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Siting Michelangelo's Last Judgment in a Multimedia Context: Art, Music and Ceremony in the Sistine Chapel

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 80; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00233609.2011.582144

1651-2294

Peter Gillgren,

Architecture and Art History Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1. On the Renaissance response, see Bernardine Barnes, Michelangelo's Last Judgment: The Renaissance Response, University of California Press, 1998. For Heinrich Wölfflin it represented the end of the classic Renaissance style, for others the introduction of Modernist expressiveness into art: Heinrich Wölfflin, Classic Art: An Introduction to the Italian Renaissance, trans. Peter and Linda Murray, London, 1952 [1899], pp. 197–204. For the latter point of view, see Gregor Paulsson, Konstens världshistoria III. Nyare tiden, Stockholm, 1952, p. 183; »No work has had greater influence on contemporaneity and the afterworld. After this, one could not return to a world borne by harmony.« 2. Giovanni Careri, »Time of History and Time out of History: The Sistine Chapel as ‘Theoretical Object’«, Art History, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2007, pp. 326–348. 3. W. J. T. Mitchell, »There are No Visual Media«, Journal of Visual Culture, Vol. 4, 2005, p. 260. 4. The most important study of the earlier history of the chapel is Leopold David Ettlinger, The Sistine Chapel Before Michelangelo, Oxford, 1965. 5. For a reception study see Peter Gillgren, »The Michelangelo Crescendo: Communicating the Sistine Chapel Ceiling«, Konsthistorisk tidskrift, Vol. LXX, No. 4, 2000, pp. 206–216. 6. Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects II, trans. Gaston du C. de Vere, New York, [1568] 1996, p. 691. 7. Marcia Hall, Michelangelo: The Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, New York, 2002, pp. 231–232. 8. Charles de Tolnay, Michelangelo, V: The Final Period, Princeton University Press, 1960, p. 28; Loren W. Partridge, Michelangelo. The Last Judgment: A Glorious Restoration, New York, 1997, pp. 33–35; Marcia B. Hall, Michelangelo's Last Judgment, Cambridge, 2005, pp. 15–16. 9. De Tolnay, 1960, pp. 30–32. 10. De Tolnay, 1960, p. 47. 11. De Tolnay, 1960, pp. 49–50. 12. De Tolnay, 1960, p. 43. 13. Leo Steinberg, »The Last Judgment as Merciful Heresy«, Art in America, Vol. 63, 1975, pp. 48–63; Leo Steinberg, »A Corner of the Last Judgment«, Daedalus, Vol. 109, 1980, pp. 207–273. 14. Valerie Shrimplin-Evangelidis, »Sun Symbolism and Cosmology in Michelangelo's Last Judgment«, Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 21, 1990, pp. 607–644. Valerie Shrimplin-Evangelidis, »Hell in Michelangelo's Last Judgment«, Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 15, 1994, pp. 83–107. There are certainly many other interpretations within the iconographic tradition, but it is not possible or necessary to go into them all within the present context. Most recently James A. Connor, The Last Judgment: Michelangelo and the Death of the Renaissance, New York, 2009, has drawn greatly on the above scholars. 15. Shrimplin, 1994, pp. 94–98. 16. Shrimplin, 1994, pp. 101–103. 17. Ascanio Condivi, »Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti«, in Michelangelo. Life, letters and Poetry, trans. George Bull, Oxford University Press, [1553] 1999, p. 68. On Michelangelo and Dante see Karl Broniski, Rätsel Michelangelos: Michelangelo und Dante, Munich, 1908; Paul Barolsky, Michelangelo's Nose: A Myth and its Maker, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1990, pp. 77–105 and passim. 18. Dante, The Divine Comedy, I: Inferno, trans. John D. Sinclair, Oxford University Press, 1961, pp. 47–49. 19. Vasari, 1996, p. 692. A similar story is given, it seems independently, by L. Domenichi, Facetie, motti e burle di diversi signori, Florence, 1562, p. 242. 20. Gunnar Wennerberg, »Allegris Miserere«, in Romerska minnen, Stockholm, 1881, pp. 128–136. Gunnar Wennerberg, Biographica: Resedagbok, Uppsala University Library X 309 c:1, fol. 117–118. 21. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 129. 22. Wennergberg, Resedagbok, fol. 117. 23. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 131. 24. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 132. 25. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 133. 26. Gunnar Wennerberg, Försök till en parallelism mellan de religiösa kulturernas och den bildande konstens utveckling, Uppsala, 1846. 27. Wennerberg, Resedagbok, fol. 117. 28. Sven G. Svensson, Gunnar Wennerberg. En biografi, Stockholm, 1986, pp. 141–142 and p. 432 (note 13); M. Vasi, Itinerario istruttivo di Roma antica e moderna I & II, 1819; Franz Kugler, Handbuch der Geschichte der Malerei, I & II, Berlin, 1837. 29. Svensson, 1986, pp. 178–188. 30. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 135. 31. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 134. 32. Carol Duncan, Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums, London, 1995. 33. Richard Boursy, »The Mystique of the Sistine Chapel Choir in the Romantic Era«, Journal of Musicology, Vol. 11, No. 3, Summer 1993, pp. 277–329. 34. Madame de Staël, Corinne or Italy, trans. Sylvia Raphael, Oxford University Press, [1807] 1998, pp. 173–182. 35. Letter from Ingres to M. Forestier, Holy Week, 1807. Ingres: Raconté par lui-même et par ses amis, ed. Pierre Cailler, Geneva, 1947, pp. 118–119. Translation from Boursy, 1993, p. 319. 36. Wennerberg, Resedagbok, fol. 117. 37. The problem of Renaissance multimedia before the appearance of the opera c.1600 is addressed by Günter Berghaus, »Theatre Performances at Italian Renaissance Festivals: Multi-Media Spectacles or Gesamtkunsterke? «, in Italian Renaissance Festivals and their European Influence, eds J. R. Mulryne and Margaret Shewring, Edwin Mellen Press, 1995, pp. 3–50. 38. J. G. Davies, Holy Week: A Short History, London, 1963, pp. 46–47. 39. Herbert Thurston, »Tenebræ«, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 14. New York, 1912. 40. Johannis Burchardi, Liber Notarum. Ab anno MCCCCLXXXIII usque ad annum MDVI, The Vatican, 1906, pp. 9–10. 41. Patrick Macey, »Savonarola and The Sixteenth-Century Motet«, Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 36, No. 3, Autumn 1983, p. 425. 42. Savonarola's meditations on psalms 51 and 30 were first printed in Ferrara in 1498. Girolamo Savonarola, Edizione nazionale delle opere di Girolamo Savonarola. Operette spirituali, Vol. 2, ed. Mario Ferrara, pp. 195–234, 337–394. English translation quoted from Macey, 1983, p. 425. 43. Julius Amann, Allegris Miserere und die Aufführungspraxis in der Sixtina nach Reiseberichten und Musikhandschriften, Regensburg, 1935; Ben Byram-Wigfield, Miserere Mei, Deus. Gregorio Allegri. A Quest for the Holy Grail?, Ancient Groove Music, [1996] 2002; Rafael Köhler, Die Cappella Sistina unter dem Medici-Päpsten 1513–1534. Musikpflege und Repertoire am päpstlichen Hof, Kiel, 2001. 44. Byram-Wigfield, 2002, pp. 2–9. 45. Byram-Wigfield, 2002, pp. 11–12. Boursy, 1993, pp. 280–281. An early source for this story is Charles Burney, The Present State of Music in France and Italy, London, [1773] 1959, pp. 232–234. 46. Andrea Adami da Bolsena, Osservazioni per ben regolare il coro de i cantori della Cappella pontificia – tanto nelle funzioni ordinarie, che stradornarie, Venice, 1711, pp. 34–38. 47. B. Schimmelpfennig, »Die Funktion der Cappella Sistina im Zeremoniell der Renaissancepäpste«, in Collectanae, II: Studien zur Geschichte der päpstlichen Kapelle, The Vatican, 1994, p. 132. Köhler, 2001, p. 175. 48. The Miserere compositions are collected in two important manuscripts at the Vatican, usually quoted as Nos 205 and 206. Cappellae Sixtinae Codices, ed. Josephus M. Llorens, Studi e testi 202, The Vatican, 1960, pp. 218–222. 49. Adami, 1711, p. 37. Magda Marx-Weber, »Die Tradition der Miserere-Vertonungen in der Cappella Pontifica«, in Collectanae, II: Studien zur Geschichte der päpstlichen Kapelle, The Vatican, 1994, p. 265. 50. »Tenebrae, 1518. In fine offici mihi non placavit, quod cantores cantassent psalmum miserere mei falsum bordonum, et Papa sic voluit.« Paris de Grassis, Il Diario di Leono X, Rome, 1884, f. 166v. Translation from Murray C. Bradshaw, The Falsobordone: A Study in Renaissance and Baroque Music, Stuttgart, 1978, p. 43. 51. Marx-Weber, 1994, p. 267. 52. Costanzo Festa. Opera Omnia. Motetti III, Corpus Mensurabilis Musicae 25, ed. Albertus Seay, Rome, 1979, pp. XVIII & 92–100. The attribution is generally accepted, but disputed by Bradshaw, p. 71, n.5. 53. The best overview, although somewhat dated, is given by Hans Musch, Costanzo Festa als Madrigalkomponist, Baden-Baden, 1977, pp. 13–25. 54. François Rabelais, Œvres complètes, Paris, [1532] 1973, p. 577. 55. The importance of Festa's Miserere for Palestrina and indeed all of the Sistine tradition had already been noted by the Chapel Master and composer Giuseppe Baini, Memorie storico-critiche della vita e delle opere di Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, II, Rome, 1828, pp. 195–197 (note 578). 56. Anthony M. Cummings, »Toward an Interpretation of the Sixteenth-Century Motet«, Journal of the American Musicology Society, Vol. 34, 1984, p. 48. Herman Walter Frey, Die Gesänge der Sixtinischen Kapelle an den Sonntagen und hohen Kirchenfesten des Jahres 1616, The Vatican, 1964, p. 206. 57. Baini, 1828, p. 215. 58. Burney, 1773, p. 246. 59. Patrick Brydone, A Tour through Sicily and Malta, Paris, 1780, p. 230. 60. See Ignazio Macchiarella, Il falsobordone fra tradizione orale e tradizione scritta, Lucca, 1994, passim. 61. The correspondence is referred to in detail by Herman Walter Frey, »Michelagniolo und die Komponisten seiner Madrigale. Bartolomeo Tromboncino, Jean Conseil, Costanzo Festa, Jakob Arcadelt«, Acta Musicologica, Vol. XXIV, 1952, pp. 157–160; Gaetano Milanesi, Les Correspondants de Michel-Ange, I : Sebastiano del Piombo, trans. into French by A. Le Pileur, Paris, 1890, p. 108. 62. E. H. Ramsden, The Letters of Michelangelo: Translated from the Original Tuscan, I, London, 1963, No. 194. 63. Richard J. Agee, »Costanzo Festa's Gradus ad Parnassum«, Early Music History, Vol. 15, 1996, p. 18. 64. According to Paris de Grassis there were 8 Vespere, 5 Matins and 27 Masses celebrated in one liturgical year, Cerimonarium opusculum, Bibl. Vat. Cod. 5634. See La Cappella sistina in Vaticano, ed. Roberto Salvini, Milan, 1965, p. 263. The most important printed sources are Agostino Patrizi, Ritus eclesiastici, Venice, 1516 and Adami, 1711. They give similar numbers. A useful compilation of these and other sources is given by Gaetano Moroni, La cappelle ponteficie, Venice, 1841. 65. Adami, 1711, p. 111. 66. On the extra-liturgical character of the motet, see Cummings, 1984, p. 58. 67. Patrizi, 1516, fol. ciii, v. Burckhardt, 1907, p. 141. Shearman, 1972, pp. 4–5, n.23. 68. Ettlinger, 1965, pp. 24–26. 69. John White and John Shearman, »Raphael's Tapestries and Their Cartoons«, Art Bulletin, 1958, p. 216. Ettlinger, 1965 (p. 23) suggested that it should be 5.5 metres high, which is correctly disputed in Shearman, 1972 (p. 216) since this would throw the frescoes on the two sides out of proportion. 70. First published by Paliard, »La Couronnement de la Vierge d'après un carton de Raphael. Tapisserie retrouvée au Vatican«, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1872, Juillet (II:1), pp. 82–88. Eug. Müntz, »Les tapisseries de Raphael au Vatican d'après des documents nouveaux«, La Chronique des arts et la curiosité, 1876, p. 262. 71. Stendhal, »Promenades dans Rome«, in Voyages en Italie, Bibl. de la Pléiade, [1830] 1973, p. 1110. Even though Stendhal's reports from the chapel are not altogether reliable, there is no reason to believe he would fabricate the simple fact that there was a tapestry of the Annunciation above the altar. On Stendhal's visits, see Boursy, 1993, pp. 298–301. 72. E. Camesasca, »Le ceremonie«, La cappella sistina in Vaticano I, Milan, 1965, p. 267. This interesting piece of information is given by Agostino Taja, Descrizzione del Palazzo Apostolico vaticano, Rome, 1750. Neither drawings nor tapestries are known of, unfortunately. 73. Michael Hirst, Michelangelo and His Drawings, Yale, 1988, p. 52. Hugh Chapman, Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master, British Museum Press, 2005, p. 233. 74. John Shearman, Raphael's Cartoons in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen and the Tapestries for the Sistine Chapel, London, 1972. See also Roger Jones and Nicholas Penny, Raphael, Yale University Press, 1987, pp. 133–135, pp. 21–44. Shearman's results have been questioned by several scholars but defended recently by Michael Rohlmann, »Raffaels vatikanisches ‘Bilderzeremoniell’. Grenzüberschreitungen in der Sixtinischen Kapelle und den Stanzen«, in Functions and Decorations: Art and Ritual at the Vatican Palace in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, eds Tristan Weddigen, Sible de Blaauw and Bram Kempers, The Vatican, 2003, pp. 95–113, with references also to critiques. 75. White and Shearman, 1958, p. 41. 76. Shearman, 1972, pp. 5–6. Documentation on the use of the Vatican tapestries shows that they were often used outside the chapel, on occasions such as tournaments, triumphs and marriages. See David Farabulini, L'arte degli arazzi e la nuova Galleria dei Gobelins al Vaticano, Rome, 1884, pp. 51–64. 77. Sizes of the tapestries are given by Shearman, 1972 in the Catalogue Notes, pp. 209–212. 78. This arrangement was suggested already by Paliard, 1873, pp. 83–84, but has not been commented upon by Shearman or others. 79. It should be noted, though, that the tapestries were stolen in connection with the Sacco di Roma in 1527. Most of them were returned immediately, but the last ones not until 1554. White and Shearman, 1958, p. 141. 80. The document was published by Detlef Heikamp, »Die Arrezzeria Medicea im 16. Jahrhundert. Neue Studien«, in Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, 1969, p. 74. 81. Splendour of the Popes: Treasures from the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums and Library, Exh. Cat., Walters Art Gallery, 1989, pp. 25–40. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 130. F. Mancinelli, The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art, New York, 1983, pp. 72–79. 82. Splendour of the Popes: Treasures from the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums and Library, Exh. Cat., Walters Art Gallery, 1989, pp. 25–40. Wennerberg, 1881, p. 130. F. Mancinelli, The Vatican Collections: The Papacy and Art, New York, 1983 No. 8. 83. And so would the theme of Saint Stephen, if the Shearman reconstruction is to be preferred. 84. A tendency in Michelangelo's art noted by Alexander Nagel regarding the Pietà works; Alexander Nagel, Michelangelo and the Reform of Art, Cambridge University Press, 2000.