Michelangelo: The Last Judgement

The Last Judgement is a fresco painting by Michelangelo covering the whole altar wall of Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. This masterpiece is a depiction of the Second Coming of Christ and the final and eternal judgment by God of all humanity. The painting consists a total of 300 figures. In the painting, the souls of humans rise and descend to their fates, as judged by Christ who is surrounded by prominent saints. It is possible the grandest painting ever made.

The Last Judgement by Michelangelo

Central Group around Christ

To complete this masterpiece of great grandeur, it took Michelangelo a period of over four years. By the time this painting was completed, Michelangelo had hit 67th mark of his age. Again, it is a painting of grand scale consisting of 300 figures with no visible error in the slightest of details. No wonder, why it took Michelangelo four years to complete this painting. In the lower part of the fresco, he showed the ascending at the left and the damned descending at the right. In the upper part, the inhabitants of Heaven are joined by the newly saved. The majority of angels and males are nude. The fresco is dominated by the tones of flesh and sky.

In terms of theme, their is a very strong reason why this painting sets itself apart from the same kind of numerous works made during that era. While traditional compositions generally depicted an ordered, harmonious heavenly world above with the tumultuous events taking place in the earthly zone below, in contrasting Michelangelo's conception the arrangement and posing of the figures across the entire painting give an impression of agitation and even in the upper parts there is a profound disturbance, tension and commotion among the figures. At the center of the work is Christ, shown as the individual verdicts of the Last Judgement are pronounced. He looks down towards the damned. The depiction of Christ is also different as he is shown beardless while most of the tradition works during that time showed him with a beard. I guess Michelangelo didn't find Christ's beard game to be strong. Christ also has the wounds of his Crucifixion.

Bartholomew with the face of Michelangelo

Surrounding Christ in a slow rotary movement are figures, identified as the saints of God. On a similar scale to Christ are John the Baptist on the left, and on the right Saint Peter, holding the keys of Heaven and offering them back to Christ. Several of the main saints appear to be showing Christ their attributes, the evidence of the martyrdom. This is interpreted as if the saints are themselves not certain of their own verdicts, and are trying at the last moment to remind Christ of their sufferings. Other prominent saints include Saint Bartholomew below Peter, holding the attribute of his martyrdom, his own skin. Now this is one of the Easter eggs of this complex painting as the face on Saint Bartholomew is a self-portrait of Michelangelo. I mean WOW! Michelangelo was making the grandest painting of all time with 300 figures in it so he just thought why not paint myself too in my own work. Maybe he wanted to live eternally not only by his own painting but also in his own painting. He gave art experts a hard time to recognize his own face among 299 other figures

Biagio da Cesena as Minos

The movements of the souls reflect the traditional pattern. They arise from their graves at bottom left, and some continue upwards, helped in several cases by angels in the air or others on clouds, pulling them up. Others, the dammed, apparently pass over to the right. There is a zone in the lower middle that is empty of souls. A boat rowed by an aggressive Charon, who ferried souls to the Underworld in classical mythology brings souls to land beside the entrance to Hell. The painting lacks the devil of hell, Satan. Many people found this unusual too. To fill Satan's role, painting consists of another classical devil, Minos, who supervises the admission of the Damned into Hell. Another Easter Egg, Minoshas the face of Biagio da Cesena, a critic of Michelangelo in the Papal court. According to records, Michelangelo hated this person. Maybe he thought if I cannot send this guy to hell in reality, then I will just let him to forever rot in hell in my own painting. Michelangelo - 1, Biagio da Cesena - 0.  A feeling of chaos is further generated by the depiction Devils pulling down many damned souls while angels push some of them from the sky.

The painting has a very chaotic tone  to it. But, I love it as to me it depicts that human beings commit sins very casually but when the Judgement Bell rings, they reduce to nothing but despicable cowards trapped in their eternal misery. Anyhow, it was a long review because why not? It is The Last Judgement. And, my Last Judgement to this painting is that it is OVERQUALIFIED nonetheless, my favorite painting to be ever made. 

Charon with his boat of damned souls