The Last Judgement, Martino Rota; Michelangelo Buonarroti

Exhibition Label: "Giorgio Vasari and Court Culture in Late Renaissance Italy," Sep-2012, Sally Cornelison and Susan Earle In his Life of Michelangelo, Vasari did not expound upon the composition of the Last Judgment (1536-41, pictured below) Michelangelo frescoed on the Sistine Chapel’s altar wall, explaining that it was not necessary “because many copies [of it], large and small, have been printed.” This print is an excellent example of the copies to which Vasari referred. Contemporary critics decried the Last Judgment’s many male and female nudes, which they felt lacked the decorum appropriate to the consecrated chapel in which masses were celebrated and new popes were (and still are) elected. Not long after Michelangelo died in 1564, draperies were painted over some of the offensive body parts and others were refrescoed. Although the Dalmatian artist Martino Rota signed and dated this print four years after the first draperies were added to the fresco in 1565, like nearly all 16th century prints of the Last Judgment, his retains the figures’ original nudity. Archive Label 2003: Rota worked in Venice, Florence, and Rome, where he engraved prints after paintings by Titian and Michelangelo. The Last Judgment reproduces Michelangelo’s painting of the same title from the Sistine Chapel. The inclusion of a portrait of Michelangelo at the top of the print not only serves to distinguish the image from Rota’s own creations, but also functions as a type of homage to the master artist.