Word: michelangelo
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...overpowering was its impact that Pope Paul III, upon first seeing it, sank to his knees and murmured, "Lord, charge me not with my sins when thou shalt come on the Day of Judgment." Since being unveiled in 1541, Michelangelo's Last Judgment has been revered for its towering spiritual strength and enduring symbolism. The 40-by-45-ft. fresco on the west altar wall of the Sistine Chapel, on which Michelangelo labored for five years, is also a searing, unsparing personal document -- both of the unsettled world in which Michelangelo lived and of the artist's inner torment...
...return to the public realm in dramatically improved condition will be an important event for both art and religion. Notes Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt, a New York University art historian who has followed the project: "Our idea of what art tells us about God is shaped by Michelangelo more than anyone else, and by the Last Judgment more than any of his other works...
...anger, it instead betrays impatience, as though He were saying, "Silence! Now I will pronounce judgment!" Even more significant, no one in the fresco except the Virgin Mary seems to know his own fate, and thus everyone looks fearful. Says Fabrizio Mancinelli, the Vatican's curator of Renaissance art: "Michelangelo's way of interpreting this theme -- the uncertainty -- was not in line with the church at the time. The church wanted to project itself as the only certainty...
...controversial restoration of the chapel's 33-panel ceiling, which includes God's finger touching Adam's, was finished in 1989. Though some critics contend the process produced undesirable changes in color, the majority think it revealed the original hues used by Michelangelo in their pristine state. The Judgment, probably the world's most important example of fresco -- a technique that involves applying water-based pigments to a still wet plaster wall -- has not been seen by the public since 1990, when it was hidden behind draped scaffolding. As with the ceiling, its cleaner and brighter look, once revealed...
Some students' relaxation efforts were helped by the fortuitous cancellation of Literature and Arts B-39, "Michelangelo," which held no lecture yesterday...