Pope Benedict XVI, background left, seated centre, leads a vesper prayer in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican Wednesday Oct. 31, 2012, five centuries after Michelangelo's ceiling of frescoes was inaugurated. Benedict marked the anniversary by saying vespers beneath the frescoes, as his predecessor Juilius II had half a millennium earlier. At least 10,000 people visit the site each day, raising concerns about temperature, dust and humidity affecting the famed art. But a Vatican Museums official says there are no plans to try to limit tourists' access. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)
The Vatican today is marking the 500th anniversary of the dedication of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the masterpiece of paintings of Genesis scenes by the Renaissance artist Michelangelo.
Pope Benedict XVI marked the event with a vespers service.
The ceiling, with its bold depiction of sculptural, human nudes, became one of the most iconic series of paintings in all of art. A couple decades later the church brought him back to draw the back wall, where he depicted the equally iconic Last Judgement. And all this time Michelangelo really wanted to do sculpture.
The anniversary recalls the extraordinary words used by Pope John Paul II, who described Michelangelo’s paintings in the chapel as the “sanctuary of the theology of the human body.” The theology of the body was a significant touchstone of John Paul’s teachings, involving more than 100 early teachings and later publications on such themes as the dignity of the divinely created body, including its sexuality, and the impact of sin and redemption.
Marking restored paintings on the Sistine wall in 1994, John Paul also made an impassioned defense of the use of art and iconography in religious art, affirming a past church council’s rejection of ancient iconoclasm. The pope praised Michelangelo’s depiction of the “glory of Christ’s humanity,” the “ancient beauty” of Adam and even the audacious representation of God the Creator in human form:
‘Did not Michelangelo draw precise conclusions from Christ’s words: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father?”. He had the courage to admire this Father with his own eyes at the very moment when he offered his creating “fiat” and called the first man into existence. Adam was created in the image and likeness of God (cf. Gn 1:26). While the eternal Word is the invisible icon of the Father, the man Adam is his visible icon. Michelangelo strove in every way to restore to Adam’s presence his corporeity, the features of ancient beauty. With great daring he even transferred this visible and corporal beauty to the Creator himself. We are probably witnesses to an extraordinary piece of artistic audacity, since it is impossible to impose the likeness proper to man on the invisible God. Would this not be blasphemy? It is difficult however, not to recognize in the visible and humanized Creator, God clad in infinite majesty. Indeed, as far as the image with its intrinsic limits permits, everything which could be expressed has been expressed here. The majesty of the Creator, like that of the Judge, speaks of divine grandeur: a moving and univocal word just as, in a different way, the Pietà in St Peter’s Basilica and the Moses in the Basilica of St Peter in Chains are univocal.’
Interesting news for Reformation Day, which marks the start of the Protestant revolt and included another wave of iconoclasm. The monumental projects in the Renaissance Vatican, and their funding mechanisms, had a certain impact in points north. I’m sure we’ll be marking that anniversary in five years.
UPDATE: Speaking of which, see:
German Catholics wary about major Luther festivities planned for 2017
