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More reviews by Terry Grose
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Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King
Visitors stream into the Sistine Chapel at a rate of around 10,000 per day. Untold millions must have stood awestruck at the magnificence of the Michelangelo's frescos on the Chapel's ceiling, yet one doubts that very many among these amazed multitudes have any real comprehension of what was involved in the creation of this masterpiece in the early years of the sixteenth century.
For one thing, pace Kirk Douglas's portrayal on the silver screen, Michelangelo did not paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel lying on his back on scaffolding some 60 feet above the floor. ROSS KING argues in this well-researched account that the work was clearly done standing up with the artist's head tilted back as he worked above. King suggests that the misunderstanding arose through mistranslation of the word resupinus in an early biography of Michelangelo by Paolo Giovio: the word actually means "bent backwards" and not "on his back" as has traditionally been assumed.
In fact, the main challenges related to the actual painting -- as distinct from the political and commercial issues, which were daunting in their own right -- seem to have revolved around the technical difficulties of successfully painting frescos, together with the challenge of designing works of art to be painted onto curved surfaces which were then to be viewed from ground level, some 60 feet away.
Fresco means "fresh"; the technique entails painting onto a portion of fresh (wet) plaster so that the paint is absorbed into the plaster and sealed as it dries. For each day's work, known as a giornato, a piece of plaster is laid, typically about four feet by five in size, then the outline of the picture traced onto it and the paint applied. If the painting goes wrong, the only solution is to chip it off and start again -- not a technique for the artist who wishes to deliberate on his work and vary it as he goes.
King explains that the challenge was compounded because, as Michelangelo progressed, he decided to make the figures on the curved ceiling appear more lifelike when viewed from below. To do this he utilized the technique known as di sotto in su ("from below upwards") which, as King explains, "involved arranging the perspective of the figures or objects on a vault to give the viewer the impression of real-life figures rising overhead in a convincing three-dimensional space."
Michelangelo was a controversial choice to begin with. Some 30 years previously, the walls of the Sistine Chapel had been painted by a team of well-known artists and there was, incredible as it seems today, doubt over Michelangelo's ability to produce art of the same quality. Michelangelo was, at that stage in his career, known primarily as a sculptor and King relates the concerns that were expressed over his ability to paint, particularly in such a difficult medium. Leonardo Da Vinci is quoted speaking disparagingly of sculptors: "This is a most mechanical exercise, accompanied many times by a great deal of sweat," before going on to suggest that with a fine covering of marble dust sculptors looked just like bakers. Today it is impossible to see the creator of David and the Pieta as a baker.
The politics of the art world reflected the politics in the wider world. The politics of the time were as complicated as the frescoes. Internationally, the French, Spaniards and Germans all had their fingers in the Italian city-states. The Vatican was itself hardly a place of divine harmony; the cut and thrust of Vatican politics on several occasions resulted in Julius II (the pope who commissioned Michelangelo) leading an army to conquer rebellious cities.
These were tumultuous times and in the course of the book ROSS KING introduces a wide range of Michelangelo's famous contemporaries, including Da Vinci, Raphael, Martin Luther, Erasmus, France's King Louis XII, Botticelli, Bramante?. This was truly an amazing (and complicated) period in European history!
Indeed, King tries to place Michelangelo's work in such a complete context that at times one is left feeling a little bewildered by the amount detail on events and participants. The author, however, maintains a lively style throughout, which, when combined with the fascinating sequence of events surrounding the work, makes MICHELANGELO AND THE POPE'S CEILING a compelling story of one of the greatest artists the world has known -- and greatly enhance the experience of anyone who has visited, or plans to visit, the Sistine Chapel.
- Editor's note: Ross King previous work was the well-received 'Brunelleschi's Dome'.
Terry Grose
25/02/2003
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Terry Grose has an extensive background in the financial and commercial fields in Australia and throughout Asia. He began his career as a merchant banker and worked for a number of large companies, including Wesfarmers Limited, before founding his own corporate advisory business Grose International in Hong Kong which he ran successfully for eight years. Terry has returned to Australia to pursue a number of interesting opportunities. He is an avid reader who enjoys cooking and all things French. |
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