This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 151.24.145.xxx (talk) at 03:17, 18 January 2002 (Page needs to be renamed ! (don't know how) + details). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 03:17, 18 January 2002 by 151.24.145.xxx (talk) (Page needs to be renamed ! (don't know how) + details)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 - 1564), Renaissance painter, sculptor, and architect.
Under the patronage of Pope Julius II Michelangelo created the monumental ceiling paintings in Vatican's Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina) ceiling between 1508 and 1512.
His painting of the Last Judgment (Giudizio Universale) on the altar wall of the same chapel was commissioned by Pope Paul III almost 20 years later (1534-1541).
When the work was finished (Oct 1541), Michelangelo was accused of untolerable obscenity for his naked figures that, even if representing Saints, still were naked figures showing their genitals (and inside a church, and in which one!).
A violent censorship campaign was then immediately organised by Cardinal Carafa and Mons. Sernini (Mantua's ambassador) to remove the frescoes, but the Pope obviously resisted.
In coincidence with Michelangelo's death, an intermediate point was achieved and a law was issued to cover genitals ("Pictura in Cappella Ap.ca coopriantur").
So Daniele
da Volterra, an apprentist of Michelangelo, covered with sort of perizomas part of the scandal, at leats most evident details, leaving unaltered the complex of bodies (see details , , ) .
When in 1993 the work was restored, it has been choosen not to remove the perizomas of Daniele; however, a faithful copy of original (uncensored) Giudizio by Marcello Venusti is now in Naples, at Capodimonte Museum.
Censorship always followed Michelangelo, once described as "inventor delle porcherie" (inventor of obscenities, in a sense that in italian sounds like as if he had created the form too of... indecent organs).
This might also be the origin of the legend that indicates Michelangelo as an homosexual.
By his works started the "fig-leaf campaign" of Controriforma to cover all naked representations in paintings and sculptures. Just to make two examples, the bronze statue of "Cristo della Minerva" was covered, as it is today, and the statue of a naked child Jesus in "Madonna di Bruges" (Belgium) remained covered for several decades (source: De Maio, Michelangelo e la controriforma - Torino-Bari, 1974).
He created the frescoes "The Martyrdom of St. Peter" and "The Conversion of St. Paul" in Vatican's Capella Paolina, as well as countless sculptures including those of Madonna (many), Bacchus, Pieta, David, Moses, Rachel, Leah, Medici family, and on.
Several anecdotes reveal anyway that Michelangelo's hand was deeply appreciated, specially in scuplture.
It is said that when still a young apprentist, he had made a neoclassical statue (Il Putto dormiente, the sleeping child) of such beaty and perfection, that he made it in Florence and it was later on sold in Rome as an ancient original roman statue.
Another better known anecdote claims that when finishing the Moses (Rome, San Pietro in Vincoli), Michelangelo violently hit with a hammer the knee of the statue, shouting: "why don't you speak to me?".
In the 1970s, the enchanting Pietà, in St.Peter's first chapel at right, was assaulted by a mentally diseased man, who seriously damaged it in many parts with a hammer.
Please, can anyone correct the name of this page into Michelangelo Buonarroti