Anything can occur in a dream…

Some dreams are so vivid that after a while, you are not sure whether it was a dream or reality which often is very faint. If the characters populating your memory have been dead for a long time, then you understand that it was a dream. This time my dream was especially vibrant: an artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, had paid me a visit. At that time, I thought about him a lot, especially about the sharp contradictions of what we see in his fresco “The Last Judgment” and the interpretations of it as if the commentators discuss two disparate artworks.

The painter, as if feeling the subject of my concerns, began to narrate:

“When in the year of 1533 I received a commission from Pope Clement VII to paint a fresco of “The Last Judgment” for the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican, I immediately agreed to it. I have been long preoccupied with the idea to show by means of painting that the community of the good people that were conceived by Jesus has not been realized.

For such idea expressed one could easily be burned at the stake. Painting – the non-verbal
expression, however, was a different case.

Clement died in the year of 1534 and was succeeded by Pope Paul III (Farnese). It was during his time when I worked on the frescoes. Despite of the patronage of the Pope and perhaps precisely as a consequence of it, envy and anger followed me. The Pope, however, favored me and tried not to interfere with my plan allowing me to paint as I wished with the condition that the result had to be a great masterpiece. The Popes preached with a sword in their hands, and the arguments of the inquisition did not require any commentary. In this case the Pope was not interested in the propaganda of Christianity but in art.

I knew that the clergy around of the Pope would never agree to have nude figures of the saints. In order to divert their attention from my primary idea, I
deliberately painted all figures nude. Watch the fresco closely.

I painted my own image on the torn of face of the saint.
In the lower part – Hell – devils grab, drag and torment sinners, which corresponds with the teaching of the church.
In the upper part, people, separated by the water barrier, surround Christ and the Mother of God. These people are righteous men, saints. This is heaven or its preceding state.

Here everything should be decent. But is it so?
St. Bartholomew holds in his hands his own flayed skin. But the expression I put on his face suggests that with his own hands he would skin anyone who is against Christ. As the Pope’s cardinals tried, figuratively speaking, to skin me, I have drawn my own face on the saint’s flayed skin.

Watch other people closely…
Most of them have fanatical, demanding, aggressive faces, the faces of people who would skin anyone “who is not with us.” Not a single humble face that Jesus wanted to see among his followers. Instead, you see fanatics, terrorists that would blow themselves up in a bus with children if these children are not of their faith. They would do it in the name of Christ – they are defendants of Christianity. The Father God loved such zealous servants. Let’s recall the King David. He would lead the defeated non-believers into a field and kill them with hammers and saw up the bodies (The Bible, 2nd book of the Kingdom – 12:31).

Does my Christ agree with the Father?

O, No! My Christ is not in agreement! I – Buonarroti am not in agreement either. Look closely at the figure of Jesus. I did not want to paint him according to the traditions of the church. I painted him as I perceived the Savior at that time. The canonical Christ could not judge so strictly and mercilessly.

My Jesus is not the pious sheep of God but an almighty God himself. Though I indicated lightly all wounds of Christ, they clearly contrast with his powerful figure. You cannot hit or crucify this one. He is the highest power in the entire Sistine Chapel.

On the fresco, I depicted the pillars of the church: St. Peter, St. Pavel, St. Bartholomew, St. Sebastian, St. Kathrine Alexandrine’s… Let’s remember other students of Christ that are not on my fresco. Evangelist Luca writes (9:54): When one settlement in Samaria rejected to accept Jesus, two apostles – the tender, feminine John and his brother James suggested that “fire should come from the sky and destroy them,” all – with children, women and the elderly. In translation from the heavenly to earthly language, they suggested to burn this village. Twelve apostles is a solid military regiment. They could easily put this suggestion in action. It was always like this throughout the entire history of mankind – when invaders were not welcomed at a village, they would burn the village with its inhabitants. But those were invaders, and here are apostles that new Christian morality from its creator: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “do not respond with violence to the evil,” “if one slapped you on one cheek, offer the other one”… Jesus, however, restrained their zeal by saying that “The Son of Men came not to destroy human souls, but to save them”.

But when Christ was no longer around…? Who was to hold back the religious zeal of the fanatical crusaders? No one! No one could restrain the most vicious and violent conversion to Christianity of North and South America. And not only America.
Today: how is it possible for the head of the Catholic Church, Benedict XVI, to rehabilitate a
bishop who denies holocaust…?
I deliberately pictured on my fresco the Christian saints, not regular people, to make it clear:
“If however the very light within you is darkness,
how dense must the darkness be!” (Matthew 6:23)
And what about Maria? The Mother of God! Oh, poor woman! On my fresco, She with a gesture towards Christ, at the same time with disgust separates herself from those righteous men, as if she is afraid to get dirty from their touch. Jesus and Maria are completely alone in this crowd.

Christ thought up a community of kind people, not fanatics, not zealots.
I wanted to bring to life this bold idea—
Christianity failed—
not somewhere, but in Vatican— in the heart of Catholicism.
The teaching of Christ and Christians are two different concepts. The teaching of Christ is beautiful, but it should not be only in people’s head and their words, but in their hearts. If the love of people was in apostle John’s heart, he could not have come up with the idea of burning non-Christians.

My fresco is not against the teaching of Christ, but against of what Christianity evolved into.
People— the Christians did not come about.

Christianity was not realized— not anywhere but in the very heart of Catholicism. In Vatican— on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel that stands out to all viewers.
I would be burnt alive like the uncompromising lover of truth Giordano Bruno if the cardinals guessed my seditious meaning. However, I blinded them with the nude figures of Christ and the Saints. The clergy reacted to the nudity akin to a bull reacting to red color, not seeing anything else. My calculation was right: With foam at their mouths, they demanded that I cover the privy parts.

On October 31, 1541 when the higher clergy and invited laymen gathered at the Sistine Chapel to witness the unveiling of the new fresco, their befuddlement was so great and the agitated excitement had heated the air to such degree that Pope Paul III with devout terror kneeled in front of the fresco pleading with God to not evoke his sins on the day of the great judgment. Some of the witnesses were filled with admiration but most of the clergy became furious. They demanded fervently that the shameless parts be covered. I refused insisting that the bodies must be depicted as created by God.
Primarily, however, I wanted the clergy to not divert their attention from the nude figures while I was alive. I knew that after my death they would do as they pleased. Time went by; I aged and had less and less vigor to argue with the ever increasing number of fools. There were quite a few critics who thought the fresco was obscene. I deeply believed in Christ but was a bad Christian; I was unreserved and rude… even with the Pope himself. When Pope Paul IV suggested that I bring the painting “to order”, meaning “cover the shameless parts”, I replied: “Tell the Pope that this is a nugatory matter…
If he in the meantime would bring to order the world, I could bring the painting in order very quickly…” Nonetheless, the Tridentine Council decreed to cover the nudity with drapery. Under their pressure, the next Pope Pius V decided to clothe the saints and ordered the painter Daniele de Volterra “Il Braghetone” in the year of 1564 to add cloths that would cover the shameless parts… This happened a month before my death. I was 89 then and had other things on my mind.
They could, however, have waited a little longer… .

Now they were satisfied. They were delighted. They forced the stubborn Michelangelo to do what they wanted! This distracted them from the understanding of my main concept. By the way, to this day they refuse to see it. To understand it would mean that the fresco has to be destroyed for it is located at the holy of the holies of the Catholic church. But now it’s too late to wipe it out, no one would permit that.

Thank God that the fresco was blessed by the Pope. The inquisitors could not argue against his will. Their hands were tied. “Yes,” – said Buonarroti dreamily, “I have tricked them well”.

In the morning after awakening, I rushed to the library where without difficulty found a wonderfully illustrated book about “The Final Judgment” of Michelangelo. I was baffled to see there everything that the great and rebellious painter had described. I have visited the Sistine Chapel dozen times and looked at the fresco closely as I thought. However, I did not see on the wall that what was absolutely and obviously painted but saw what other visitors of the chapel and what we were “told” to see by the guides and art historians. They claimed that the painted images on the fresco were in direct contradiction.

Dear reader, watch the fresco closely. Trust only your eyes, not your ears open for the tales of the experienced commentators and art scholars, those indisputable experts and interpreters. With the power of their authority and large but one-sided erudition, they easily prove that the white is black and
visa versa…

V. Margulis
Los Angeles 2008