24 DECEMBER 1-7, 2022 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Looking Up MICHELANGELO’S SISTINE CHAPEL IS NO MASTERPIECE, BUT IT’S ENTERTAINING. BY EMILY FERGUSON The announcement that Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition was coming to the Cherry Creek Shopping Center promised that it would be “unlike anything you’d see in Rome.” Well, it got that right. For starters, a visit to the real Sistine Chapel in Vatican City is a crowded af- fair. The exhibition of life-sized replicas of Michelangelo’s frescoes in Denver, however, was practically empty on open- ing day, except for an older couple who’d traveled from Nebraska to see it. And it was eerily silent except for the stifl ed sound of the irritatingly perky narrator in the introduction video, who mispro- nounces the artist’s name throughout. (No, it isn’t pronounced like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s name.) The road-show version of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, which debuted in 2021 in a former Sears store in Chicago, has taken up residence in a space that most recently hosted a tacky immersive experience based on the sitcom Friends. That was just one of many corporate-sponsored shows touting itself as immersive that’s come to Denver this year, at a time when the city is already brimming with everything from experiential shows by local creators to David Byrne’s Theater of the Mind to the Meow Wolf instal- lation, Convergence Station, which opened in September 2021. Since then, Denver has been a center for all things immersive, with Immersive Denver even holding the Denver Immersive Gathering in early November for those in the art industry to see all of the city’s idiosyncratic art offerings. “Compared to other cities [the exhibit] has gone to, it seems like Denver just has a lot more. ... Like, this isn’t going to compete with Meow Wolf,” says a Sistine Chapel staff manager, who took on the post as a winter job and admits that he does not actually know much about Michelangelo’s frescoes. But then, who does? Outside of art histori- ans, arty Catholics and Renaissance and Mi- chelangelo enthusiasts, the average viewer is unlikely to identify the signifi cance of the work or even the inspiration for its subjects, such as the specifi c biblical imagery of the fi ve Sibyls (Persian, Erythraean, Delphic, Cumaean and Libyan pagan women whom Catholics identify as prophets) that Mi- chelangelo positioned between seven male prophets on the chapel’s ceiling. And the au- dio guide and wall text don’t provide much beyond surface infor- mation. But then, this show was produced by the touring exhibition company See Global Entertainment, which also mounted The Art of Banksy exhibit at the Denver Sports Castle. Another way you know you aren’t in Rome: You can view these large reproduc- tions of Michelangelo’s frescoes at eye level, seeing details that you won’t catch in the tilted mirrors framing the fl oor of the real Sis- tine Chapel, positioned so that visitors don’t have to crane their necks for long periods. But seeing them up close also offers vi- sual proof that Michelangelo really, really despised this project. A prominent sculptor, he never wanted to be a painter, and that’s evident here. Writing a friend during the Sistine Chapel project, he confessed, “I am not in the right place — I am not a painter.” Particularly of women. Because of the lack of female models during the Renais- sance — and perhaps because Michelangelo preferred the male form both in sculpting and in the sack — there are not many females in these paintings, and that’s probably a good thing. The Sibyls and Eve look like musclebound linebackers with botched boob jobs. While he couldn’t really paint the female form, though, Michelangelo defi nitely un- derstood the mentality of some women. In “The Creation of Eve,” Adam is peacefully passed out naked in the grass, while Eve seems to be pleading and agonizing over something — “Why couldn’t you have made it bigger?” — with God, who is giving her a stern look and making a gesture that often accompanies the phrase “You get what you get, and you don’t get upset.” And although he might not have been much of a painter, it’s clear that Michel- angelo appreciated and enjoyed depicting a very round, voluptuous posterior, and his God has a particularly bouncy one. It’s strangely on display in one of the more prominent frescoes, “The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Plants.” God, wearing a fabu- lous clingy pink dress, confi dently swoops from the right side of the painting with a determined glare and swinging arms. Then on the left side, he’s seen fl ying off, giving everyone below a good look at his behind, which appears to have gotten a wedgie. Many historians believe that this is the fi rst instance of mooning in a painting: specifi - cally, God mooning Pope Julius II. He’d an- noyed Michelangelo throughout the project, and, thanks to the artist’s work, he’d now be conducting the sacrament of communion directly under a booty. That piece isn’t the only example of Mi- chelangelo’s sense of humor: An angel be- hind the Erythraean Sibyl appears to have his thumb in his mouth — not like a typical baby, but more in the fashion of an angry European sports fan gesturing to a competitor. Michelangelo defi nitely needed humor to get through this project, which he referred to as “torture” in a letter to friend (and possible lover) Giovanni da Pistoia. He worked on the ceiling with a team from 1508 to 1512, and he resented the task from the start. Italian ar- chitect Donato Bramante, who was building St. Peter’s Basilica, was jealous of the genius and had persuaded Pope Julius to commis- sion frescoes because he knew Michelangelo wasn’t familiar with the medium. Even so, Michelangelo went above and beyond: Although the pope originally re- quested he just paint the twelve apostles, Michelangelo ended up creating the entire genealogy of Catholicism, with more than 300 fi gures represented on more than 5,300 square feet. And then he returned in 1536 to paint the chapel’s magnum opus, “The Last Judgment,” a hypnotizing, overwhelmingly impressive array of fi gures either ascending to heaven or being dragged to hell during the Parousia, also known as the Second Coming of Christ. Here is where we not only see Michelan- gelo’s technical skill and mastery of compo- sition, but fi nd that the artist’s impishness didn’t fade with age. Papal Master of Cer- emonies Biagio de Cesena complained of the nudity, and is said to have shouted that it belonged in a tavern. Michelangelo’s re- sponse? He immortalized Cesena in hell, encircling him with one snake and having another bite his penis. Michelangelo is also believed to have placed a self-portrait in “The Last Judg- ment,” but in a rather disturbing way. Near Christ is Saint Bartholomew, who is holding his skin (he was fl ayed to death). The face de- picted in the loose fl esh is strikingly similar to Michelangelo’s, but its placement ties to the artist’s depression over the project. As he wrote to da Pistoia: “My haunches are grind- ing into my guts, my poor ass strains to work as a counterweight, every gesture I make is blind and aimless. My skin hangs loose below me, my spine’s all knotted from folding over itself. I’m bent taut as a Syrian bow.” It’s fun to spot these details in this un- likely exhibit, even if they serve to show- case Michelangelo’s misery more than the majesty of his efforts. But the reason the real Sistine Chapel ceiling and “The Last Judgment” are considered among mankind’s greatest artistic achievements is because of their overwhelming combined effect, which is created by seeing so many captivating individual stories that had to be painted upside down — a stunning feat by a sculptor assigned to paint a ceiling. No, this is nothing you’d see in Rome, but at least you don’t have to pay for a fl ight to Italy — which the couple on opening day defi nitely appreciated. “We’re from Alliance, Nebraska, about four hours away,” said the woman. “We came down to Denver specifi cally for this exhibit. We’re pastors, so the odds of us being able to afford to get to Italy are pretty slim. So getting close up to really view it, not something the size of a picture in a book, is nice.” Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel: The Exhibition, through December 18 at 2500 East First Avenue. Get tickets, $22.50, and more information at sistinechapelexhibit.com. CULTURE KEEP UP ON DENVER ARTS AND CULTURE AT WESTWORD.COM/ARTS “Creation of the Sun, Moon and Plants” could be the fi rst case of mooning in a painting. SNOWGLOBE PR
