"Powerful In His Conceptive Faculty" (The Last Judgment)

Daniele da Volterra, Portrait of Michelangelo, Chalk, 1533, Teylers Museum, Haarlem, The Netherlands

      After hisrecovery, Michelangelo returned to work, and finished the Last Judgment in afew months.    It was exposed to thepublic on Christmas Day in 1541.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment (detail), 1537-41, Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, Rome.

     Time, negligence,and outrage, the dust of centuries, the burned papers of successive conclaves,the smoke of altar-candles, the hammers and the hangings of upholsterers, thebrush of the breeches-maker and restorer, have so dealt with the Last Judgmentthat it is almost impossible to do it justice now.  What Michelangelo intended by his scheme ofcolour is entirely lost.   Not only didDaniele da Volterra, an execrable colourist, dab vividly tinted patches uponthe modulated harmonies of flesh-tones painted by the master; but the whole surface has sunk into a bluishfog, deepening to something like lamp-black around the altar. Nevertheless, inits composition the fresco may still be studied;  and after due inspection, aided byphotographic reproductions of each portion, we are not able to understand theenthusiasm which so nobly and profoundly planned a work of art aroused among contemporaries.

John Addington Symonds, Photographic portrait dedicated to Walt Whitman, 1889.

     It has sometimesbeen asserted that this painting, the largest and most comprehensive in theworld, is a tempest of contending forms, a hurly-burly of floating, falling,soaring, and descending figures.  Nothingcan be more opposed to the truth. Michelangelo was sixty-six years of age when he laid his brush down atthe end of the gigantic task.  He hadlong outlived the spontaneity of youthful ardour.  His experience through half a century in theplanning of monuments, the painting of the Sistine vault, the designing offacades and sacristies and libraries, had developed the architectonic sensewhich was always powerful in his conceptive faculty.  Consequently, we are not surprised to findthat , intricate and confused as the scheme may appear to an unpractised eye,it is in reality a design of mathematical severity, divided into four bands orplanes of grouping.

Michelangelo, The Last Judgment, 1537-41, Sistine Chapel, The Vatican, Rome.

Notes:

1. John Addington Symonds' superb, moving and highly enjoyable The Life of Michelangelo (1893) should be sought out by anyone interested in the artist. A short biography of Symonds, advocate and champion of l'amour de l'impossible, is found Here.

2.  Restoration and cleaning of The Last Judgment was completed in 1994. A short New York Times article concerning the unveiling is found Here.

Combination Of The Two (Big Brother's Big Brothers)

Song:

Big Brother And The Holding Company -- Combination Of The Two (Link)

Key: 

Above: Michelangelo, Moses (Tomb of Pope Julius II, San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome), 1513-15

Below:  Donald Judd, Untitled, 1966

A Glimpse of the Divine: Michelangelo Drawing to be Offered at Christie's in July (From ArtDaily.org)

 

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Caprese 1475-1564 Rome), A male nude, seen from behind (recto); Studies of male nudes (verso) black chalk, watermark crowned eagle (close to Briquet 89) 8.5 x 7 in. US$4,600,000-7,500,000. Photo: Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

LONDON.- Christie’s will offer an exceptional and rarely seen drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) at the Old Masters and 19th Century Art Evening Sale on Tuesday 5 July 2011 in London. Drawn at a pivotal point of the artist’s career, this preparatory study is one of only 24 sheets related to his seminal, prestigious and lost commission of The Battle of Cascina – and the last to remain in private hands. The commission saw Michelangelo pitched directly alongside his elder rival Leonardo da Vinci who was commissioned to paint The Battle of Cascina on the opposite wall of the newly-built Sala del Gran Consiglio in Florence’s Palazzo della Signoria. The drawing has been seen in public only once before at the exhibition of the artist’s drawings at the Albertina, Vienna, in 2010, and is expected to realise £3 million to £5 million. It is being offered at auction for the first time having been in the same collection for over 30 years.

         Benjamin Peronnet, Director and International Head of Old Master and 19th Century Drawings, Christie’s: “This drawing relates to one of the highpoints of the Renaissance – the commissions for the Sala del Gran Consiglio in Florence. The young Michelangelo was pitched directly against his elder rival, Leonardo da Vinci, as both were commissioned to execute large-scale depictions of battle scenes. Sadly neither exists, and there are few relics relating to these epic masterpieces. This drawing offers an exceptionally rare, direct link to one of the greatest Western masterpieces that never was, and offers us a glimpse into the mind of a genius at the peak of his powers as he freely put his thoughts to paper. We’re very excited to be offering the work at auction for the first time, and to be able to show a rarely seen drawing by Michelangelo to the public in Hong Kong, New York and London.”

         Michelangelo is one of the very few artists whose reputation has never faltered and who excites the same admiration today as he did among his contemporaries, who called him ‘divine’. This vigorous, dynamic double-sided sheet, which is a preparatory study for The Battle of Cascina, probably dates from late 1504, shortly after Michelangelo had begun to work on the commission. At this stage his ideas for the composition were still fluid and this sheet is evidently an exploratory work in progress, perhaps seen most clearly in the pentimento on the recto which betrays an earlier idea for the inclination of the head. The verso gives an impression of forceful energy, combining three figures at different stages of finish, which seem almost to blend into one another, the lightly-sketched form on the left countering the densely-hatched hip and thigh on the right-hand side of the sheet. The male nude was always the subject which most inspired Michelangelo, who saw in the unclothed form the perfection of the Platonic soul. His decision to focus The Battle of Cascina on a group of bathing soldiers, unexpectedly called to arms, allowed him to explore the full potential of the twisting, energised male body; and both sides of the present sheet show a characteristic interest in the tension of the back and thigh muscles, and the delineation of the spine.

         The Battle of Cascina was to represent a Florentine victory of 1364 over neighbouring Pisa, against which the Florentines were again considering military action in 1504. Commissioned for the newly-built Sala del Gran Consiglio in Florence’s Palazzo della Signoria, the fresco was to inspire and educate the 3,000 members of the city’s republican government who gathered in the hall. The commission was a coup for Piero Soderini, the elected head of state. Florentine civic virtue was to be commemorated through two frescoes, each representing a historical victory. The two frescoes were to be executed by the two most notable Florentine artists of the day: Michelangelo and Leonardo, directly set against one another in a thrilling ‘battle of Battles’. Unfortunately, Soderini’s dream was never accomplished: Michelangelo was recalled to Rome by Julius II in 1505 and completed no more than the central section of his cartoon. Leonardo began to paint his fresco, but it began to deteriorate almost instantly and was abandoned partway through. Michelangelo’s cartoon, which had such a powerful influence on the next generation of Florentine artists, was broken up and dispersed among admirers within only a few years of its execution. It is now known only through copies. The present drawing is therefore one of only 24 sheets from Michelangelo’s hand which record his vision for The Battle of Cascina and it is the only study for the fresco in private hands, as well as being the most recent addition to the group.



Note:  I encountered this interesting and exciting story (for a blandly written Christie's press release, it's still pretty exciting) on ArtDaily.org today when I was trying to gather my thoughts for a future piece I plan  to write about artworks I would like to own.  Obviously, owning this drawing would be a remarkable thing, but it's "out of reach" both financially and as far as the fear factor inherent in possessing something so precious and valuable would be.  I'm happy to look at works like this in museums during their quieter hours.  Heavens, though -- it's really exquisite.