文章基本信息

标题：The Sistine Chapel: A Biblical Tour.
作者：Worcester, Thomas
期刊名称：Theological Studies
印刷版ISSN：0040-5639
出版年度：2014
期号：December
语种：English
出版社：Sage Publications, Inc.
摘要：A kind of reference work, this lavishly illustrated book will be useful to anyone wanting to know who the many biblical figures are that Michelangelo painted on the Sistine chapel ceiling, and how the ceiling works not only as art but also as theology. The author, a professor of psychology at the University of Detroit Mercy, writes as one who, relatively late in life, was awe-struck and remains so by the achievement of a Renaissance sculptor who protested that he was not a painter but nevertheless accepted the Sistine commission and outshone the outstanding painters of his day. Panyard shows how Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes demonstrate both knowledge of what Christians call the Old Testament, as well as real familiarity with the works of Dante and Savonarola. She also highlights the theocentric nature of the ceiling and its "completely new image of God" (19), an image that set aside medieval depictions of God as the unmoved mover, as a monarch reigning effortlessly over the universe. Instead, Michelangelo painted a God of movement and action, a God who soars through the sky and who works "with great energy to create the world" (19). But with salvation as his main theme, Michelangelo also emphasized the prophets who in various ways foretold or foresaw, or somehow foreshadowed, the coming of Christ the Savior--prophets such as Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel, Jonah, Zechariah, and Jeremiah. P. states that the depiction of Zechariah is a kind of portrait of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo's patron; the portrayal of Jeremiah as deep in thought, with one arm on a knee, may have influenced Rodin's sculpture of a thinker.
关键词：Books

The Sistine Chapel: A Biblical Tour.

Worcester, Thomas

The Sistine Chapel: A Biblical Tour. By Christine M. Panyard. New York: Paulist, 2013. Pp. xii + 96. $19.95.

A kind of reference work, this lavishly illustrated book will be useful to anyone wanting to know who the many biblical figures are that Michelangelo painted on the Sistine chapel ceiling, and how the ceiling works not only as art but also as theology. The author, a professor of psychology at the University of Detroit Mercy, writes as one who, relatively late in life, was awe-struck and remains so by the achievement of a Renaissance sculptor who protested that he was not a painter but nevertheless accepted the Sistine commission and outshone the outstanding painters of his day. Panyard shows how Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes demonstrate both knowledge of what Christians call the Old Testament, as well as real familiarity with the works of Dante and Savonarola. She also highlights the theocentric nature of the ceiling and its "completely new image of God" (19), an image that set aside medieval depictions of God as the unmoved mover, as a monarch reigning effortlessly over the universe. Instead, Michelangelo painted a God of movement and action, a God who soars through the sky and who works "with great energy to create the world" (19). But with salvation as his main theme, Michelangelo also emphasized the prophets who in various ways foretold or foresaw, or somehow foreshadowed, the coming of Christ the Savior--prophets such as Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Joel, Jonah, Zechariah, and Jeremiah. P. states that the depiction of Zechariah is a kind of portrait of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo's patron; the portrayal of Jeremiah as deep in thought, with one arm on a knee, may have influenced Rodin's sculpture of a thinker.

Michelangelo painted the Sistine ceiling from 1508 to 1512; though P. includes a kind of postscript on the Last Judgment, painted 1536-1541, Michelangelo's vision of the afterlife merits more than an afterthought. Still, this small book offers a very helpful window onto how and why what is likely the world's most famous ceiling continues to command our attention.

DOI: 10.1177/0040563914548659

Thomas Worcester, S.J.

College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA