Michelangelo Up Close

The Sistine Chapel is an astonishing place I am lucky to have visited twice–in 1998 with Lilli and in 2010 with Steve. But now I realize how woefully unprepared I was. Though I had studied art history and read Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy, I found that viewing those famous images on a ceiling sixty feet above me was difficult and confusing. Technology to the rescue: Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition, now making its way around the world, allows visitors to experience Michelangelo’s masterpieces up-close and life-size.

The ceiling paintings from the Sistine Chapel were reproduced using licensed high definition photos and printed with a technique that emulates the look and feel of the original paintings. Each of the artist’s 34 frescoes is accompanied by informative signage; audio guides are available to rent. I took photos of 20 of the 34 paintings, bought the guide book, and copied its information on the sidebars of each photo in this album. (If the narrative fails to appear when you open this link, click on the circled “i” at the top of the screen for info on each fresco. Keep in mind that my photos are photos of the photos I saw at the Armory Art Center in West Palm Beach FL; I hope you can see this exhibition at a place near you.)

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 – 1564), known simply as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet of the High Renaissance. The frescoes he painted in the Sistine Chapel were commissioned by Pope Julius II to show scenes from the Bible. From Genesis Michelangelo illustrates the creation of the world and mankind by God, the fall of man, and the expulsion of Adam and Eve from paradise.

These central frescoes are framed by portraits of ancient Sibyls,  Old Testament Prophets and Ancestors of Christ. My camera was attracted to the brilliant colors depicting four of the five Sibyls (whom I had not heard of before) and six of the seven Prophets (better known), but to only one of the eight Ancestors of Christ, whose stories were obscure and colors, more muted. This view of the Sistine Chapel ceiling reveals its complexity:

Michelangelo’s frescoes are unprecedented not only in terms of their size, but also their degree of innovation and technical execution, in just 4-1/2 years between 1508 and 1512. He then went on to create his visionary interpretation of The Last Judgement” on the altar wall in the west of the chapel between 1536 and 1541.

Inspired by this exhibit to find about more about the Chapel, the artist and  the Bible, I now see how much I missed in two live visits. A set of entertaining and informative videos by Artrageous with Nate concluded the exhibit, so I’ll conclude this post by sharing three of them with you–have fun!