The Last Judgement – Beards of the Saints
Year mention: 1564
Subject:
Last Judgement ; The representation of Saints with beards and Christ beardless
Conflict:
Beard
Capriccio
Issues with attributes
Judging art
Untruthfulness/Not probable/Not corresponding to history
Criticism:

Only people who suffered corruption lose their hair, therefore we see a wrong representation of Christ (beardless); Michelangelo decided to paint in favour of the “satisfaction of art” rather than “historical truth”

Agent:
Gilio, Giovanni Andrea
Niccolò della Casa, After Michelangelo Buonarroti, set of prints of the Last Judgement, 1548
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, www.metmuseum.org

“M. Ruggiero said: ‘[…] Another personal invention [capriccio] I notice is that Saint Peter and many other saints whose bodies were decomposed into ashes have been privileged over our savior, who, despite the fact that he came out of the tomb without losing a single hair (for he suffered no corruption); appears in the judgment without a beard, while all those other Saints are bearded’.”

“Disse M. Ruggiero: ‘[…] L’altro capriccio che io noto, è che maggiore sarà il privileggio di San Pietro e di molt’altri santi, che si sono risoluti in cenere, che quello del Salvator nostro, il quale, essendo del sepulcro uscito senza mancanza d’un pelo, non avendo patito corruzzione, è comparso nel giudizio senza barba, e quei santi tutti barbati’.”

Terminology
capriccio
Artist
Buonarroti, Michelangelo
Beatrizet, Nicolas
Bonasone, Giulio
Ghisi, Giorgio

Date mention
1564

Date artwork
1535-1541
Historical Location

Vatican City, Vatican Palace


Current Location
Vatican City, Vatican Palace
Iconclass Number
11D3; 11U;

Source
Gilio, Dialogue on the errors and abuses of painters (2018), 187; Gilio, Dialogo. Nel quale si ragiona degli errori e degli abusi de’pittori circa l’istorie. In: Due dialogi di M. Giouanni Andrea Gilio da Fabriano (1564), 81
Literature

Gilio 2018, fig. 19-22

Permanent Link
https://www.sacrima.eu/case/the-last-judgement-beards-of-the-saints/