Minos Within the Last Judgment
At the bottom right corner of the Last Judgment (1536-41),
Michelangelo shows Minos, the king of hell, with a serpent wound
tightly around him, an indicator of the circle of hell to which each
damned soul must descend. Michelangelo chose to render Minos as a
stinging caricature of his enemy Biagio da Cesena (a Vatican official
who declared Last Judgment unfit for sacred walls) complete
with ass's ears and a serpent striking his genitalia. This horrible
portrayal of the punishment awaiting the damned is more than just the
artist's spiteful response to criticism from the papal chamberlain. The
scene also bears witness to Michelangelo's religious belief in an
absolute Creator, majestic and severe in his final judgment.
 Minos, shown at the bottom right of this detail, as depicted by Michelangelo in the Last Judgment (fresco 48 x 44 feet) in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican. |
The next page describes another detail from scene of the entrance to hell. Read about Charon and the connection to Dante Alighieri's Inferno.
To learn more about Michelangelo, art history, and other famous artists, see:
