The Lost Journals of Michelangelo: Volume II

by Gayle Millbank

Copyright © 2011 by Seapoint Publishing and GG Millbank at Smashwords

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Although Michelangelo was a real person, and may well have written a journal, and the author has tried to be as accurate as possible, this book is a work of fiction.

ISBN 978-0-9731421-8-1

Seapoint Publishing,

Email: info@seapointpublishing.com

Official Journal of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

resumed on this day in 1508.

May 6, 1508 and I'm with demanding Julius in Roma.

I signed a contract to paint the vault of the Sistine chapel. It was named after Pope Sixtus IV who built it for important papal ceremonies. Julius is right the gold stars on the blue sky have to be covered. But he's wrong about me. I'm not a painter of domed ceilings.

It’s really quite an honour, I'm told. None-the-less I want to get back to my marbles. They are sitting where I left them. I hear them calling to me but I can do nothing but follow the wishes of the demanding Julius.

There are forces working against me here. I think they want me to fail. What better way than to pose the almost impossible task of painting the dome? They know I’d rather be sculpting than painting.None-the-less I'm puzzling out how to handle the dome. It is a task of such gigantic proportion that even I am almost overwhelmed. But I plunge on, sketching scenes and planning how they will fit together. The shape of the dome affects everything from foreshortening to perspective. I don’t want it to be grotesque. There I go planning the dome. It's like I'm caught in a river current that is dragging me along toward dangerous rapids. I can't stop the river but I can start planning what I'll do when I get to the rapids.

That young, pretty Raphael got a soft job of frescos in the library of Julius’ private apartment. They better not compare that puny job with the task in front of me. Hell, he can even stand upright to paint; I’ll have to lie on my back with paint dripping in my eyes and mouth. I even wrote a poem about it:

My beard doth point to heaven, my scalp its place

Upon my shoulders finds; my chest, you’ll say,

A harpy’s is, my paintbrush all the day

Doth drop a rich mosaic on my face.

The place is wrong, and no painter I.”

June 6, 1508 and I'm considering pigments.

I'm really busy but I'm going to try to write something on the sixth of each month, or at a minimum on every birthday, just like I did in my first journal. Which, by the way ,I hid between some stones in my wine cellar. I hope someone finds it after I die. I don't know if any one will want to read it. Something is compelling me to write. I do it for myself.

I just looked back at my first book that I started when I was eleven. The writing is messy and cluttered with sketches. Considering I had only one year of tutoring my grasp of written Italian was very good. I must have been much smarter then. These days as I consider the vast vault of the Chapel I feel like a small child faced with a task of such proportions that I want to hide way back in a marble quarry and never come out.But that's not one of my choices, so I tried to talk Julius into having Rafael do the dome as it was his medium. Julius. just got furious at my suggestion. I gave up. I might as well paint it.

I sure hope everything Ghirlandaio taught me about fresco will stand up on this scale. He did large frescos. I better trust his guidance since I have no other choice.If I remember rightly the damp lime-wash binds the pigments and provides white coloring. I've spent a lot of time and effort getting the purest materials, especially the marble dust. It's the purest white that Carrara produces. It needs to be, to show off the colors. I’ll have my students apply only enough plaster as can be painted in one day. They can prepare the ground of two parts marble sand to one part of plaster the night before and cover it well so it doesn't dry out. The more I think about it, the more I realize Gran better come and to make sure they apply it in thin layers. If they don’t do the plaster right I’ll fire them. Then I’ll put the day’s cartone onto the prepared area and trace the outlines with an iron stylus. Then I'll do all the painting. I've planned for the joint lines where the giornati meet. This is so tedious and complicated it makes the wall in the Palazzo Vecchio seem simple. The one good thing about that Battle of Casina fresco was that it made me review my fresco technique. However this job is so massive I can't do it myself, and I don't have good help. I hate it. I want to get back to my marbles.

I remember it takes about six weeks to dry then I’ll have to go back and touch it up. Well, one hundred and thirty-two feet by forty-four feet should keep me busy for awhile.

I want Gran to come here and help me.

July 6, 1508 and I had a vision

I guess God wants me to do this because when I woke up this morning I knew how to do it. I will divide this dome into three zones. The lowest, hence closest to man, will be Christ’s ancestors with the corners filled with heroic scenes from the bible. I’ll unify them with shape, triangles with the base near earth, and a frame.which will be ornate. I’ll let my assistants paint the frames. In the second layer in the notch between the triangles I will put a throne in each with Old Testament prophets. In the third zone, right in the top of the dome I will have nine sections each with a scene from Genesis.

Then I still have some space to fill so I think I’ll do the Medici Garden Gang and put Gran in this time. We’ll be muscular and god-like sitting at the corner of the histories.

I am not going to follow the rules of perspective. They are too rigid from one point of view. This domed ceiling affects everything. I am going to have to foreshorten parts of their bodies. It will have to be decided one figure by one figure. But I’m going to give it lots of dramatic movement and make them come to life. I’m going to unify it with painted frames.

Fresco painting is hell. I have to paint directly onto wet plaster and I cannot make corrections. I brush the color on which soaks into a layer of fresh plaster. I paint in daily sections or giornate. After it dries I touch up the colors a secco using tempera. I do it to give a sculptural effect. I know I'm repeating myself but I need the review.

Another thing is I have to build a scaffolding, sixty-six feet high (That kind of goes with Sixtus and Sistine, ha,ha.). I designed it, Bramante’s idea would have left holes in the ceiling and hence in the fresco. What kind of architect is that?

I sure appreciate the pigments Gran brought and for reminding me about the mixing. Si, that's another gift from God, Gran arrived last week and gave me a lengthy opinion, basically supporting my ideas.

March 6, 1509. I'm thirty-four years old today and I'm worried about money.

The mural is proceeding and Julius paid me only to January one of this year. I need more money. Why can't he just pay me regularly? Worrying about money distracts me from painting.

I let the prophets get so big I had to lower their thrones. And I love the nude medallion bearers, they come alive and twist right out of their corners and are overlapping the Genesis scene. I like them and don’t want to control them. Let them be I say.

I put Judith and Holdfernes in one corner, David and Goliath in another, The Hanging of Haman in another and the Brazen Serpent in the fourth corner. Between them I’ve got eight triangles, so I guess I’ll put Josiah, Ezekias, Jesse, Salmon and who else? Gran gives me suggestions.

Genesis is straight forward with a panel for Eve and one for Adam. I’m going to put Eve right in the middle; without her none of the rest would happen. The creation of the sun and moon is another. I'll ask Gran what he thinks about Noah having a panel when he comes over for supper tonight. He's bringing the wine and cheese and bread.