"Vatican Splendors" and Michelangelo

Yesterday, two friends and I traveled several hours in the pouring rain to see the “Vatican Splendors” exhibit at the Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, a museum affiliated with the Smithsonian. It is the largest collection of Vatican art ever to tour North America.

It was obvious to me that the mission of the Catholic Church was not only to spread its word throughout the world, but that art played an important part in Church teachings. One of the most influential artists of the Renaissance period and my favorire was Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Michelangelo was a poet, scholar, architect, sculptor and painter. He was considered the supreme genius of Western art, superior even to the ancients.

In 1508, Pope Julius ll asked Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The artist initially turned down Julius’s request. He was a master sculptor (“Pieta” and "David") and had no experience in the very difficult art of fresco painting, one of the highest arts of the 16th century.

The word “fresco” means “fresh”. Fresco artists always worked on fresh, wet plaster and could paint only a limited area at a time. As the plaster dried, the pigment became fixed into the surface. Michelangelo worked painfully lying on his back on his scaffold 60 feet above the ground.

Pope Julius feared that he would die before he could see the completed ceiling. Julius would impatiently stand below the scaffolding, asking the artist when he would be finished. Michelangelo answered, “When I can!” The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel took four years to paint and was finished in 1512. Pope Julius died in 1513.