Canvas

Canvas - A platform to discuss human emotions through various art form basically poem, paintings, photography and a stage for discussing sphere of art...

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Michelangelo and Sistine Chapel



Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, colloquially known as
Michelangelo was a Renaissance sculptor, architect, painter, and poet. Michelangelo is famous for creating the fresco ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
In this article, I have covered famous sistine chapel ceiling , it's history and quintessential work of Michelangelo.

The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Palace of the Vatican, the official residence of the Roman Catholic Pope in the Vatican City. A chapel is typically a private church or area of worship, often small and attached to a larger institution such as a college, a hospital, a palace, a prison or a cemetery. It was built between 1475 and 1483, in the time of Pope Sixtus IV, and is one of the most famous churches of the Western World.

In 1508 Michelangelo was commissioned by Pope Julius II to paint the vault, or ceiling of the chapel. To be able to reach the ceiling, Michelangelo needed a support; the first idea was by Bramante(a painter), who wanted to build for him a special scaffold (a temporary structure of poles, planks, etc., for building work), suspended in the air with ropes. But Michelangelo suspected that this would leave holes in the ceiling once the work was ended, so he built a scaffold of his own, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall, high up near the top of the windows. He stood on this scaffolding while he painted.

The ceiling is perhaps most famous for the image of the Creation of Adam. There are many elements to the ceiling; it has nine scenes from the Book of Genesis (first book of Bible), seven Old Testament prophets (first major part of the Bible according to Christianity), five sibyls (person who is believed to communicate with God, or with a deity), as well as four corners and eight triangular areas also depicted with scenes.

This is the order of the scenes from the book of genesis:

1.God separates light from darkness
2. Creation of the sun and the moon
3. God separates land from water
4. The Creation of Adam
5. Creation of woman
6. Original sin
7. The sacrifice of Noah
8. The flood
9. Drunkenness of Noah

Seven prophets from the Old Testament were depicted on the ceiling were:
1) Daniel
2) Ezekiel
3) Isiah
4) Jeremiah
5) Joel
6) Jonah
7) Zechariah-

Five sibyls were:
1) Delphic Sibyl.
2) Sibyl Lybica
3) Sybil Persica
4) Cumaean Sibyl
5) Erythraean Sibyl

The corners or "Pendentives" show scenes which may relate to the people of Israel being saved, such as David slaying the Philistine Goliath, Judith cutting the head off Holifernes, Haman punished for a plot he had against the Jews, and Moses erecting the bronze serpent. There are eight triangular areas or "webs" above the arched windows of the chapel. In addition, there were many minor figures around the chapel ceiling; each of the eight triangular areas have two orangish figures sitting on top of them, sixteen in all.

There is more to come on Michelangelo.