Michelangelo's "Last Judgement" Quiz

Answer: About 24 years

Work on the Sistine Chapel ceiling had ended in 1512; the "Last Judgement" was completed between 1536 and 1541. Almost a quarter century had elapsed since the completion of the Sistine ceiling.

Answer: True

Work on the mural was delayed because the wall had been prepared for oil-painting. Fra Sebastiano del Piombo had persuaded the pope that the work should be done in oils. Michelangelo, however, refused to do the project except in fresco, declaring that oil-painting was "...a woman's art, fit only for lazy, well-to-do people like Fra Sebastiano" (Sebastiano's reaction to this statement is not a matter of record).

The wall then had to be re-prepared for fresco painting.

Answer: False

The color palette for the "Last Judgement" was significantly different due in part to the fact that Michelangelo wanted different effects than in the ceiling frescoes and due also to the fact that the money for the paints for the "Last Judgement" was coming from the pope, whereas Michelangelo paid for most of the paints for the ceiling with his own (and his brother's) money.

Answer: They are all shown lifting souls to heaven.

Michelangelo's angels are depicted as muscular, wingless youths in a variety of poses and activities- lifting the saved to heaven, casting the damned down to Hell, carrying aloft the instruments of Christ's passion, and blowing the trumpets heralding the last day. No figure in the painting is shown with a halo, apart from an aura about the head and shoulders of Christ.

Answer: The instruments of Christ's passion.

The angels to the left struggle to raise the cross, while one holds up the crown of thorns. To the right, other angels struggle with the pillar of the scourging, while another carries the rod. At the very top, one bears the ladder to the cross.

Answer: Matthew

Peter is shown to Christ's left, holding the keys to the kingdom. Andrew and Simon are shown in the grouping of martyrs on the right; Andrew holds his cross, Simon displays the saw with which he was cut in half. Bartholomew, seated by Christ's left foot, holds up the knife with which he was flayed alive; in the other hand he holds his flayed skin.

Answer: John the Baptist

John, Jesus's cousin, is shown standing in front of a group of what appear to be Old Testament prophets and patriarchs. He is recognizeable by the rough animal skins in which he is clothed.

Answer: St. Catherine of Alexandria

St. Catherine is in a grouping of martyrs at the center on the right; she holds a piece of the spiked wheel on which, according to legend, her captors tried to torture her, but which fell apart at her touch.

Answer: It is female.

Most people assumed that this figure, one of the most haunting and well-known of the many figures in this mural, was male. However, the recent restoration removed the bit of fabric covering the loins (painted on years after the work's completion) to reveal female genitalia.

Answer: Half-witted

This is not meant in the perjorative sense. The figures of the dead being raised from the grave are among the most memorable in the painting; aroused from their long slumber, their brains not yet fully functioning, their eyes stare with a glazed, half-witted expression.

Answer: Rosary beads

The rosary was widely (and effectively) used in missionary work in the African continent and in North and South America. This image seems to show two "heathens" being lifted heavenward by the rosary, a literal depiction of a figurative idea.

Answer: Charon and Minos

Michelangelo followed the example of Dante in including these two figures in Hell. Charon is seen at the bottom center, wearing a ferocious expression and beating back some of the damned with his oar from his overcrowded boat. Minos is seen to the extreme bottom right. More on him in the next question.

Answer: Minos

Da Cesena complained incessantly about the immorality of the nude figures in Michelangelo's frescoes; the artist took his revenge by portraying him as Minos, in hell. Michelangelo depicts Minos as buck-toothed, with ass's ears, a long nose, and naked, except for a serpent coiled around his body which is gnawing at his genitals. Biagio was not amused.

He demanded that the pope order the "portrait" to be removed, however the pope famously replied that even he could not deliver anyone from hell.

Answer: True

It was to have depicted the fall of the Lucifer and his angels. Unfortunately, this project was never completed, or even begun.

Answer: True

An oil painting of the fresco, done in 1549 by Marcello Venusti, shows that originally St. Catherine was nude. Moreover, St. Blaise is portrayed as an older man, his head sunk between his shoulders, staring intently at the iron combs (in his hands) with which he had been tortured.

In 1565, an artist named Daniele da Volterra was hired to paint draperies over the "offensive" body parts of many of the mural's figures. He largely repainted SS Catherine and Blaise, giving the former a green robe (he left her head and arms intact) and, for mysterious reasons, made Blaise a younger, handsome man who turns his face toward Christ.

The rather virulent shade of green used for St. Catherine's draperies was not part of Michelangelo's original pallette. There is an interesting story that da Volterra's paints kept being mysteriously and inexplicably "misplaced" during the paint-over, leading some to speculate that Michelangelo was sabotaging him from beyond the grave.

Answer: A canopy over the altar

A ceremonial canopy used over the altar at one time rubbed against this part of the fresco, causing considerable damage. In one spot, traces of the black preparatory drawing can be seen.

Answer: True

Depictions of a young, beardless Christ- usually in the attitude of a shepherd with a lamb upon his shoulders- were common in the early church. However, by Michelangelo's time, Christ was almost always shown bearded. Michelangelo's depiction of Christ as youthful, clean-shaven, with the brawny, stocky physique of a carpenter was a departure from the norm.

Answer: A large wing

There is definitely a large wing, like a swan's wing, on the side of the boat to the right. This was a complete mystery to me until a fellow FT player (PrincessCelli) suggested that it may be one of the wings of Geryon, the winged giant of Greek mythology (whose stables Hercules was employed to clean.

She has also suggested tht, if it is Geryon's wing, that the two figures directly above may be Dante and Virgil.

Answer: Jonah

Jonah, who's three days in the whale's belly is symbolic of Christ's three days in the tomb, is directly above the "Last Judgement" (Zephaniah, who prophecied Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, is directly across from him, appropriately, over the entrance door).

Answer: Paul III

Pope Paul III came into office in 1535 upon the death of Clement VII (who had originally commissioned the "Last Judgement" and demanded that the reluctant Michelangelo, then sixty years old, return to painting in the chapel.