .

Two Heads: Study for The Last Judgment

Black chalk
British Museum, London

in their heroic proportions and nobility of spirit the situation: "Had the painter sent you to Purga-
seem to us passionately pure, did not escape tory, I would have used my best efforts to get you
condemnation. released; but I exercise no influence in hell; ubi
Outcries sprang from the stupid, like Biagio da nulla est redemptio."
Cesena, the clever and vicious, like Pietro Aretino, Aretino's hypocritical reproaches were typical
and from the powerful, hke Pope Paul IV, who effusions of a period that dearly loved and valued
even in Michelangelo's lifetime caused the nudity extravagant rhetoric, and it is difficult at this dis-

of the judged to be mitigated with drapery. Biagio, tance to judge accurately just how much spite
in his role of Master of Ceremonies, went with really lies at the heart of his ornate invective. It is

Pope Paul III on a visit to inspect the chapel, and easy to believe that there had never been any
when asked his opinion of the painting, expressed love lost between Michelangelo and the human-
his disapproval of including so many naked figures istic Venetian circle of Titian, Aretino, and San-
in a sacred picture, finding the fresco "more fit for sovino, which breathed a sensuous worldliness and
a place of debauchery than for the Pope's chapel." pagan urbanity to the highest degree antithetical
His strictures, reaching Michelangelo's ears, infuri- to Michelangelo's pious asceticism. He was well
ated the artist, who managed a sweet revenge. The aware of the popular irritation with artists like
only head in the great complex that can safely be
considered a portrait is that of Biagio, attached to
COLOR PLATE
the snake-entwined figure of the Dantesque Minos,
This is a strip across the inner circle of the blest surrounding
presiding over the farthest section of Hell in the
Christ and the Virgin Mary. Earlier painters often pictured a
lower right-hand corner of the painting page 22 )
( secure beatitude in the saints permitted to gather close around
The ofi^ended prelate complained to the Pope, the throne, but here the raised right arm and the awful majesty
who wittily declared himself powerless to remedy of Christ's pose have struck terror in the hearts of even those
who have no cause to fear the judgment. Most of them gaze
12 at Him in frightened earnestness, but a very few turn their
heads away as if shrinking from too strong a light.
 "

Patmos. Michelangelo sent an ironical reply, ex-

pressing regret at not being able to realize the
conception "which is so complete, that if the Day
ofJudgment had come, and you had been present
and seen it with your eyes, your words could not
have described it better." But he never sent the
drawings for which Aretino was angling and other
letters from Aretino follow, culminating in one
that is an unexampled tirade on the licentiousness
and impiety he found in Michelangelo's painting,
which made him, Pietro Aretino, "as a baptized
Christian, blush! Buried in the body of the letter
"

is the statement, "I do not write this out of any

resentment for the things I begged of you. " He

ends by assuring Michelangelo that he does not
intend to make the letter public, and asks him to
destroy it, which suggests that the author had had
his fun in the writing. But Michelangelo for some
reason saved it, and it was found and published
in the nineteenth century.
Pope Paul IV, convinced of the necessity of
lessening the offence provoked by the painting,
after consulting with Michelangelo himself, com-
A Flying Angel: Study for The Last Judgment
missioned one of his pupils, Daniele da Volterra,
Black chalk, 15% x 10%". British Museum, London
to paint draperies over some of the figures. The
Council of Trent, that sat from 1545 to 1563, made
himself who seemed to be "eccentric in their specific statements against immodesty in works of
habits, difficult to deal with, and unbearable," but art and the "corrections" of Daniele —thereafter
he defended them by asserting that "really zealous known as "il braghettone or the "breeches-maker
"

artists are bound to abstain from the idle triviali- —were added to by four later artists commissioned
ties and current compliments of society . . . because to carry the process further under succeeding pon-
their art imperiously claims the whole of their tificates. It is interesting to note in this connection
energies." He went so far as to say that an artist that Paolo Veronese, when called in 1573 before
with nothing singular or eccentric in his person the Inquisition for including in his painting of the
will never become a superior talent. Even his Feast in the House of Levi all sorts of frivolous
Holiness the Pope, by begging for too much of his and extraneous figures, tried to excuse himself by
company, sometimes annoyed and wearied Michel- citing the nudity of the Sistine Chapel. But it was
angelo, who pled tolerance for those who shut pointed out to him by the Inquisitors that gar-
themselves up alone "because their profession ments do not belong in paintings of the Last Judg-
obliges them to lead a recluse life, or because their ment, that there are no buffoons or dogs in Michel-
character rebels against feigned politeness and
conventional usage."
We can well imagine the irritation with which COLOR PLATE
he received, soon after beginning work on the St. Bartholomew, who straddles a mass of cloud, met his martyr's

Last Judgment, a preposterous letter from Aretino, death by being flayed alive. Here he holds in his right hand the
which addressed him with the most extravagant knife with which his skin was cut from his body, raising it

toward his Judge in a gesture which if not actually menacing,

flattery and then proceeded arrogantly to tell him
is at least violently insistent. From his left hand hangs the skin
how he thought the subject of the Last Judgment strongly resembling an animaTs hide, in one piece, as
itself,
should be treated, assuming a visionary's role that though it had been shed from a reptile. It still retains the hair
resounded with the authority of St. John on of the head, and even in the distortion of the loose folds, the
features of the face are recognizable as those of Michelangelo
14 himself, with his deepset eyes, and his deformed nose resulting
from an injury received in a youthful quarrel.
 _L£'^i

Figures from the Inner Circle of the Blest. Detail, top right center

angelo's painting, and that it contains nothing Nor hath God deigned to show himself elsewhere
which is not of the spirit. More clearly than in human form sublime
From his earhest days in Florence, the hu- Which, since they image Him, alone I love.
man body had been Michelangelo's preoccupation.
When he was a young art student the prior of Many factors contributed to the amazement that
Santo Spirito had given him a room in which he Michelangelo's contemporaries felt at the sight of
could dissect dead bodies to discover the secrets the Last Judgment. The actual magnitude of the
of the bones and muscles. From the wonderful painting was among them, for it is one of the
early statue of David, paintings and sculptures largest pictures ever painted. Still more astonish-
and marvelous drawings reveal him the supreme ing of course, is the magnitude of the conception;
master of the form in motion, expressing as Gold- it is probably safe to claim that no intellect among
scheider so aptly puts it, "all the tendencies of the
soul through the contortions of the human body
. . . through the symbol of the human form and
COLOR PLATE
the signs of bodily movements" fashioning "a
language for the expression of that which cannot
We have here a group of saints at the immediate right of Christ.
Above St. Bartholomew is St. Peter, bearded and impetuous,
be spoken." The artist himself phrased all of this
presenting in his two hands the massive keys to the gate of
succinctly in one of his sonnets, relating it to his Heaven that have been entrusted to him. Next to him is a figure
extremely religious cast of mind: with shaggy hair and a long unkempt beard, who is very prob-
ably St. Paul. It is interesting to observe the positions of the
16 many gesturing hands, raised in supplication and in sheer self-
protection.
 separate there than in most, because of figures
linking the sections (see reproduction of the whole
fresco, page 4). The angels with the trumpets
commonly appear. Christ in Majesty, attended by
the Blessed Virgin, usually presides near the top
of the composition, surrounded by the saints and
the elect. Angels with the instruments of the Pas-
sion, the effective means of Redemption, are
common, and the Resurrection of the Dead as well

as a representation of Hell at the lower right are

frequent elements. Michelangelo's wonderful and
ghastly scene at the lower left, showing the dead
emerging from their graves, undoubtedly owes
much, as Vasari insists, to Signorelli's painting.
The dominant impression that Michelangelo's
Last Judgment makes on the spectator is one of
movement in the vertical axis —up on the left and
down on the right. The great, chaotic masses are
set in motion in the grisly lower left-hand corner
of the fresco, where the dead struggle upward to-

ward the ranks about their Judge. The conviction

of a continuing awful descent at the lower right
corner (page 23) is enforced by the horde of
WTctched creatures spilling out of Charon's boat.
Two Figures among the Blest. Detail, right center
Indisputably rounded and sculptural as each of
the bodies is and though separate groups are
artists, or indeed among men of any profession in packed together in solid masses that penetrate into
all Europe exceeded Michelangelo's in nobility
of the depth of the picture, the general effect is that

and scope. But though he struck a note of awe of a flat which the laws of
curtain or backdrop, in

that no one before him had sounded, his pictorial perspective play a very minor role. Those laws are
scheme has much in common with the Last Judg- a realistic means of measuring off finite spaee, and

ments painted by his predecessors in Italy. The as such do not govern this mighty representation

subject was not nearly so popular there as in the of a realm beyond time and space.
North, where great painters like the Van Eycks The focal point is the mandorla of light in the

and Rogier van der Weyden treated the theme and center axis (page 13), that encloses the overpow-
lesser artists painted it in judgment halls as proto- ering figure of Christ coming to judgment on a
t\'pes for the administrators of justice. There had cloud of Heaven, and next to him, on a smaller
been in Italy, however, from the eleventh centiu-y scale that makes His majesty more awful, the
on, several important representations, which in- huddled, cringing figure of the Virgin Mary. Her
clude the majestic twelfth-century mosaics at Tor- head is averted and her hands and feet constricted
cello, Traini's fresco at Pisa, Giotto's in the Arena as if she were shrinking into as small a space as
Chapel at Padua, and much nearer to Michel- possible. More than any other figure in the judg-
angelo's own times, Fra Bartolommeo's painting in ment scene, this frightened, horrified Mother of
San Marco at Florence, and Signorelli's San Brizio
Chapel at Orvieto.

These paintings have many common character-

istics which in a general way are retained by COLOR PLATE
Michelangelo in his scheme. The compositions are The saints who exhibit the symbols of their martyrdom include
usually divided horizontally into bands, which ap- St. Catherine of Alexandria with the fragment of the wheel to
pear also in the Sistine fresco, though less rigidly which she was bound, and which miraculously flew into pieces
rather than injure her. At the right, kneeling on one knee, is the
18 youthful St. Sebastian, displaying the cluster of arrows that re-
call how he was shot at by the heathen.
 which is the major tenet of Protestantism, for they
insisted always on the validity of good works
and grace. More than one of the little com-
pany, however, including Vittoria Colonna herself,
came under the suspicion of the Inquisition, be-
cause of this analogy with the Northern heresy.
Michelangelo's melancholy temperament appar-
ently found assuagement in his association with
the high-born, pious Vittoria Colonna; he made
beautiful religious drawings for her, and both
before and after her death in 1547 dedicated to
her some of his finest poetrv. Still more important,
his stern spirituality and Christian fervor, that
reach their peak in the Last Judgment fresco,
undoubtedly found much that was sympathetic in
the rigors of the reform movement. In his render-
ing of the Last Judgment the Virgin Mary exists

within the divine orbit, but that is all.

One of the most effective characteristics of the

Christ by Michelangelo is the impassivity of his
classic features ( see cover ) . He has just risen from
the sitting posture in which the artist tentatively
Contest between Avenging Angels and Rebellious Damned
showed him in one of the preparatory drawings.
Detail, lower right center
Though his whole body is mobilized for the action
he is called on to perform, his face is impervious,

God, stripped here of all her power of intercession, and how much more moving therebv than if it
epitomizes the spiritual climate in which Michel- were "coruscating flames of hght both glad and
angelo moved at the time he painted the Last awful" as Aretino had had the impertinence to
Judgment, and differentiates his version of the suggest.
subject from all others. In the Byzantine tradition, The Blessed, alreadv risen, in Condivi's words,
balanced by St. John the Baptist on the other side "form a crown and circle round the Son of God."
of Christ, she begs mercy for the souls who face A number of saints can be identified either by
the judgment. The justice that is to be meted out their attributes or because Michelangelo has cast
by Michelangelo's heroic Christ, however, cannot them in a long-accepted mold. Adam (page 10)
be deflected by the pleading of the Virgin Mary. is a rude, heavily muscled figure in the group at
About 1536 the artist had been introduced to the left of the Virgin, looking toward Christ with
Vittoria Colonna, the widow of the Marquis of the fierceness of the Old Law still written on his
Pescara, who lived in semi-retirement, concentrat- untamed features. Opposite we see St. Peter (page
ing her vigorous intellectual and spiritual energies 17), whose venerable white hair and beard would
on religious questions. The circle of her compan- identify him even without the keys of Heaven that

ions, which she admitted Michelangelo, in-

to he profilers. Beneath the feet of Christ at the left
cluded Cardinals Gasparo Contarini, Giovarmi is the youthful St. Lawrence with his gridiron, and

Morone, and the Englishman Reginald Pole, a

Henry VIII. These churchmen,
distant cousin of
all by Pope Paul III, though
raised to the purple
COLOR PLATE
good and fervent Catholics, were passionately
This is the section at the right of the angel trumpeters, below
dedicated to the reform movement within the
the saints with their emblems, and above the boat carrying the
Church which is sometimes called "Italian evan-
damned to hell. It shows the contest between avenging angels
gelism." They firmly supported the doctrine of and the rebellious damned who
are forced to accept their pun-
Justification by Faith, but not by Faith alone, ishment of descending into everlasting horror. Here, wrapped
around by devils, is a condemned man who hides half his face
20 in his hand and stares outward with an expression of incompara-
ble and never equaled desperation.
 issuing from His mouth in paintings of the scene,

"Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the king-

dom prepared for you," and to the damned, "De-
part from me ye cursed into everlasting fire." The
whole of Revelation is a vivid picture of the things
that shall take place on the Last Day, including
the blowing of the trumpets (page 7), and the
opening of the books. The epistles of St. Paul
contain pertinent passages, especially the letter
to the Corinthians in which he too prophesies that
"the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be
raised . . . For this corruptible must put on incor-
ruption, and this mortal must put on immortality."
About Michelangelo's indebtedness to Dante's
Inferno and to the famous Latin poem Dies Irae,
Redig de Campos of the Vatican Museum, in his
recent study of the Sistine Judgment and in earlier
articles, is informative and convincing. He finds

the spirit of Dante remote from that of Michel-

angelo and regards as unprovable the claims of
many scholars that numerous motifs in the paint-

ing were borrowed from the Inferno. The boatman

(page 23), however, is described there, in Canto
HI, 109, just as Michelangelo painted him,

Charon, the fiend, with eyes of living coal

Beckoning the mournful troop, collects them there
Minos. Detail, extreme lower right
And with his oar strikes each reluctant soul.

at the right St. Bartholomew (page 15), flourish- Minos (detail on this page), wearing the features
ing the knife in his right hand and holding in his of the prelate Biagio da Cesena, is just as surely

other the skin that was flayed from his body in his drawn from Canto V,
martyrdom. To the face on this bodiless hide
Michelangelo has given his own likeness. St. Simon . there Minos dreadful stands.
. .

is there with his saw, St. Catherine of Alexandria The culprits, as they enter in, he tries.
with the fragment of her wheel, and a handsome Awards their sentence, issues his commands.
youthful figure proclaims by his handful of arrows
that he is St. Sebastian (see page 19 for the last The Dies Irae, thought to have been composed
two ) Symonds observed astutely that these saints
. about 1260 by the Franciscan Thomas of Celano
do not seem so much to be begging for mercy as is not only extraordinarily close in spirit to Michel-
to be shaking the emblems of their martyrdom in angelo's thinking in his later years, but abounds
the sight of Christ in a demand for rigid justice. with references that relate it to the fresco. The
Much has been written about the literary sources Sibyls appear with the throng of the blest in the
on which Michelangelo depended in this painting. upper left-hand corner, the trumpet and the book
The Bible of course is the basis for all Last Judg- have already been cited, the pardoned thief takes

ments. Ezekiel in the Old Testament prophesied

the opening of graves and the resumption of flesh
on dry bones (bottom left, page 4). Jesus in
Matthew XXIV and XXV described His second COLOR PLATE
coming and uttered the words often inscribed This is Charon who ferries the damned, with the eyes of "living
coaT' that Dante described, and raising his oar to strike the re-
22 luctant so that he may quickly clear his boat and fetch another
load of miserable sinners to their punishment.
Figures ^^^TH Symbols of the Passion. Lunette, top right

his place among the saints, and most closely Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth.

connected with the text Michelangelo's skele- Through earth's sepulchers it ringeth.

ton, holding his chin in

is
—
stupefaction "Death is All before the throne it bringeth.

struck," a weak phrase for the original "Mors

stupebit"! The impressiveness of the poem is Death is struck, and nature quaking.
greatly due to the sweeping rhyme of the Latin All creation is awaking.
original, which has never been satisfactorily trans- To its Judge an answer making.
lated into English, but this awe-inspiring poem,
even in translation, exactly mirrors the Last Judg- Lo! the book exactly worded,
ment, which has been described as the work in Wherein all hath been recorded;
which the greatest artist of the Renaissance made Thence shall judgment be awarded.
his most profound and mature utterance.

Day of tvrath and doom impending, Through the sinful woman shriven
David's word with SibyVs blending! Through the dying thief forgiven
Heaven and earth in ashes ending! Thou to me a hope hast given.

O, what fear man's bosom rendeth, While the wicked are confounded.
When from heaven the Judge descendeth. Doomed to flames of woe unbounded.
On whose sentence all dependeth! Call me with thy Saints surrounded.

24
The ten color plates in this portfolio are the product of the

world's finest craftsmen. They have been printed with con-

summate care to preserve the greatest possible fidelity to the

original paintings . . . Each of the reproductions is hand-

tipped and may easily be removed from the book for fram-

ing. The authoritative texts, and the commentaries opposite

each painting, are designed to increase your understanding

and enjoyment of these great works.

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