L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 2016 www.italoamericano.org 14 L'Italo-Americano M ichelangelo's paintings in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican are with- out a doubt the most celebrated paintings in Italy. The Sistine Chapel takes its name from the pope who consecrated it, Pope Sixtus IV, on August 15, 1493. But it was Pope Julius II who l a t e r c o m m i s s i o n e d Michelangelo to paint the vault of the Chapel. The artist, a duti- ful son, wrote thus in a letter to h i s f a t h e r : " T o d a y , M a y 1 0 , 1508, I, Michelagniolo, sculptor, have received from His Holiness P o p e J u l i u s I I f i v e h u n d r e d florins as an advance for the p a i n t i n g t h a t I s h a l l b e g i n today." When he was finished, i n e a r l y O c t o b e r 1 5 1 2 , Michelangelo wrote again to his father: "I have finished the work on the Chapel, and the Pope is well satisfied." Thus we know the exact beginning and comple- tion date of the masterpiece. A s w e e n t e r t h e S i s t i n e C h a p e l w e a r e a w e d b y t h e height and distance of the vault, fifty to seventy feet high. In order to admire the vault one m u s t l o o k u p t h r o w i n g b a c k one's head as far as possible. Many years ago, before mass tourism, it was possible to lie down on the floor and look up at the vault for a length of time, possibly using binoculars. Now t h e h u g e n u m b e r o f v i s i t o r s makes this manner of viewing impossible. In any case, one realizes immediately the painful discomfort the artist was sub- jected to during the long years he painted the chapel's vault all by himself, way up there: "The agony and the ecstasy." The Sistine Chapel is not a beautiful architectural space. It has an extremely high rectangu- lar shape, long and narrow. The Chapel is part and parcel of the Vatican Palace, and it has tradi- t i o n a l l y b e e n u s e d f o r t h e Conclaves to elect the popes. S e v e r a l a r t i s t s b e f o r e Michelangelo had decorated the chapel, among whom we count P e r u g i n o , B o t t i c e l l i a n d Ghirlandaio. O n e m i g h t s a y t h a t P o p e Julius II took a gamble when he gave Michelangelo the arduous task of decorating the vault. Michelangelo was famous for his sculptures, not for his paint- ings. To add to this, the vault was to be frescoed, and fresco is a specialized painting technique in which Michelangelo had no e x p e r i e n c e a t a l l . I n f a c t , Michelangelo's first historian, C o n d i v i h i m s e l f , w r o t e t h a t Michelangelo was "poco prati- co" ( had little experience) in this medium. The high barrel vault of the Sistine Chapel has windows cut into the surface. Michelangelo d e c i d e d t o d e c o r a t e i t i n a n architectural manner, dividing the space into numerous sec- tions. That is the reason why different groups of figures have different scales. Though asked to paint only religious subjects, Michelangelo took it upon him- self to include in his paintings t h e S i b y l s , c h a r a c t e r s f r o m p a g a n a n t i q u i t y , n e x t t o t h e prophets of the Bible. There are five Sibyls and seven prophets. T h e s e c t i o n s a r e l i n k e d a n d intertwined with garlands of oak leaves, in reverence to the com- missioning pope, who belonged to the illustrious Della Rovere family, "rovere" meaning oak in Italian. Initially Michelangelo was sent to Florence to look for four Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel: The Vault (part I) experienced collaborators, since the space to be decorated was enormous. But the artist was a loner who did not easily get along with people, so he soon literally locked his collaborators out of the chapel. From then on, he worked alone, with the help o n l y o f o n e l o n e l y p i g m e n t grinder on the floor. Michelangelo's work was dif- ficult, since he had to scrape off layers of the existing paint and work lying down on his back, face up. But the job itself was tough: fresco (meaning fresh) is a medium thus called because the color must be applied very quickly, while the plaster is still fresh, or wet. First, the wall must receive a ground coat of mortar and coarse sand, then a coat of white plaster smoothed down to receive the painting. When the painting dries, the pig- ments remain chemically bonded to the surface, and will remain there forever. The painter must work fast, and no revision is possible once the plaster is dry. The next day, he must renew the p r o c e s s w i t h a n e w b a t c h o f plaster. When Michelangelo started to paint the vault, he realized that his greatest problem was going to be the scaffolding. He did not like the solution that Bramante (the Pope's architect) had adopted, that is, of having the scaffolding hanging from the v a u l t . T h a t w o u l d h a v e l e f t unsightly holes once the work was finished. Michelangelo had t h e h o l e s p a t c h e d u p , a n d devised an ingenious way of sustaining the scaffolding by laying long planks across the cornices of the walls. That solu- tion, however, left him only e n o u g h s p a c e t h a t h e h a d t o paint flat on his back. Every day the artist had to overcome verti- go and ascend to his post with a perilously high ladder. The ceiling is divided by five fictive cornices into nine com- partments, in which stories from G e n e s i s a r e r e p r e s e n t e d . Michelangelo started with the scenes from the life of Noah: the drunkenness of Noah, the Great F l o o d , a n d N o a h ' s o f f e r i n g . Later, he painted the creation of Adam and Eve, the separation of the earth from the waters, the creation of the sun, the moon and the planets, and the separa- tion of the light from darkness. All these paintings are of stun- ning beauty. For many years, I h a v e h a d o n t h e w a l l i n m y study a reproduction of perhaps the most iconic detail from the Creation of Adam, where God's finger almost touches Adam's finger, showing Michelangelo's belief that man aspires to reach God. Michelangelo's frescoes in the Sistine Chapel were restored s e v e r a l t i m e s , a n d t h e m o s t recent restoration was long and painstaking, lasting from 1980 to 1994. The chapel was subject- ed to a cleaning that was meant to bring to light the original bright colors. But some detrac- tors have argued that the colors after the restoration were too b r i g h t f o r M i c h e l a n g e l o ' s p a l e t t e , a n d c a l l e d t h e m Benetton colors. Having visited the Sistine Chapel several times before the restoration, I myself prefer the frescoes before the restoration, as some detail was lost in the process of cleaning. M a n y y e a r s l a t e r , Michelangelo was to be called back to Rome to execute another f r e s c o i n t h e s a m e S i s t i n e Chapel, but this time on a wall: the gigantic, awe-inspiring Last Judgement. I will write about it in my next article. My advice to those of our readers planning a trip to Rome is to look online and start book- ing their entrance tickets well ahead of time. Do not underesti- mate the crowds! I might also suggest investing in a tour: tours are affordable and well worth the money, as they will give you more time and easier access. LAURA STORTONI-HAGER Michelangelo's masterpiece: The Creation of Adam in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy — Photo by savacoco ARTS MOVIES MUSIC BOOKS ARTWORK

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