What more fitting visual contemplation for the Cardinals as they convene in the Conclave this week, than this masterpiece by Michelangelo.
Last Judgement
As I recall, the 'hanging flesh' is Michelangelo's self portrait.
What more fitting visual contemplation for the Cardinals as they convene in the Conclave this week, than this masterpiece by Michelangelo.
Last Judgement
As I recall, the 'hanging flesh' is Michelangelo's self portrait.
The Cardinals convene the all-important election conclave amid the magnificence of these works.
More on The Last Judgment (from a Michaelangelo biography)
In Rome, in 1536, Michelangelo was at work on the Last Judgment for the alter wall of the Sistine Chapel, which he finished in 1541. The largest fresco of the Renaissance, it depicts Judgment Day. Christ, with a clap of thunder, puts into motion the inevitable separation, with the saved ascending on the left side of the painting and the damned descending on the right into a Dantesque hell. As was his custom, Michelangelo portrayed all the figures nude, but prudish draperies were added by another artist (who was dubbed the 'breeches-maker') a decade later, as the cultural climate became more conservative. Michelangelo painted his own image in the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew. Although he was also given another painting commission, the decoration of the Pauline Chapel in the 1540s, his main energies were directed toward architecture during this phase of his life.