''The Prophet Jeremiah'' is one of the seven Old Testament

prophets In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

painted by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

master Michelangelo (c. 1510–12) on the

Sistine Chapel ceiling The Sistine Chapel ceiling ( it, Soffitto della Cappella Sistina), painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art. The Sistine Chapel is the large papal chapel built within the Vatican ...

. The

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its nam ...

is in

Vatican Palace The Apostolic Palace ( la, Palatium Apostolicum; it, Palazzo Apostolico) is the official residence of the pope, the head of the Catholic Church, located in Vatican City. It is also known as the Papal Palace, the Palace of the Vatican and the V ...

, in the

Vatican City Vatican City (), officially the Vatican City State ( it, Stato della Città del Vaticano; la, Status Civitatis Vaticanae),—' * german: Vatikanstadt, cf. '—' (in Austria: ') * pl, Miasto Watykańskie, cf. '—' * pt, Cidade do Vati ...

. This particular fresco is the first one on the left from the side of the

High Altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paganis ...

. The person of

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewi ...

is imagined as lost in anguished meditation. Although the painting portrays Jeremiah as lamenting over the

Destruction of Jerusalem The siege of Jerusalem of 70 CE was the decisive event of the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), in which the Roman army led by future emperor Titus besieged Jerusalem, the center of Jewish rebel resistance in the Roman province of Jud ...

, critics have interpreted the figure as a self-portrait by Michelangelo, with the artist lamenting over the weight of his sins. Or perhaps Michelangelo is bemoaning his situation being forced by Julius II to paint when he wished to sculpt. Michelangelo spent 4 years on the Sistine ceiling during which time he escaped Rome and the job a few times when he fled to his hometown, Florence. Note that Raphael added the figure of Michelangelo/Heraclitus to his own fresco of the School of Athens and Raphael "copied" Michelangelo's own self-portrait and gave Michelangelo/Heraclitus boots (Michelangelo was known to have worn boots and didn't often remove them) and the bowed head on hand that Michelangelo had given himself. Influential English critic

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...

used the figure to illustrate his emotional elements of design, or how formal elements such as mass and space produce emotion:

Notes

References

*Fry, Roger. 1920. "Vision and Design." London: Chatto & Windus. "An Essay in Æsthetics." 11–24. Accessed online on 13 March 2012 at https://www.scribd.com/doc/52044301/Roger-Fry-Vision-and-design

See also

Notes

References

See also