reat personality for his time. InRome, in 1536, Michelangelo was at work on the Last Judgment for the altar wall of theSistine Chapel, which he finished in 1541. The largest fresco of the Renaissance, it depictsJudgment Day. Christ, with a clap of thunder, puts into motion the inevitable separation,with the saved ascending on the left side of the painting and the damned descending on theright into a Dantesque hell. As was his custom, Michelangelo portrayed all the figuresnude, but prudish draperies were added by another artist (who was dubbed thebreeches-maker) a decade later, as the cultural climate became more conservative.Michelangelo painted his own image in the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew. Although hewas also given another painting commission, the decoration of the Pauline Chapel in the1540s, his main energies were directed toward architecture during this phase of his life.Instead of being obedient to classical Greek and Roman practices, Michelangelo usedmotifscolumns, pediments, and bracketsfor a personal and expressive purpose. AFlorentinealthough born March 6, 1475, in the small village of Caprese nearArezzoMichelangelo continued to have a deep attachment to his city, its art, and itsculture throughout his long life. He spent the greater part of his adulthood in Rome,employed by the popes; characteristically, however, he left instructions that he be buried inFlorence, and his body was placed there in a fine monument in the church of Santa Croce. Michelangelo portrayed both optimism and pessimism. Sculptures was where hewanted his heart dedicated. Michelangelo gave up painting apprenticeship to take up anew career in sculpture. Michelangelo then went to Rome, where he was able to examinemany newly unearthed classical statues and ruins. He soon produced his first large-scalesculpture, the over-life-size Bacchus (1496-98, Bargello, Florence). One of the few worksof pagan rather than Christian subject matter made by the master, i...
