04/20/2022
The mighty composition, painted by Michelangelo between 1536 and 1541, is centered around the dominant figure of Christ, captured in the moment preceding that when the verdict of the Last Judgement is uttered (Matthew 25: 31-26). His calm imperious gesture seems to both command attention and placate the surrounding agitation. It starts a wide slow rotary movement in which all the figures are involved. Excluded are the two upper lunettes with groups of angels bearing in flight the symbols of the Passion (on the left the Cross, the nails and the crown of thorns; on the right the column of the scourging, the stairs and the spear with the sponge soaked in vinegar). Next to Christ and the Virgin, also anxiously await the verdict. Some of them can be easily recognized: St. Peter with the two keys, St. Laurence with the gridiron, St. Bartholomew with his own skin which is usually recognized as being a self-portrait of Michelangelo, St. Catherine of Alexandria with the cogwheel and St. Sebastian kneeling holding the arrows. In the centre of the lower section are the angels of the Apocalypse who are wakening the dead to the sound of long trumpets. On the left the risen recover their bodies as they ascend towards heaven (Resurrection of the flesh), on the right angels and devils fight over making the damned fall down to hell. finally, at the bottom Charon with his oars, together with his devils, make the damned get out of his boat to lead them before the infernal judge Minos, whose body is wrapped in the coils of the serpent. The task of painting the covering drapery, the so-called "braghe" (pants" was given to Daniele da Volterra, since then known as the "braghettone". Daniele's "braghe" were only the first and in fact others were added in the following centuries.
