| Maker(s): | Rota, Martino; Buonarroti, Michelangelo, after; Guarinoni, Luca (publisher)
| | Culture: | Italian, born in Croatia (ca. 1520-1586); Italian (1475-1564); Italian (active 1568-1569)
| | Title: | Last Judgment
| | Date Made: | 1569
| | Type: | Print
| | Materials: | engraving on laid paper, first state of two
| | Measurements: | overall: 12 11/16 in x 9 1/4 in; 32.2 cm x 23.5 cm
| | Accession Number: | AC 2011.38
| | Credit Line: | Purchase with William K. Allison (Class of 1920) Memorial Fund
| | Museum Collection: | Mead Art Museum at Amherst College
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Description:
Cross and Column (two lunettes), 'Eclessia', Christ in Judgement, Martyrs, Ascent of the Blessed, Trumpeting Angels, Fall of the Damned, Resurrection of the Dead, Mouth of Hell, Charon's Boat.
Rota's single plate engraving derived from a ten-plate print by a French engraver, Nicolas Beatrizet (1562) after Michelangelo's Last Judgement fresco in the Sistine chapel in the Vatican Palace. It reproduces Michelangelo's composition before it was altered by Daniele da Volterra, who had followed the decision of the Council of Trente in January 1564 and overpainted the nude figures' genitalia. Michelangelo's portrait appears on the engraving in the rondel above replacing the seated Jonas in the original fresco. Rota dedicated the print to Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy.
Label Text:
Michelangelo Buonarroti, an Italian artist, architect, and poet who came to epitomize the Roman High Renaissance, is credited with wide-ranging influence in the visual arts for many generations. His sweeping fresco of "The Last Judgment" in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel is one of his best-known works. The mighty composition of the Second Coming of Christ and the eternal judgment of all humanity took half a decade to accomplish (1541). The print here attests to the influence of Michelangelo’s masterpiece and the renewed interest in the apocalyptic subject in the next century.
Martino Rota worked in Italy and later in Graz and Vienna. He is an example of a reproductive engraver, working for Titian and engraving designs after Rafael and Michelangelo. This technical rendering of the Last Judgment is considered his masterpiece.
Rota did not base his engraving directly on Michelangelo’s famous painting. Instead, he copied the design from an enormous engraving (made using ten printing plates by the French artist Nicolas Beatrizet). It reproduces the monumental composition before it was altered by the Italian painter Daniele da Volterra (1509–1566), who followed the ruling of the Council of Trente in January 1564 and overpainted the nude figures’ genitalia. In Rota’s interpretation, he positioned Michelangelo’s portrait in the roundel above, replacing the seated Jonas in the original fresco, and added a dedication to his sponsor, Duke Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy.
MW, 2013
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2011.38 |
