Jesse, David and Solomon

A powerful king in a green hood and yellow cloak scowls in concentration, while across from him an older woman quietly spins wool. In this Sistine Chapel lunette Michelangelo turned Christ's ancestors into ordinary, weary people.

The story behind the painting

This lunette fresco was painted by Michelangelo around 1511 to 1512 as part of the Sistine Chapel decoration commissioned by Pope Julius II; Wikidata gives 1511. The lunettes, showing the Ancestors of Christ, were painted in two phases starting from the wall opposite the altar. In summer 1511 the first half was finished and the scaffold was taken down and rebuilt. The second phase began in October 1511 and ended a year later, just in time for the unveiling on the eve of All Saints' Day 1512. This was probably the eleventh lunette painted, the third after the scaffold was rebuilt.

What to look for

The lunette, about 215 by 430 cm, has a group on each side of a central plaque reading IESSE, DAVID, SALOMON. On the left, traditionally, sits King David, with a small child in a veil behind him, identified as Solomon, offering a little ritual tray. David's head and chest face the viewer while his legs turn aside, showing strength and authority. He wears an eastern-style robe with a green hood, a pink gown and a yellow cloak, and holds a long white cloth. His half-shaded face grimaces in concentration, his beard set down in a few decisive strokes. On the right a woman in dark violet, with red shoes, spins wool.

Meaning and intent

The lunettes follow Christ's genealogy from the Gospel of Matthew. The woman at right would be Bathsheba, and Jesse would then appear in the vault above, perhaps as the child shown with his parents, though the article says it is not known exactly which of the three figures is there. Her carefully modelled face carries the marks of age and a serious, melancholy mood, absorbed only in her spinning. The quickly sketched wheel seems to turn. The scenes of this second phase use a lighter background, larger figures and faster painting, enlarging the space for those walking from the door to the altar.

Legacy

The plaque here has a simpler form, because the pope insisted the work be finished quickly. The lunettes were among the most blackened parts of the chapel, and their restoration in 1986 gave astonishing results, revealing the bright colours and the fluid brushwork. Today the fresco can be seen in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museums, a quiet family scene set high on the wall, where Michelangelo gave Christ's royal ancestors the weight and tiredness of real people.