The Last Judgement – The mixing of the blessed and damned
Year mention: 1564
Subject:
Last Judgement ; Placement of the souls in the air
Conflict:
Capriccio
Judging art
Untruthfulness/Not probable/Not corresponding to history
Criticism:

Mixing of blessed and damned souls in the air;
The area of the blessed;
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

The point of criticism in the following passage is the mixing of the blessed and damned souls in Michelangelo’s “Last Judgement”.

“M. Ruggiero said: ‘[…] Another personal invention [capriccio] I notice too in this history is the mixing of the blessed and the damned in the air, in a confused way, on the right- and left-hand sides, which is contrary to the text of the Gospel’.
M. Silvio said: ‘I would say that in this passage right and left do not refer to any material place or arrangement, as we usually understand them, but that right refers to beatitude and left to damnation. And as for the saints, I think that without distinction of place or position, they will set the Savior in their midst so as to render more glory and greatness to his Majesty’.
M. Ruggiero replied: ‘It would be worse, in my opinion, because the damned would stand in the place of the blessed and the blessed in the place of the damned, creating confusion with such a sorry mixing. Moreover, whenever possible the literal meaning must always be preserved. In just passage, taking the right as the right and the left as the left neither offends the letter nor misrepresents the meaning, by accepting this interpretation, the order of the story is preserved. For our Lord, as man, will have both right and left sides. Although Michelangelo has observed this in part, he should not have placed the damned in the air like the blessed, because, as was said earlier, this will not happen’.”

“Rispose M. Ruggiero: ‘[…] Un altro capriccio noto ancora in questa istoria, il quale è d’aver confusamente in aria mescolati i beati et i dannati a la destra e sinistra mano; il che è contra il testo de l’Evangelio’.
Disse M. Silvio: ‘Io direi che in questo luogo la destra e la sinistra non significhino luogo materiale, né ordine come noi sogliamo intendere; ma che per la destra s’intenda la beatitudine, e per la sinistra la dannazione. E quanto ai santi, penso che, senza differenza di luogo o d’ordine, metteranno il Salvatore in mezzo, per render la maestà sua più gloriosa e grande’.
Rispose M. Ruggiero: ‘Sarebbe questo, a mio giudizio, peggio, che i reprobi stessero nel luogo de’ beati et i beati nel luogo de’ reprobi, e fare con questo mescuglio una con fugione. Inoltre, quando la lettera si può salvare, sempre far si deve. In questo luogo pigliar la destra per destra e sinistra per sinistra non s’impropria la lettera, né si fa violenza al sentimento, e con questa opinione si conserva l’ordine de l’istoria; conciossia che ‘l Signor nostro, come uomo, arà l’una e l’altra. E per ciò Michelagnolo l’ha in parte osservato, e non doveva mettere i reprobi in aria come i beati, perché non sarà, come dianzi s’è detto’.”

Quoted Authorities

Matthew 25:32-34
Augustine, De civitate Dei

Model to follow

Matthew 25, 32-34
Augustine, De civitate Dei

Keywords
air, blessed, capriccio, damned, Last Judgement, Michelangelo, Placement of the souls, Sistine Chapel: Vatican, Souls

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
11U; 11U22;

Source
Gilio, Dialogue on the errors and abuses of painters (2018), 176; 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), 71-72
Literature

Gilio 2018, 176, n.261-263, fig. 19-22

Permanent Link
https://www.sacrima.eu/case/the-last-judgement-the-mixing-of-the-blessed-and-damned/