Humor in the Sistine Chapel

I learned something interesting (actually, a few things) in my Humanities class today:

As you (should) all know, Michelangelo was tasked by Pope Julius II with painting the ceiling and one wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome; most people look at his masterpiece with awe and respect for his skill and the depicted holiness of his work, but a closer look reveals a more defiant and satirical Michelangelo.

Take a look at the picture below. It is a portrait of Pope Julius II, who instructed Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo had not been a painter up to this point, but a sculptor. When Pope Julius II asked Michelangelo to take on this task, he was very stubborn in not wanting to do it, and, after he gave in and it was all said and done 3 years later, he signed his work with "Michelangelo the Sculptor" to make sure he had the last say and to remind Pope Julius of his unwillingness and of his true vocation as a sculptor. Not only was Michelangelo a bit resentful of being somewhat forced into the Sistine Chapel job, but he was also bitter toward the church for some reason or another. He and a female artist friend of his were a part of a Catholic/Renaissance Reformation movement during his time, even though Catholics were not supposed to have anything to do with the paganism of the Renaissance. For these two reasons combined (his resentment toward Pope Julius II and the church in general), Michelangelo incorporated insults and personal jabs into his painting. As I mentioned above, this picture is of Pope Julius II and seems pretty innocent, but if you look behind him you see two young boy figures. The boy farther back has his arm around the one in the front, and his thumb is slightly sticking out between his index and middle fingers. This is the 16th Century equivalent of giving someone the middle finger...Michelangelo painted an image of a kid flipping off the Pope!

Michelangelo's wall painting is called The Final Judgment. Notice a general theme? Take a close look at the photo below and see if you find this painting appropriate for a holy church building. Michelangelo was gay, which explains all sexual scenes and the images of males kissing that he painted on this wall of the Sistine Chapel. It also explains his acute fascination with the human body (the male body in particular), and his painting of lots of nude male bodies on the wall. There are female bodies too, but they tend to be very muscular and male-like, rather than the more typical softer/slimmer female bodies. Our professor described the painting as "a convention of body builders."

Hopefully I'll make a trip to Rome soon, and see for myself the result of Michelangelo's frustration, defiance, and sexual desires painted for all to see on the walls of this very serious and straitlaced religious building :)