Angels-MICHELANGELO

Michelagniolo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, best known as
Michelangelo (1475–1564), was born at Caprese, Italy, a Florentine
dependency where his father was governor. His mother died when he
was six. At ten he joined the Grammar School of Francesco da
Urbino, and three years later he joined the bottega of Domenico
Ghirlandajo as pupil and helper. He left after a year to study the collections
of Lorenzo the Magnificent, head of the house of Medici, in
whose palace he was taken to live.
In 1494 Michelangelo left Florence for Venice and Bologna,
where he lived over a year. The following year he returned to Florence,
where a new government had been formed under the influence
of Savonarola. In 1496 he left for Rome to seek his fortune. When he
returned to Florence in 1501 he executed the famous marble David for
the Opera del Duomo. This marble and the cartoon of the Battle of
Cascina or the Bathers, a composition of life-size nudes for the pro
posed fresco in the Sala del Consiglio, Palazzo
Vecchio, are the most celebrated work of this
period.
In 1508 Michelangelo was ordered to Rome
by Pope Julius II to paint the vault and the
higher parts of the side walls in the Sistine
Chapel. Prophets, sibyls, nudes, and scenes
from Genesis are represented on the vault,
whereas other topics of the Old Testament,
including the ancestors of Christ, are depicted
on the lunettes and sprandels.
In 1534, at the age of fifty-nine, he left Florence
finally for Rome, where he spent the
remaining thirty years of his life. There he painted
The Last Judgment, covering the whole wall
above the altar of the Sistine Chapel, from 1536
to 1542. The Julius tomb for Pope Julius II, now
in San Pietro in Vincoli, was executed in 1542.
From 1542 to 1550 he painted the twin frescoes
of the Paoline Chapel in the Vatican, and thereafter
he devoted himself principally to architecture.
Appointed in 1547, he remained architectin-
chief of St. Peter’s until his death.
The Pietà of the cathedral in Florence was
carved between 1545 and 1555, and it is likely that the Rondanini
Pietà (Rondanini Palace, Rome) was begun in 1555. Upon his death
in 1564, Michelangelo’s body was taken to Florence, where a very
elaborate funeral took place at San Lorenzo in July. He was buried at
Santa Croce, in the parish where his family had long lived.
Angels are depicted in a number of Michelangelo’s works, such as
the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. In the panel The
Creation of Sun, Moon, Earth, and the Herbs, God is shown, on the
right, borne up by cherubs, creating the Sun and the Moon; on the
left, as he flies away, he creates Earth and the herbs. As God creates
the Sun and the Moon, he is seen in flowing lilac robes, the Sun by
his right hand and the Moon by his left. There is a beautiful little
cherub on his right who looks up at him.
The panel Creation of Adam is considered Michelangelo’s greatest
achievement. God, pictured as an old man, is again shown on the
right of the panel, borne up by cherubs. He looks at Adam, his arm
held out toward him, his hand almost touching Adam’s. There is one
cherub of particular beauty supporting God’s left arm who looks with
large, beautiful eyes at Adam.
Another exquisite angel is depicted in the Temptation and Expulsion.
On the left of the panel Adam and Eve are shown being tempted by the
serpent, and on the right they are driven from the Garden into the wilderness
by an angel. The angel is seen high up in the picture just to the right
of the serpent, driving Adam and Eve into the desert with a staff.
In another panel a captivating little cherub behind Isaiah’s right
shoulder has delightfully absurd curly hair and a most charming face.
In a scene depicting Daniel, another cherub supports a large book. In
the panel representing Libica two cherubs talking to each other about
her actions bring a human touch to the painting. Charming little
cherubs stand in pairs at either side of all sibyls and prophets represented
in the paintings of the chapel, each pair reproduced in reverse
on the opposite side of the prophet or sibyl.
The picture The Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel is among the
most famous in the world. It is divided into four belts, the top one of
which contains angels and cherubs holding the emblems of the Passion
of Christ. Angels are also depicted in the third belt, which has in
the center seven massive cherubs sounding the last trump to waken
the dead; between the trumpeters are two angels, each with an open
book in his hand, from which everyone reads his past life while rising
to the Judgment. On the left side of the same belt the souls arise to the
Judgment, and saints and angels assist them in their upward path,
some offering a hand, one a rosary.
The angel figures are nude, masculine in appearance, and are not
winged. In fact the angels are not discernible from the human figures.
Michelangelo chose this type of visual to show the close association
that angels have with man.
In a marble group by Michelangelo in a chapel of the Vatican there
are no angels, but there are engravings of another Pietà in which the
Virgin sits at the foot of the cross, her eyes raised and her arms extended
toward heaven, while two angels support the Christ, seated lower down
and leaning against the knees of the Virgin. According to Michelangelo’s
custom, these angels have no wings, but their expression is such that
it would be impossible to mistake them for earthly children.
Michelangelo’s nudes of angels and men have not always been
received with favor and acclaim among the church hierarchy. Inquisition
Pope Paul IV, for example, called the completed Sistine Chapel a “stew
of nudes” and wanted it destroyed. During the memorable reign of Pius V
in 1564, the Council of Trent censured the work and ordered that it be
“corrected.” As Michelangelo had died the previous year, other artists
were commissioned to paint drapery upon some of the figures. These
touchups and cover-ups lasted well into the eighteenth century. Restora
tion of the Sistine Chapel began in earnest in the late 1970s and many of
the cover-ups were painstakingly removed. With final restoration now
complete, the true beauty of this creation can be enjoyed.