The Sistine Chapel Ceiling: A Renaissance Icon of the West

Noelle Weaver

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling

A Renaissance Icon

by Noelle Weaver

 

I recently had the opportunity to visit Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition in Dayton. The art exhibit takes high quality images of the different pieces of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome and presents them on canvas for individual to-scale viewing. It gave a unique chance not just to see Michelangelo’s work, but to view it up close and in even more detail than you could get by standing in the Sistine Chapel itself, with the images overhead and far away.

The monumental-quality and complexity of the images becomes even more apparent at this incredible scale. Michelangelo was a sculptor first in his own mind, and while his images don’t have some of the grace and beauty of his contemporaries like Raphael, they’re no less impressive. The works of art may not be the easiest for viewing, but they are a feat of human ingenuity, art, and theology.

The large amounts of nudity in the Sistine Chapel can seem less than sacred, and has been contended and even censored over the centuries.  Michelangelo’s own philosophy was that the human form was the highest expression of beauty in nature, because Christian theology holds that people are made in “the image and likeness of God.” With the human body as a fallen but no less divine reflection of the ultimate source of beauty, Michelangelo endeavored to use his imagination to depict the body as close to perfection as possible. This is seen most clearly in The Creation of Adam, and rightly so. Adam is the unfallen and first creation of humankind, and as such he is a physical specimen of bodily perfection. Like the David statue, the physique stretches beyond human limits and reaches for the divine, Platonic perfection.

These are just a few of the images on display in the exhibit, primarily from the major events in Genesis and some from the Old Testament.

 

Genesis

God in Creation

 

 

 

Separation of Light from Darkness

 

1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 
2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. 
3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 
4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 
5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.  -Genesis 1:1-5

Creation of the Sun and Moon

 

14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, 
15 and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. 
16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. 
17 God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, 
18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.  -Genesis 1:14-18

 

 

Of course, Michelangelo’s primary source  is the Bible, especially Genesis’ accounts. Instead of depicting separate images of Creation step-by-step, instead God is making both the Sun and Moon simultaneously. His gestures indicate his creation, a recurring pose; God is always pointing towards his creation as it springs into existence. We’re even given a time lapse effect, seeing both God forming the planets, and God foreshortened to the left as he makes the plants and vegetation next.

 

In yet another contrasting angle, God is seen soaring overhead from beneath  as he separates the light from the darkness on the first day of Creation in the narrative.

 

Creation of Man and Woman

 

 

The Creation of Adam

 

 

 

 

6 Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” 
27 So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 
28 God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” -Genesis 1:26-28

 

One of the most iconic images of Western art is of course the Creation of Adam. It is depicted towards the center of the Sistine Chapel ceiling (although ironically it is the Creation of Eve piece that actually sits in the middle).  It is one of Michelangelo’s more visually pleasing works, but no less sculptural or impressive than the rest.

 

The composition is evocative, and provokes many interpretative questions; why is God surrounded by a billowing cloak rather than free standing like in the earlier Genesis images? Does the cloak just happen to look like the human brain, or is Michelangelo intentionally making the resemblance? Is that Eve at God’s left, implying that she’s already in his plans as his last Creation? This striking image is made to ponder on.

 

 

The Creation of Eve
20 …But for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. 
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” -Genesis 2:20-23

 

 

 

While less iconic, the Creation of Eve is no less evocative. Here we can see Eve literally emerging from Adam’s side; God is described as forming her from Adam’s rib. Eve and God seem to be having a verbal conversation, with Eve’s hands in a motion similar to prayer. Echoing Adam’s Creation, she too is depicted on the left and reaching towards God as he brings her into existence.

 

 

Temptation and Fall

 

 

 

 

1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 
3 but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’ ” 
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; 
5 for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. -Genesis 3:1-6 
The Temptation and the Fall of Man are time lapsed into the same image, similar to God during creation. In the temptation in the garden, It’s interesting that we can see both Adam and Eve present with the serpent, when many depiction show only Eve being tempted. The serpent is also humanoid, a common way of showing the tempter in art of the period.
The scene on the right show Adam and Eve being driven out of paradise by the angel sent to guard the Garden of Eden. Michelangelo, never one to pass by a chance to depict the beauty of the human body, decides not to have them clothed as they are described in Genesis. If you look closely, you can see how Adam and Eve’s graceful features have changed into haggard and drawn expressions, the consequences of their sin. Their graceful looks from their creation images and even just before the fall are gone.

 

Noah and the Flood

 

The Great Flood

 

 

17 The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 
18 The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 
19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 
20 the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 
21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 
22 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 
23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 
24 And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days. -Genesis 7:17-24
There are several scenes from the life of Noah, the man choses to presever mankind and the animal species through during the Great Flood. In one of the most striking scenes in Genesis and the Old Testament, Michelangelo depicts the flood not from Noah and the ark’s triumphant perspective, but instead he chooses to focus on the last vestiges of mankind moments before death.
One particularly interesting scene is that of the old man carrying his young son to dry land. This seems to be a Classical reference to the famous image of Aeneas carrying his aging father, Anchises, out of the burning city of Troy. It serves as a compelling comparison; the flooded cities vs the burning ancient city of Troy, and a father-son relationship.

 

 

 

Old Testament Scenes

 

David and Goliath

 

David was a popular figure in Italian Renaissance art, particularly in Florence where he was seen as the ultimate underdog hero, and a mascot or representative of how Florentines viewed themselves.

 

Here, we don’t see David with his sling; instead, this takes place after he’s struck Goliath down, and is just about to use the giant’s own sword to cut off his head. Michelangelo shows the scene right in the middle of the action and violence.

 

 

 

 

Judith Slays Holofernes

 

 

 

 

 

Here is yet another scene of decapitation, in this case showing the after-effects rather than the act.

 

Judith and her maidservant use their cunning to lure a vicious and cunning Assyrian general, Holofernes, into letting them have dinner with him. When the great enemy of the Israelites becomes intoxicated while trying to seduce her, Judith seizes the opportunity. Not only does she kill the Assyrian, but she also escapes the camp with Holofernes’ head. This scene has been a popular subject for many artists, including Carravaggio. Judith not only acts to help her people, but similarly to David, even strikes down an enemy when given the opportunity to strike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally, in yet another violent triumph in the Old Testament, Michelangelo depicts the ending of the story of Esther. While there are not as many numerous female figures in the Old Testament compared to the men, Esther has an entire book to herself. She was an Israelite woman chosen to be the queen of a Persian king. Esther’s cousin and surrogate father, Mordecai, angers the king’s vizier Haman by refusing to bow to the man.

Enraged, Haman plots to manipulate the king into giving an order to have all the Jews in the kingdom executed. When Esther hears news of this, she knows that it is up to her alone to save her cousin and her people. Despite being the king’s wife, she is still in danger herself; the last queen was deposed for insubordination to the king, so Esther is risking herself by making demands on her husband.

After having gained the king’s favor over several banquets, which Michelangelo shows on the upper left panel, Esther reveals Haman’s plot to kill her people, including Mordecai who had actually saved the king’s life from assassination. The king orders for Haman to be hung on the very gallows that the vizier had built to execute Mordecai. Here, Michelangelo doesn’t simply have Haman hung from a noose, though; he’s actually crucified, contorted in a complex twisting on an x-shaped cross. This reveals Michelangelo’s maturing and increased interest in pushing the human form in art to its limits, and complicated twisting poses which show off many angles and musculature, referred to as figura serpentinata or ‘serpentine form.’

 

 

The Last Judgement

 

 

In this complex depiction of The Last Judgement, an event referenced in Revelation and the culmination of the end of the world in the biblical Apocalypse, Michelangelo lets his imagination fill in this massive cast of subjects and events. The image itself is 180 meters squared, and depicts 390 figures, including saints, angels, demons, the souls of the holy, and the souls of the damned. The actual text of Revelation gives a simple description of a massively important event, the moment that, according to Christian theology, determines every person’s eternal fate. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint it in 1534, years after the ceiling had been finished.

 

 

 

4 Then I saw thrones, and those seated on them were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus[a] and for the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. 5 (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. Over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him a thousand years. – Revelation 20:4-6

 

Here we see Michelangelo’s inspiration for the groupings of saints around Christ the Judge in the center of the image. Mary, the mother of Jesus, is by his right side, while a mass of martyrs surround the two. As is traditional in iconography and statues of saints, the martyrs are identifiable by their instruments of torture and execution.

One of the most grotesque images is that of St. Bartholomew on the right, who was flayed alive. He’s depicted holding his own skin, which is actually a self portrait of Michelangelo himself.

 

11 Then I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Also another book was opened, the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, as recorded in the books. 13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and all were judged according to what they had done. 14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; 15 and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. -Revelation 20: 11-16

 

Jesus is shown separating the souls of the dead, and below they can be seen being led to the gates of hell to the right. There’s even a demon in a boat driving souls towards the mouth of Hell, a Classical reference to Charon the ferryman of souls to Hades in Greek mythology. Despite its deeply theological meaning, Michelangelo also includes sprinkles of mythological and Classical artworks.

Overall, this final image is the culmination of Michelangelo’s work, painted exquisitely and complexly even in his old age.

 

 

 

Seeing these images for myself in full scale and up close was a stunning experience. Looking at these pieces separately online or in books, or even in-person on the towering Sistine Chapel ceiling, is different from being close enough to touch the images. They’re massive (see the image below to see the scale of how large they are), complex, colorful, and sculptural. While they’re clearly artistic masterpieces, each one also holds layers of theology, mythological references, and even unfavorable depictions of people who got on Michelangelo’s nerves.

 

 

 

Sources

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition Audio Tour Guide

 

About Noelle Weaver

Noelle is a Classics and Music double major, and former editor for The Trident.

View all posts by Noelle Weaver →

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