Michelangelo and His Sistine Chapel Project - Research Paper Example

? Order 522130 Topic: Michelangelo and his Sistine Chapel project An artist is an extraordinary individual. Apart from his professional skills in chiseling, he has to fine-tune his emotions with utmost tenderness, dedication and application while executing the work. A parable goes—the sculptor failed to chisel her lips and the statue stands ever incomplete! The reason for such an eventuality was simple and straightforward. When he reached to the lips part of the statue, his emotions interfered with his skill, and he could not give the finishing touches to the statue! Similar was the case with Michelangelo in relation to the Sistine Chapel project, though for different reasons. He was not in proper shape of mind, throughout the four year during which the project lingered on for multiplicity of reasons and Ross King (2003, p.1) puts it thus: “Michelangelo Buonarroti was summoned back to this workshop behind Santa Cateriea in April 1508. He obeyed the call with great reluctance, having vowed he would never return to Rome.”Thus began the artistic creation of Sistine Chapel Ceiling project of Michelangelo (1475-1564) The intent behind this project: The directions were from Pope Julius, II. What was the credentials of the man, personal and official, of the holy man who was about to entrust to him one of the all-time great responsibilities in the world of art? He was known to be an arrogant, hot tempered and given to military adventures and ardent followers of the Christian principles as perceived by him. He wanted to have the best for his tomb and wished to contribute something tangible for the architectural glory of the city of Rome. He put before Michelangelo his request to paint the chapel ceiling. That was tantamount to the papal order. He had twin visions about the project. That Rome should be rebuilt to its pristine glory and he began to plan to achieve his objective with great applications and issued directions accordingly. Such an achievement would be to his personal credit and would surpass the accomplishments of Pope Alexander VI. That was the other important consideration. What was the scale of preparations for the project? King writes, “Tons of building materials cluttered the surround streets and pizzas as an army of 2000 carpenters and stonemasons prepared themselves for the largest construction project seen anywhere in Italy since the days of ancient Rome.”(p.6) The task was tough viewed from any angle. Firstly about the work related to the ceiling. The position, from which the sculptor had to work, was uneven and not flat. It was a gigantic ceiling of 40(131 feet) meters long and 13 meters (43 feet) wide. Michelangelo painted in all over 5000 square feet of frescoes. On the frescoes he depicted some of the greatest episodes from the Book of Genesis, like the Creation, the Fall, and picture immediately after Noah’s deluge etc By the side of such scenes, giant portraits of prophets and sibyls who predicted the arrival of Messiah were shown. The entire work was a beauty in tragedy. Below spandrels and lunettes with ancestors of Jesus and the tragic stories of ancient Israel were created. Michelangelo’s awesome skill was seen in the scattered small figures, cherubs and nudes (ignudi), more than 300 of them on the ceiling, each was provided with the most appropriate space, as if it was made for them only. The ceiling was dissected with architectural members and molding. What is their real natured? They are two dimensional, skilful painted creations to demarcate different compositions. The inquisitive one may confuse whether Michelangelo was a painter or a sculptor. Temperamentally he was the sculptor—only sculptor. Painting was the professional demand that was thrust upon him by the supreme authority of the Catholic Church—the Pope! He was at his best chiseling the marble blocks and give life to them in the form of extraordinary creations. Sistine Chapel project was an exception that brought forth to surface the intrinsic talents of the painter in him. When he was a student in Ghirlandaio’s workshop, he had done a brief stint in painting, as a student. Yet, Julius had absolute faith in the painting skills of Michelangelo and earnestly desired that he should paint the chapel ceiling. Julius succeeded in persuading him. He was inclined to offer Michelangelo another project, sculpting 40 giant figures for his tomb, once he completed the ceiling assignment. The project however was done with after about 4 years (July 1508 to October 1512), in which he faced lots of hindrances and obstacles, from all ends, and some created by his own faulty decisions. The beginning of the work was slow and Michelangelo was learning while earning! He had never painted frescoes before. He had chosen to work in buon fresco, the toughest method, which only the master craftsmen accomplished. He was at this project as a ‘primary student’ of the subject and had to learn everything about the medium like a fresher. He committed some serious mistakes in the initial stages but the master did not choose the easy options. He wished to create the extraordinary, learnt some of the toughest techniques in the process of his learning. The result was stunning. View the figures on the curved surfaces from 60 feet below—they look precise and perfect. Anything better is impossibility. The ceiling should not have taken 4 years, but he had to face obstacles that occur in business dealings. When he found solutions to his own shortcomings, his painting capacity was boundless and he was an artist on fire! The technical difficulties bothered him often. The mold was not up to the mark. The damp weather would not allow the plaster curing within the specified time. The man who was responsible for making payments to him, Julius was off on the battle front to wage a war, and then bedridden with serious illness and Last Rites were administered to him. The absence of Julius and his near death plight, created uncertainties for Michelangelo. The artist was thoroughly dissatisfied with the conduct of the project, due to reasons over which he had no control. Along with the realities many myths sprout around. Many believed that Michelangelo painted resting on his back. It was only shown in the movie of Charlton Heston, but in reality he did not do any such exercise. He designed and got constructed an extraordinary scaffolding system, 7 feet below the ceiling, strong enough to accommodate the workers and the materials. He painted standing, reaching overhead and his back arched. It was high up on the walls of the chapel and did not interfere in the religious activities of the church visitors and mass was held below as usual. The second part of the myth is he painted all the frescoes all by himself. The answer to this question is both yes and no! He is the creator of the entire project and full credit goes to him. None possessed his genius to create sketches and cartoons for the frescoes. His moving fingers brought life in them. He injected spirit in them! And the major chunk of the actual painting was through his masterstrokes! But he was not a loner gazing the ceiling at all times. He was assisted by many to do the ancillary jobs like mixing the paints, scale up and down the ladders with materials, and prepare the plaster required for the day, which was a tough task. The plaster had its own hardening timings and the entire stuff will be rendered useless, with mistakes in timings as well as proportions of the ingredients. But some skilled assistants did find his favor. They were assigned duties in unimportant areas like painting a patch of sky, do some landscape here and there, and even small figures that were hardly visible from below. But his cartoons were the designs for everything and no deviation was done. Michelangelo was a management expert, but not a public relations man. He engaged and disengaged the workers at regular intervals, with or without reasons. No one could claim credit in any area of the ceiling---the entire painting project belonged to Michelangelo only! What does the sculptor do with the marble block in front him? He chisels out of it, that which is not the statue, and a brilliant statue of his concept and design emerges. In the words of Michelangelo, “liberating the figure imprisoned in the marble.”As for the ceiling it has been hailed as the most famous ceiling in the world. The creations are the greatest masterpieces for all time. It is a great fusion of art and history, created by Michelangelo’s master strokes. The struggle and the creation of Sistine Chapel Ceiling were extraordinary. The difficulties were as if destined, but Michelangelo met every challenge to create history in painting and sculptor. Normally an artist needs to have a free and peaceful mind for the best creation, but Michelangelo had scaled such great heights in artistry and nothing could obstruct his creativity. How he transcended serious extraneous obstacles not directly related to the art shows the strength of his inner world. King writes, "Almost as renowned for his moody temper and aloof, suspicious nature as he was for his amazing skill with the hammer and chisel, Michelangelo could be arrogant, insolent, and impulsive....If Michelangelo was slovenly and, at times, melancholy and antisocial, Raphael was, by contrast, the perfect gentleman.”(p.9) He had many issues to encounter. Family problems, Pope Julius’s military campaigns, his contentious relations with another famous artist of the era Raphael Santi, were some of them. Notwithstanding all these hurdles, the dynamism of Michelangelo’s work was astonishing to his contemporaries and appreciation of art-lovers continues till this day. The thought-currents in the mind of Michelangelo Any artistic creation has the strong reason behind it. The artist thinks deeply about a cartoon, a painting, a statue, before giving them the actual form. It is stated in the earlier paragraphs that the relations between the Michelangelo and his mentor Pope were not cordial. He also faced the financial problems. It is strongly believed that such issues affected the great paintings that he created in the ceiling and the critics see the reflection of his thought processes in them. Benjamin Blech et al. write,(2008, p ix, x) “…we come to realize that Michelangelo performed an immense and ingenious art of concealment within the Sistine Chapel in order to convey numerous messages, veiled but powerful, that preach reconciliation between reason and faith, between the Jewish Bible and the New Testament, and between Christian and Jew.” Mention is made about his secret codes in the frescoes and they relate to mystical Jewish symbols. Was he indirectly challenging the thinking process of the Pope? The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is in reality a bridge between the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish Faith, it is believed. “For example, the book states, the figures of David and Goliath form the shape of the letter gimel, which symbolizes g'vurah, or strength, in the mystical Kabbalah tradition. Kabbalah is a set of ancient esoteric teachings which are meant to decode the inner meaning of the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, and to explain the reasons for Jewish religious observances.”(Michelangelo….) The Ceiling contains many other Jewish related artworks. Some of them are: The scene of Judith and her maiden carry the head of the Assyrian General Holofernes is according to the shape of the Hebrew letter chet that represents the characteristics of “loving kindness. Many layers of meaning on meaning that are mainly from the Jewish tradition. The figures in the nine scenes on the ceiling are Jews. The tree of life in the fresco is not an apple tree but a fig tree as per Jewish traditions. Michelangelo gathered his knowledge of Judaism at the court of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence. He was disgusted with the papal corruption, and he deliberately painted the prophet Zechariah in the likeness of Pope. But some critics ridicule such observations. Dr Arnold Nesselrath, a curator at the Vatican museums said there was no way that Michelangelo could have painted any of the ceilings without the pope's express consent. The Conclusion: The story of the Pope’s Ceiling and the story of the men, who created it, go parallel in the pages of the immortal history of the art. King writes, “Still no matter, how dubious, it was nonetheless inspired by the undeniable fact that there was no love lost between the artist and his patron. The major problem seems to have been that Michelangelo and Julius were remarkably alike in temperament. Michelangelo was one of the few people in Rome who refused to cringe before Julius."(p.248)The individuals were legends and the confrontation between them was legendary. That he maintained his enthusiasm to create one of the greatest marvels of art-history, is itself a marvel. Another astonishing issue was management of such a large workforce, more than two thousands of them and striking co-ordination amongst them. For, it was not an assembly-line production seen in the modern day factories, where everything is regulated and pre-programmed. It was a mission of art for the highest religious authority. The stakes were great and every minute data was required to be pre-planned and supervision at every stage was must. The entire project was accomplished to stand the test to be hailed as an all-time great work of art. Works Cited Blech, Benjamin (Author), Doliner, Roy (Author)The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, Harper One; 1St Edition, April 29, 2008 King, Ross, Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, Walker & Company, New York, 2003 Michelangelo 'hid secret code in Sistine Chapel' - Telegraph20 Jun 2008... www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/.../Michelangelo-hid-secret-code-in- Sistine- Chapel.html - Similar –Retrieved on April 12, 2011 Read More