The Sistine Secrets (41 page)

King, Ross, 57

Lang, Jack, 57

Laocoön
(Polydoros), 110–11
fig,
193, 194
fig

Larger Chapel (Cappella Maggiore), 7

The Last Judgment
panel (Sistine Chapel): Daniele da Volterra ordered to censor the, 287; elements, figures, and symbolisms of the, 251, 253–58, 262–72; Kabbalah influence on the, 269–72; King Minos depicted in, 129, 271–72
fig;
Michelangelo commissioned to create, 249–51; Michelangelo’s self-portrait in, 264, 301; the saved and the damned in, 266–69; Savonarola depicted in, 81, 82
fig;
simony (Greed) depicted in, 267–68
fig;
Ten Commandments shape of the, 252
fig;
Tommaso dei Cavalieri’s face used in, 262–63, 264–65
fig

The Last Judgment
(Venusti), 262–63

The Last Supper
(Leonardo da Vinci), 38, 302

Lawrence, Saint, 262, 263

Leah
(Michelangelo), 274
fig,
275

Leonardo da Vinci: accused of being a “sodomite,” 243;
The Annunciation
special effects coding by, 38–39
fig;
dissections performed by, 32–33;
The Last Supper
by, 38, 302;
The Madonna of the Rocks
sign language codes use by, 36–37
fig; Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)
by, 24, 33, 302; Prime Mover thought of, 63; rivalry between Michelangelo and, 108–9

Leo X, Pope, 32, 239–40, 243

Libyan sibyl (Sistine Chapel), 174–75
fig
, 177–78

limbo concept, 150

Lincoln Memorial (Washington, DC), 36–37
fig

Lionardo di Buonarrota, 41–42

Lorenzo and the Artists of His Court
(Vannini), 55
fig

Lorenzo de’ Medici: artists’
bottega
(workshop) founded by, 56–57; attempted assassination of, 17–18, 57; death of, 82; detail from tomb of, 215
fig;
Michelangelo taken into household of, 57–58; political intrigues of, 54–58; Sistine Chapel sabotage by, 18–21, 294.
See also
de’ Medici family

Ludovico di Buonarrota, 42, 43, 44–45, 244

Luther, Martin, 241, 258, 283

Madonna della Scala (Madonna of the Stairs)
[Michelangelo], 76–77
fig,
78, 147

The Madonna of the Rocks
(Leonardo da Vinci), 36–37
fig

Maeder, Edward, 153

The Magic Flute
(Mozart), 35

Maimonides (RaMBaM) [Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon], 53, 63, 260

“making the fig,” 136
fig

Malchut (“kingdom”), 71
fig,
179

Mancinelli, Fabrizio, 123–24

Marcellus II, Pope, 285

Marini, Francesca, 38

Martyrdom of Saint Peter
(Michelangelo), 279

Mary Tudor (Queen of England), 284

Masonic symbolism, 34–35

Matas, Nicolò, 288

de’ Medici Chapel (Michelangelo), 240–41, 242–43, 244

de’ Medici family: Jewish community linked to, 52–53; Lorenzo de’ Medici, 17–18, 54–58; papacy claimed by, 239–40; rise of the, 17–18; rivalry between Sixtus IV and, 17–18, 57.
See also
Lorenzo de’ Medici

Menorah, 16–17

Mershberger, Frank, 199

Meshullemet (
The Ancestors
panel), 151, 152
fig

Michelangelo Buonarroti: broken nose and resulting grandiosity by, 74–76; burial place of, 3, 288; “coded” allusions used by, 27; coding in “David” poem by, 97; Colosseum as school story on, 137–38; declared enemy of the Church and then pardoned, 242–43; dislike for painting by, 101–2, 108; early artistic works of, 57–58, 76–80; early life of, 41–45;
formazione
(education) of, 58–68, 88, 119; homosexuality of, 243; invited to Rome by Julius II, 108–14; John Paul II’s public “rehabilitation” of, 290; kidney disease symptoms suffered by, 114, 196–97; last days and death of, 282–91; life and works following Sistine Chapel paintings, 235–47; moves to Bologna and Rome by, 87–91; private letter written by (1510), 121
fig
–22; protests expressed through symbolism by, 30; relationship between Vittoria and, 261–62; rivalry between Leonardo da Vinci and, 108–9; self-identification with Jonah by, 223–26; Sistine ceiling project purposely untitled by, 302–4; Sistine project challenges faced by, 117, 120–22; statue of, 75
fig;
study of the human body by, 83–87; taken into de’ Medici household, 57–58; Tommaso dei Cavalieri as inspiration of, 244–47, 262–63, 287; Vatican poem by, 125–26, 267.
See also
Buonarroti family

Michelangelo’s Torso, 258

Michelangelo’s works: Apollo statue, 88;
Bacchus,
90
fig
–91;
Bandini Pietà,
280
fig
–81; Basilica of St. Peter’s dome designed by, 279–80; battle of Cascina, 108–9;
Battle of the Centaurs,
78–80, 206; Cathedral of Bologna Julius II statue, 113–14, 169–70;
Conversion of Saint Paul,
279;
Crucifix,
84, 85
fig
–86;
David,
96–101;
Jonah
and use of
trompe l’oeuil,
39–40;
Madonna della Scala (Madonna of the Stairs),
76–77
fig
, 78, 147;
Martyrdom of Saint Peter,
279; de’ Medici Chapel, 240–41, 242–43, 244;
Moses,
236–39, 276
fig,
277, 278
fig; Pietà,
91–95; Porta Pia (gate to Rome), 286
fig
–87;
Prisoners in Stone,
298
fig; Rachel
and
Leah,
274
fig,
275; sleeping Cupid statue, 89; tomb of Julius II, 236–39, 273–81;
Tondo Doni,
102
fig
–3;
Victory,
245–46
fig,
247
fig
.
See also
Sistine Chapel ceiling

Middle Path (path of the righteous), 189–90

Midrash, 68–69, 95, 139–40, 165, 205, 229.
See also
Judaism

Mikha-el ha-Malakh (angel Michael), 43

Minos, King (Sistine Chapel), 129, 271–72
fig

Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)
[Leonardo da Vinci], 24, 33, 302

Moses, 19, 164, 237–38

Moses de Leon, 70

Moses
(Michelangelo), 236–39, 276
fig,
277, 278
fig

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 34–35

Nazi Germany, 153, 155–56

neck symbolism, 304–5

“the neck of the world” metaphor, 304–5

Neoplatonism:
Adam Kadmon
(primordial human) of, 197, 199; architectural design metaphor of, 138–40; Catholic Church’s rejection of, 64–67; Ficino’s teachings on, 62–64; five levels of human soul central to, 77–78;
Fons Vitae
(Fountain of life) on, 63; imagery of, 34; theory of love of, 245; triangle symbolism of, 86, 148–49

nepotismo
(nepotism), 8, 105

Netzach (“victory”), 71
fig,
180

Niccolina Chapel, 7

Nicholas V, Pope, 7

nicodemismo
practice, 281

Nicodemus symbolism, 281

nine (Truth) symbolism, 240

Noah: drunkenness of, 190–92, 210–12; flood story and, 206–8

Numbers 21:4–10, 163

number symbolism: five, 226, 227
fig,
228–29; nine (Truth) and eighteen (Life), 240–41; seven, 16–17, 179–81, 184, 189

obscene gestures (Sistine Chapel), 136
fig,
176–77
fig,
178, 195
fig
–97, 210, 300

Ochino, Bernardino, 259

Old Testament, 190

On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism
(Scholem), 189

De Opificio Mundi
(Philo of Alexandria), 138–39

opus alexandrinum
(Alexandrian work), 14

Oriental carpet symbolism, 35

Original Sin
panel (Sistine Chapel), 69, 80

Palatial Chapel (la Cappella Palatina): origins and decline of, 7, 8, 9; rebuilding of, 10–11

Palatine Chapel, 22.
See also
Sistine Chapel (la Cappella Sistina)

Palatine Hill, 7

papacy: Babylonian exile of, 20, 47–48; burial rites/planning for popes, 104–5; Conclave (election of new pope) and, 296; Jewish doctors treating members of the, 119;
nepotismo
(nepotism) corruption of, 8, 105; papal years from new pope election, 104.
See also
Catholic Church; Vatican City (
Città del Vaticano
)

Il Papa Terribile
(Pope Julius II), 106, 113, 156

Paradiso
(Dante), 94

par’shiyot
(Torah weekly read portions), 190

Paul III, Pope, 249, 250, 272, 273, 283, 284

Paul IV, Pope, 285–86, 295.
See also
Carafa, Cardinal Gian Pietro

Pazzi clan, 56, 57

Pentateuch.
See
Torah (Pentateuch)

Persian sibyl (Sistine Chapel), 173–74
fig,
178

Perugino, Umbrian, 18, 19, 20, 21

Petrarch, 97

Philo of Alexandria, 14, 138–39, 149

Pico (Count Giovanni Pico della Mirandola), 61, 65–67, 68, 70, 80, 87

Piero de’ Medici, 83

Piero the Gouty (de’ Medici), 54

Pietà
(Michelangelo), 91–95

Pinturicchio, 18, 19, 36

Pius III, Pope, 105

Pius IV, Pope, 286–87

Plague of Serpents
spandrel (Sistine Chapel), 163–64, 167

Plato, 52, 53, 54, 57, 80

Platonic Academy (Florence), 52, 53, 61, 62

“Platonic” love, 64

Plotinus, 142

pointillism technique, 258

Pole, Cardinal Reginald, 259, 261, 283, 284