A discussion of the theme of papal primacy in Michelangelo's fresco Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel in Rome and how the artist worked to convey this message. Contrary to much published opinion, this fresco cannot be taken merely as... more
A discussion of the theme of papal primacy in Michelangelo's fresco Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel in Rome and how the artist worked to convey this message. Contrary to much published opinion, this fresco cannot be taken merely as expressing a single artist's vision, but instead should be viewed as the culminating statement of papal propaganda in the Sistine Chapel, which continues the message of papal primacy begun by Pope Sixtus IV in the early 1480s. Michelangelo's fresco, together with the chapel's earlier decoration, was commissioned to propagate specific ideas about the Second Coming and the Catholic Church's part in this climactic event. An examination of why a Last Judgment was commissioned and why certain iconographic choices were made in the grand composition's development supports the argument that the fresco conveys an inherently positive and triumphal message, rather than being a gloomy and frightening image that reflects insecurities spawned within the papal court by the Sack of Rome.
