Image Details

Scala/Art Resource, New York, NY

Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. The figure of Jonah serves as the linchpin connecting the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling (painted between 1508 and 1512) and the images contained in the “Last Judgment,” painted a quarter century later on the far (west) wall behind the altar and opposite the chapel’s entrance. Thus, the viewer’s eye, upon entering, is immediately drawn to the dramatic figure of Jesus, his right arm upraised, and, following the motion of that arm, to the figure of Jonah on the ceiling. Like the paired windows in the Cologne Cathedral (compare with previous two photos and next photo), Michelangelo links Jonah and Jesus in his artistic vision.