The Last Judgment

Destination: Rome, Italy

Book: The Last Judgment: Michelangelo and the Death of the Renaissance by James A. Connor (NEW Paperback Edition August, 2010 from Palgrave MacMillan)

Like Michelangelo and The Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King, this book concentrates on one major work of the maestro. Unlike King’s book, The Last Judgment by James A. (Jim) Connor delves more deeply into the religious philosophy of Michelangelo and his time than into the personal life of the painter.

A former Jesuit priest who is now a professor of religion, Connor has written previous books about Kepler and about Galileo that emphasize the theology of the day and its impact on these famous men.

For the book on Michelangelo, he was inspired by the fresco of The Last Judgment on the wall above the altar in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel in Rome. Painted after the famous ceiling of the chapel, the Last Judgment, in Connor’s view, reflects Michelangelo’s growing awareness of his own mortality and concerns about his own sins. He portrays Michelangelo as a deeply religious man, influenced by the conservative reformer Savonarola, by the ungodliness of many of the Popes who commissioned work by Michelangelo, and by the Catholic Reformation that was gaining traction in the mid 15th century.

While the discussion of theology sometimes went over my head, Connor does present the ideas of the day through real people, making it more interesting than a pure theological discussion. I  enjoyed being introduced to many of the painter’s close friends–and enemies–through references to biographies written shortly after he died, letters and transcripts of conversations.

Sistine Chapel

As for the subtitle of the book, it really deals more with the Catholic Reformation than with the “death of the Renaissance” in my understanding of that term. Connor does present some arguments based in the stylistic changes apparent  between the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment.

Connor makes much of the fact that Christ is centered in the picture with major Christian characters revolving around him, rather than the way that the Renaissance tended to picture the hierarchy of God- Christ and Mary-the Apostles and Saints-good people-bad people. The author believes that this arrangement in the Last Judgment reflects Michelangelo’s knowledge of Copernicus and an early portrayal of the earth revolving around the sun.

Apparently that choice was not noticed, or at least did not raise the controversy that erupted over all of the figures, including Christ, being naked. Later Popes had drapes of clothing applied, totally missing Michelangelo’s point that on judgment day, clothing was no longer needed and the nudity presented a way to differentiate between the substantive body of a living being and the soul of the dead.

The book has a tendency to skip around in time, so I found myself flipping back to get oriented. The muddy black and white pictures in the book do not allow the reader to grasp the differences in overall color choices and the chaos of this painting as compared to the Ceiling.  I guess you just have to buy a ticket to Rome. But wait! The Internet to the rescue. See many very good images at Italian Renaissance Art.

I have complained here before about missing the Sistine Chapel on our trip to Rome. Now when I DO get there, I certainly will be more inclined to pay attention to the Last Judgment fresco, as well as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.  I like to read about the history of a piece of art. Do you?  Are books about art part of your travel library?

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My Melange Robin Locker fell in love with Italy, and then cheated on her first love by also falling in love with France. She brings the culture of Europe back to America in her blog, My Melange.As the title indicates, she covers a little of this and a little of that. She also will help you organize your own trip to Italy or France.

Angela K. Nickerson calls her blog “Just Go: books, travel and the delight of going” Renamed Gypsy’s Guide. She has written a book on Michelangelo’s Rome, so her blog focuses on Italy. She spotlights books, art works and other cultural attractions of Italy. Nickerson also leads tours to Rome, explained at Michelangelo in Italy. With her truly beautiful site, Nickerson makes it almost impossible not to travel to Italy.

Laura Byrne Paquet also offers up linked web sites.  Facing the Street advises on how to make the most of travel with local experiences, and La Vida Local (Spanglish for the local life) follows up with specific advice about apartment and other long-term arrangements. Facing the Street gives me interesting information every time I drop by, and I know I can count on it, because Paquet is a many-times book author and frequently published articles writer. She knows how to find information and make sure it is correct. Viva!

Have you checked out these web sites and found something of value?  Please leave them a comment and tell them you came from A Traveler’s Library.  Thanks.

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Four Rivers Fountain, Piazza Navona, Rome

Destination: Rome

Movie: Angels and Demons

Well, here we are at the end of Italy week.  I went to the long-awaited movie of Angels and Demons around noon today. I would say it was the equivalent of dining on one of those fancy bakery cakes decorated with lard and sugar icing and fresh violets.  Absolutely beautiful, but no substance.

I think that the movie Angels and Demons reflected Angels and Demonsthe book perfectly.  The book was shallow and error-prone.  Ron Howard, director of the movie, said in an interview that they stripped away the non-essential things. So what do you have when you take something that is insubstantial to begin with, and strip things away? Certainly not much brain food.

I have to hand it to the model-makers, set designers, set decorators, etc.  I have been to Bernini’s Piazza San Pietro (St. Peter’s Square) at the Vatican, I had been in the tombs below the Vatican, and although I unfortunately had never been in the Sistine Chapel it is familiar from pictures. The accuracy of their portrayal in this movie should win those guys an Oscar or two.  I would have sworn the scenes in Saint Peter’s Basilica and other parts of the Vatican were really in those places. However, since the Vatican would not allow the film crew inside Vatican property, it was all the work of clever designers.  Note, however, that when the camera scans the Sistine Chapel, it moves quickly, not focusing enough for you to study the art work and statuary, and the scenes there are brief. Very clever work, indeed.

(Spoiler alert) And somebody gets loads of credit for that gorgeous, turbulent sky when the anti-matter explodes. I was waiting for Michaelangelo’s outstretched fingers of God and Adam to appear.

The dialogue, on the other hand can only be called lame.  What kind of exposition is it when a Professor of Humanities is having to tell a woman with a PhD in Physics about how Galileo thought that the earth revolved around the sun, and therefore the church excommunicated him? The movie seems to rely more on dramatic music and sound effects than dialogue to move the plot along.

When I read Angels and Demons, I thought the book  was a fun, quick, read, but superficial.  The movie is the same, but its saving grace is the gorgeous views of Rome, both aerial views and close up inside famous piazzas and churches–enough to satisfy any afficiando of Italy. And perhaps to lure some travelers to visit the Eternal City. Given that fact, I would certainly not want my negative remarks to deter you from seeing the movie.

If you want to check on the movie’s accuracy in presenting familiar sites in Rome, or if you just love the way the movie looks and want to know how to get there yourself—read Angela Nickerson’s FREE e-book, Rome’s Angels and Demons. I have, and it is a wonderful guide. When you go to her site to get the book, you can enter a contest, too.

I would appreciate it, if when you visit Angela’s site, you tell her that you came from A Traveler’s Library. Thanks, and this concludes our Italy week, which started with a rather eccentric book and ended with a rather eccentric movie.  Would you like a week devoted to another country? Tell me which one and we’ll be off to the races.

Photograph by Vera Marie Badertscher. All rights reserved.

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Roman Forum evening shadows

Destination: Rome

Books: The Masters of Rome Series by Collen McCullough

It seems to me that is essential to have some understanding of ancient Rome if you are going to travel to today’s Rome. All those piles of rock and bits of arches in the forum, with the magnificent hulk of the Coliseum watching over it all look a lot less confusing if you know something about the daily life of the Romans at the pinnacle of the Roman Empire.

I imagine that I see togaed figures reclining on benches in the baths, or scurrying around from shop to shop trying to strike a good bargain so they can afford all those splendid mosaics in the courtyard of the summer place down at Herculaeum.

Colleen McCullough’s book are just the time ticket you need to get a look at Roman life among the wealthy, and a few hints about the life of other people in the Roman Empire also.  Like every period of history, when I imagine myself in a far distant time, I pick a good stratum of society. Wouldn’t you love to have lived in Renaissance Italy? Well, as a noble, or at least high merchant class, not as a peasant. With my love of Greece, I daydream about living in Athens in the 5th century B.C. However, not as a slave, of course. Although some scholars claim that all women were treated pretty much as slaves, others say the mothers and managers of households were revered.  And in the Roman Empire, I am the wife of a Senator (at least–if not a Caesar.) And as in Greece, the female role of courtesan sounds pretty cushy.

Back to the point. McCullough wrote seven books based on life in Rome.  The First Man in Rome started the series, and while I enjoyed it, I found it had almost too much detail. There are Roman experts who quibble with her history, although for a novelist, she did a mighty fine pile of research, in my opinion.

So dramatic was ancient Rome that many fiction books exist based on the real history. A web page devoted to such books,  Fictional Rome, contains a page on Colleen McCullough. If you love Rome, or love ancient history, you’ll be trapped and find it difficult to emerge.  Try to get out by tomorrow when we talk about the movie Angels and Demons, which looks at ecclesiastical Rome rather than ancient Rome, but provides a heck of a travelogue along the way.

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Photograph by VMB, all rights reserved.

We have  spent this week  at A Traveler’s Library focused on Italy. Do you like several days of focus on one country? Or would you rather mix things up and have a different destination each day? Let me know, because I’m planning a celebration of the opening of the Greek’s New Acropolis Museum in June. One day or several?

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Book: Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling by Ross King

A Journey into Michelangelo’s Rome by Angela K. Nickerson

Number one on my Italian travel agenda: Rome. Number one in Rome: The Sistine Chapel.

After a lifetime of seeing pictures of those outstretched index fingers, I wanted to see the rest. Not a bad painting for a guy who thought he was a sculptor.What a delight to find a book that unveils all the religious, political and artistic mechanics behind one of the world’s greatest masterpieces. Michelangelo, to put it mildly, was a complex human being, and the book, Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling captures the complexity of this genius along with the age in which he lived.  The book’s 384 pages may have more details about, say, the mixing of colors, than some readers can tolerate, but I loved every fussy, gossipy moment of it. I went to Rome fully prepared to see the Sistine Chapel with an educated eye, thanks to this addition to my travel library. And on the morning I had scheduled to go to the Vatican, I fell ill. Oh well, there is always next time. I hope.

And next time, I will expand beyond the Pope’s ceiling by reading A. K. Nickerson’s A Journey into  Michaelangelo’s Rome (2008), which was published after my last trip to Italy. See her video on You Tube.

Have you seen the Ceiling? What impressions did you carry away?

And if you want to share your love of Michelangelo and Italy, click a share button below.

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