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THE IMMACULATE BODY IN THE SISTINE CEILING
Author(s) -
BUTLER KIM E.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
art history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.1
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1467-8365
pISSN - 0141-6790
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8365.2009.00653.x
Subject(s) - sermon , ceiling (cloud) , fresco , perfection , metaphor , art , reading (process) , doctrine , visual arts , art history , literature , philosophy , theology , linguistics , engineering , painting , structural engineering
A new reading of textual evidence roots the imagery of Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling frescoes in contemporary theological commitment to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The cluster of abstract metaphors contained in a sermon written by Pope Sixtus IV, dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, and the liturgical and devotional texts the sermon inspired, offers foundational source material for the ceiling programme. It is proposed that such an Immaculacy message exists alongside and mutually supports Incarnationist and Eucharistic ones, all rooted in a metaphor of bodily perfection that Michelangelo ‘figures’ at the level of gender as well.