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Michelangelo's Last Judgment
What is WRONG
with Michelangelo's Last Judgment?
Painted on the altar walls of the Sistine Chapel is a fresco
entitled The Last Judgment.
Pope Clement VII, shortly before his death, commissioned
Michelangelo to do the work.
The labor on the fresco began three decades after work
finished on the chapel ceiling.
What does the fresco depict?
Michelangelo's fresco depicts the second coming of Jesus
Christ (standing in the top middle of fresco with His mother Mary next to Him)
and God's last or final judgment of all humanity.
It is based on the Roman Catholic belief that God will judge
all mankind in a single resurrection to determine their eternal fate.
The left half of the fresco shows those deemed worthy to
ascend into heaven.
In the fresco's right half are those unworthy of salvation.
Jesus is shown casting the damned toward Hell and Charon
(near bottom middle, standing in a boat with a raised oar), who is the
mythological ferryman of Hell.
Charon's job is to transport the condemned to Minos (very
bottom right of fresco with snake wrapped around him), the mythical judge of
the underworld, who then directs the spiritually dead to Hell's deeper regions.
Evidence also suggests that the self-portrait of
Michelangelo appears twice in the fresco.
Chapel controversy
Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece was not without
controversy.
His original fresco contained many completely naked
characters (e.g. their genitals showing), including Christ and His mother Mary.
A Roman Catholic Cardinal named Carafa saw the fresco and
accused the artist of immorality and obscenity.
The Cardinal soon enlisted the aid of a Monsignor Sernini to
begin a campaign (known as the "Fig Leaf Campaign") to have the work
removed or censored.
Over time, even the Pope's own Master of Ceremonies named
Biagio da Cesena joined in condemning the fresco for its nudity.
Cesena went so far as to state that the fresco was better
suited for a tavern or public bath than a church!
Michelangelo, angered by Biagio's criticisms, used his face
for Minos, the god of the underworld! Donkey ears were also added to Mino's
image to represent foolishness.
When Biagio complained directly to the Pope about what
Michelangelo had done, he was jokingly told that since the Pontiff's
jurisdiction did not extend to hell the portrait would have to remain!
The Council of Trent, who condemned
nudity in religious art, after Michelangelo died in 1564 commissioned an artist
to cover up the nude characters in The Last Judgment fresco.
It was not until a 1993 restoration of the fresco that half
of the censorship placed over the characters was removed.
It was also discovered, during the restoration process, that
Minos (with the face of his critic Biagio) had a snake wrapped around himself
and his genitals covered by the snake's head biting him in the groin!
A masterpiece with mistakes
Although a masterpiece of art
expression, Michelangelo's fresco portrays and implies several
misunderstandings of the Bible that were, and still are, promoted by the
Catholic Church.
Some of the false beliefs it supports are the following.
· Humans have souls that are immortal.
· All mankind will be judged in a single resurrection from
the dead.
· The only chance to be
saved is during a physical life lived before Jesus' return.
· Jesus' mother Mary has
been given a position and reward above all other humans.
· There will be many, if not more, people who do not receive
salvation than those who do.
· The reward of the righteous will be to live forever in heaven.
· The punishment of the unrighteous will be to live forever
in an ever-burning Hell
where they will be tortured for eternity.
Michelangelo, in the Last Judgment
fresco, created something that it still considered one of the crowning artistic
achievements of human civilization. The event his work depicts, however, and
the teachings it promotes, contradicts sound Biblical doctrine.
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