Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment'

by Marcia B. Hall (Editor)

This book is about the creation of an acknowledged masterpiece and its wildly mixed reception by contemporaries. The Last Judgment was created at a moment of crisis when the spirit of Renaissance humanism was recoiling from the sense of a new threat within the church, as defections of the faithful to the new Protestant sects multiplied across Europe. Seen in this context, the examination of the fresco will be of interest to historians, historians of religion and of art.

Genres: Art

210 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2004

Reviews

[Giovanni García-Fenech]

Great selection of essays, though some seem more relevant than others. Marcia Hall's introduction and essay are excellent; I look forward to reading her book Michelangelo: the Frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. Another highlight was Melinda Schlitt's "Painting, Criticism, and Michelangelo’s Last Judgment in the Age of the Counter-Reformation." Unfortunately, while not bad, Margaret Kuntz's essay on the Cappella Paolina frescoes was only tangentially connected to the Last Judgment, ending the book in a note that made it feel diffuse.