DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0061
MICHAEL ANGELO.
57
the Sistine Chapel remains incomplete. The pic-
ture of the Last Judgment was finished and first ex-
hibited to the people on Christmas-day, 1451, under
the pontificate of Paul III. Michael Angelo was then
in his sixty-seventh year, and had been employed
on the painting and cartoons nearly nine years.
The same Pope Paul III. had in the mean time
constructed a beautiful chapel, which was called
after his name the chapel Paolina, and dedicated
to St. Peter and St. Paul. Michael Angelo was
called upon to design the decorations. He painted
on one side the Conversion of St. Paul, and on the
other the Crucifixion of St. Peter. But these fine
paintings—of which existing old engravings (to be
found in the British Museum) give a better idea
than the blackened and faded remains of the ori-
ginal frescoes—were from the first ill-disposed as to
the locality, and badly lighted, and at present they
excite little interest compared with the more famous
works in the Sistine.
During the period that Michael Angelo was en-
gaged in the decoration of the Pauline Chapel, he
executed a group in marble—the Virgin with the
dead Redeemer and two other figures—which was
never completely finished. It is now at Florence
behind the high altar of the church of Santa Croce.
It is full of tragic grandeur and expression.*
* An eye-witness has left us a very graphic description of
the energy with which, even in old age, Michael Angelo
handled his chisel:—“ I can say that I have seen Michael
57
the Sistine Chapel remains incomplete. The pic-
ture of the Last Judgment was finished and first ex-
hibited to the people on Christmas-day, 1451, under
the pontificate of Paul III. Michael Angelo was then
in his sixty-seventh year, and had been employed
on the painting and cartoons nearly nine years.
The same Pope Paul III. had in the mean time
constructed a beautiful chapel, which was called
after his name the chapel Paolina, and dedicated
to St. Peter and St. Paul. Michael Angelo was
called upon to design the decorations. He painted
on one side the Conversion of St. Paul, and on the
other the Crucifixion of St. Peter. But these fine
paintings—of which existing old engravings (to be
found in the British Museum) give a better idea
than the blackened and faded remains of the ori-
ginal frescoes—were from the first ill-disposed as to
the locality, and badly lighted, and at present they
excite little interest compared with the more famous
works in the Sistine.
During the period that Michael Angelo was en-
gaged in the decoration of the Pauline Chapel, he
executed a group in marble—the Virgin with the
dead Redeemer and two other figures—which was
never completely finished. It is now at Florence
behind the high altar of the church of Santa Croce.
It is full of tragic grandeur and expression.*
* An eye-witness has left us a very graphic description of
the energy with which, even in old age, Michael Angelo
handled his chisel:—“ I can say that I have seen Michael