There I was: first and last day in Rome, walking with my gorgeous hubby towards one of our Most Important Places to See. We were heading back to the States early the next morning. We had spent the day at St. Peter’s Basilica and had a beautiful lunch. It was 2:15 pm and the closing time was 4 pm — we hoped that almost two hours would be enough to see the most famous ceiling in the world.
Except that they had decided to close early that day…at 2 pm, the guard explained. As the horror slowly dawned on me, I sat on the outside steps and just bawled. My poor hubby — he just sat next to me in silence with his arm around my shoulders. I know that there are far worse tragedies in the world and that I may yet return to Rome one day — but at that moment, it was hard to fathom that I wouldn’t be seeing The Sistine Chapel.
I’ve since regained my perspective on things. Have my health, don’t live under abusive circumstances…so…you know, perspective is important. I would still love to see the work — since Giorgio Vasari said “there is no other work to compare with this for excellence, nor could there be.” I recently caught the flick, The Agony and the Ecstasy, which caused me to read this month’s book. Now, I’m (sorta) glad I didn’t see it since I’ve learned so much of its history — I will truly appreciate it completely when I do return to Rome.
So, our first Book of the Month for 2009 is Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King. It reads more like a story than a dry history of the Sistine Chapel. Mr. King spent an incredible amount of time on research and presenting the over-abundance of facts in a very entertaining manner – it really comes alive when you can envision being in 1508 and practically smell the plaster.
Regina’s Side Notes: I gotta tell ya, though – Michelangelo doesn’t come across as a winner for dinner. Full of pride, hot-tempered, arrogant, paranoid…but, I digress and we’ll move on.
The ceiling was commissioned by Pope Julius II and our boy was furious since he was a sculptor and not a painter. In fact, he had quite a few high-end sculpting commissions going on — including one already for the tomb of Pope Julius II. Fast forward through a few temper tantrums and he comes to realize that he couldn’t exactly say no to the Pope. In his mind, he was being set up for failure by an arch enemy: Donato Bramante, the Pope’s architect. Bramante thought Michelangelo would either quit or fail horribly at the art of fresco painting — either way, Michelangelo would be humiliated.
Regina’s Side Notes: Sorry for the little asides but I just have to ask this – Could it have gone more wrong for Bramante? I almost feel sorry for the man. Just goes to show you: always come from a place of goodness. If you act out based on jealousy or malice, the world may not work out right for you. “Remember Bramante” –that should be a famous motto. OK, moving on. Again.
The 12,000 square foot space took the 33-year old Michelangelo Buonarroti four years to complete. He did not work alone nor on his back — he did have assistants and ingeniously designed scaffolding to suit his purposes. The “Warrior Pope”, Julius II, did not make it easy on Michelangelo — nor did the times. There was political intrigue, artistic rivalries and absolute corruption. Even though I’ve said all this, there is so much more to this story – the search for the correct pigments, lime and sand for the fresco techniques, personal hardships, settling on the ceiling’s subject matter, the beautiful details of each giornata (the day’s work) and finally, the relationship between the Pope and Michelangelo — the give-and-take that produced masterpieces. It truly is a lot to take in and I bow down to Mr. King for the phenomenal job he did as an author and researcher. I hope you consider reading it!
Thanks for the excellent review. Read that a couple of years ago and was really struck by how much of a “job” it was for Michelangelo. Had to scrape off the old fresco, had to figure out the scaffolding, had to keep bugging the pope for money…etc. Made me feel a real connection to the guy.
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