The Ancestors of Christ: Hezekiah, Manasseh and Ahaz

In a dark triangle of the Sistine vault, a woman in a wide green mantle turns toward us while a child and a white-haired old man fade into shadow. Michelangelo painted this quiet family in just two days.

The story behind the painting

This triangular section of the vault, a spandrel above the lunette of the Ancestors of Christ, was frescoed by Michelangelo around 1510 as part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling commissioned by Pope Julius II. It lies near the scene of the Fall and Expulsion from Paradise and dates from the end of the first phase of work. The vault was painted in two phases starting from the wall opposite the altar; in summer 1511 the scaffolding was rebuilt in the other half, and the second phase ended a year later, in time for the unveiling on the eve of All Saints 1512. Wikidata gives about 245 by 340 cm.

What to look for

The scene, painted in two days of fresco, shows a woman seated in the foreground, her torso turned toward the viewer, her legs and face in profile. She wears a wide green mantle with glazed yellow lights, lined in violet, and a white shirt slipping from her right shoulder. Behind her stands a child, perhaps a little girl judging by the covered head, and a white-haired man lies further back. The woman and child are lit by an inner light, while the old man is darker and more summarily painted. Above, two bronze nudes, done in a single day, lie symmetrically with their heads bowed as if drowsy.

Meaning and intent

The spandrels, like the lunettes, show the ancestors of Christ from the Gospel of Matthew, but as family groups on dark grounds, seated on the ground to fit the concave triangular space. The figures are identified from names on the plaque of the lunette below. There is a naming conflict: Wikidata titles the work Hezekiah, Manasseh and Ahaz, while the French Wikipedia names Hezekiah, Manasseh and Amon, and says that since the lunette is usually read as Hezekiah and Amon, this must be Manasseh's family. Scholars disagree, and Michelangelo used no attributes, perhaps preferring to portray human types and attitudes rather than precise identities.

Legacy

The varying light is a way of creating depth, the source says, also used in sculpture through the unfinished, as in Michelangelo's Pitti and Taddei Tondi: the closer figure is fully modelled, the farther one left rough. The two bronze nudes above were designed from the same cartoon turned over, with small differences, for example the right one more sharply shaded, to avoid a rigid symmetry. They sit before dark violet grounds, separated by a ram's skull hung with golden ribbons. The result is one of those small, intimate corners of the ceiling where the grand story of salvation pauses on an ordinary family resting.