ILLUSTRATES: sattu
*Originally published in the magazine Adventures in History
Using a technique called fresco, in which the painting is done on a mortar of lime and sand. As this type of work dries quickly, before getting his hands dirty, the Italian had to study a lot which images he planned to recreate. The complete task took four years, from 1508 to 1512 – but it has become one of the most important masterpieces in history and is, today, one of the Vatican’s greatest attractions.
What few people know is that, at first, Michelangelo did not want the job. First, because he considered painting an inferior art. What he really liked was sculpting. Second, because he didn’t get along with Pope Julius II, who ordered it. In 1505, he got involved with the construction of a papal tomb and spent eight months in the city of Carrara, famous for its marbles, selecting stones for the work. But another sculptor, Bramante (1444-1514), fell in with the Church and took over the project. Michelangelo agreed to decorate the Sistine to prove to everyone what he was capable of.
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DESERVED TORTICOLIS
Michelangelo painted, practically alone, 680 m² in four years
1) Comic Bible
One of Michelangelo’s strokes of genius was deciding to cover the 680 m² of the chapel’s ceiling with a single composition of various scenes from the Old Testament, from the Bible. There are the creation of man, the expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the flood
2) Steady hands
Frescoing is an ancient technique that has stood the test of time. Before receiving the paint, the surface is prepared with a mortar of burnt lime and moistened sand (hence the origin of the name). It dries quickly, which requires precise and well-planned brushstrokes.
3) Upturned nose
Sometimes the artist worked lying down. But most of the time he was standing looking up, which caused him a lot of pain. Months into the service, he had difficulty lowering his head to read. He needed to put the text above the eyes
4) passed over
When Michelangelo arrived, the Sistine Chapel already had paintings by other great names of the time, made between 1481 and 1483. With his biblical portraits, he covered a starry sky signed by Píer Matteo d’Almelia
5) Opposition intrigues
The extension of the ceiling was so impressive that Ascanio Condivi, Michelangelo’s apprentice and biographer, even wrote that the invitation for the task had been made by rivals of his master – who, of course, hoped that he would not be able to fulfill the mission.
6) Slaves
Michelangelo refused help with the painting. He accepted very few apprentices, who did all the “bureaucratic” part: they set up scaffolding, prepared pigments, cleaned brushes and enlarged the originals that the genius drew on a smaller scale.