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Photo courtesy “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition”
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Photo courtesy “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition”
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Photo courtesy “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition”
The advantages of visiting the traveling “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition” occupying a former H&M through Sunday, Oct. 9, include that the show is accessible — plenty of parking at the Stony Point Fashion Park — the work is displayed at life, or near-life sized in a way you’d not be able to view the art 60-plus feet above your head; you can take your time, get close and examine the details; and there are benches for rest and contemplation.
Maybe you’ve not really thought much of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, but the work’s influence and lodging in the collective popular consciousness is up there with the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. Even a Carytown restaurant recently riffed on the iconic “The Creation of Adam,” with the fingers of God and man close to touching (and a crack in the ceiling between the extended digits mistaken for a spark of life).
While you may have some passing awareness of the artist and at least heard of his magnificent Sistine Chapel frescoes, you’ve probably never seen the art displayed like this outside that early morning art history class during which you might’ve accidentally dozed off. And the $20.40 standard admission is considerably less expensive than the plane ticket to Rome and the travel time down the Chippenham Parkway much shorter. Here, the Sistine Chapel is brought to you next door to Pandora jewelry.
This isn’t one of those presentations that blossomed during the pandemic of whiz-bang immersive animation. The Sistine Chapel exhibition is arranged gallery-style by sections of the 34 frescoes, including Sibyls, Prophets, the Ancestors of Jesus, The Great Flood and The Final Judgment. The lighting at the press preview seemed a bit bright and, for mood, could come down a few notches. But there’ll be plenty of moodiness on Monday, Sept. 26, and Monday, Oct. 3, when selections by Vivaldi, Jules Massenet and Astor Piazzolla will be performed by a string quartet by candlelight. The musicians come through the courtesy of the LISTESO Music Group.
The Delphic Sybil, whom Michelangelo depicts holding a scroll with her incredible arms and a startled expression of recognition (Photo by Harry Kollatz Jr.)
Some pointers gained from our visit: First, if you have the time (and you should allow at least an hour-ish for full appreciation), sit for a few minutes to watch the intro video, “The Sistine Chapel Explained,” a segment of “Artrageous with Nate,” or view it before you go. You’ll learn about the innovative method Michelangelo created to erect the scaffolding above the chapel — which didn’t cease operation while he worked. And his hygienic practices — of which he had none. (Eww!) And how he got annoyed with Pope Julius II, who tried to disguise himself when he crept into the chapel to sneak a peek, but he didn’t fool ole Michelangelo, who tossed some boards in the pontiff’s general direction. The artist did not work or play well with others.
If you are redheaded, or fortunate to know some who are, you’ll be pleased to see that they are running all over the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Even Eve.
You’ll also notice that Michelangelo’s supernal figures — male, female, angel, demon — are jacked and swole. I started to feel a little self-conscious, like the beach wimp in the Charles Atlas comic book ads. But if you’re Michelangelo and you’re painting incredible otherworldly beings and you’re spending four years mostly standing up with your neck bent back in temperatures near 100 degrees, well, you may as well get some enjoyment out of your work.
Seeing the female prophets I realized that my favorite, “The Delphic Sybil,” must’ve influenced Norman Rockwell’s depiction of “Rosie the Riveter,” although the artist’s museum site connects the pose to the Sistine “Prophet Isaiah,” and that’s true, too.
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“The Great Deluge” from “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition,” showing the tangle of people attempting to escape the rising waters and a non-pointy ends Noah’s Ark (Photo by Harry Kollatz Jr.)
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St. Bartholomew holding his own skin but with Michelangelo's sagging face (Photo by Harry Kollatz Jr.)
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You Must Be This Tall: “Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition” is staged inside a former H&M store. (Photo by Harry Kollatz Jr.)
I was also impressed by Michelangelo’s depiction of Noah’s Ark, often seen in illustrations or movies with pointy ends. But, as we see, it’s … round, and topped by a deckhouse. I flashed on the work of British scholar Irving Finkel, assistant keeper of the Middle East department at the British Museum. In the early aughts, a more than 4,000-year-old clay tablet inscribed upon with Babylonian cuneiform was brought to the museum. This sort of thing being Finkel’s jam, he deciphered the writing and came upon the description for building … an ark. He realized that the instructions resembled a round-hulled ancient craft called a “coracle,” used for fishing and transportation in such places as Ireland, Iraq and Vietnam. Finkle and the BBC got the idea to build a large but scaled down version of this version of an ark. I’ve not yet read Finkle’s book, nor in cursory online searching found a connection between Michelangelo’s Noah’s Ark as a coracle with a case of gigantism. If you’re curious, though, Finkle’s entertaining lecture is here.
Finally, 25 years after Michelangelo completed the Sistine Chapel ceiling, he returned, at age 60, to create the immense “Last Judgment” on the chapel’s western wall behind its altar. The work features almost 400 figures. One of them, sitting at Christ’s left foot, is St. Bartholomew, holding the knife symbolizing his method of martyrdom, and in the other hand the skin that was cut off him. The drooping face is generally thought to be the artist’s. Fed up by the critical carping (and this without social media), Michelangelo depicted how he felt.
You, on the other hand, will feel inflated with sensations after visiting this exhibit.
