Michelangelo
by Sampooran Singh Kalra
(Gulzar)
Match the names of the pieces of art given in Column A with the names of the artists in Column B.
=
|
Column A |
Column B |
|---|---|
|
1. Mona Lisa |
a. Van Gogh. [3] |
|
2. The Tragedy |
b. Da Vinci. [1] |
|
3. The Starry Night |
c. Monet. [4] |
|
4. Woman with a Parasol |
d. Picasso. [2] |
Making Connections
Quick Answers
1. Complete the following sentences.
a. Rome had began to bore Michelangelo because he could not find faces for his paintings.
b. Michelangelo had found Mary with ease when he saw his mother carrying two pots of water from a bamboo stick on her shoulder.
c. Michelangelo had refused to paint the frescoes for the Sistine Chapel because he was a sculptor and not a painter.
d. Michelangelo found 'his Judas' in a small, dingy eatery in Rome where he was asking for a change for a florin and ended up sharing his food.
e. Michelangelo was taken aback when 'his Judas' showed his name tattooed on his arm - Marsolini. He was the same child whose face had been used by Michelangelo as the face of little Jesus and now he is going to use the face to give the face to Judas.
Reference to context
2. "I don't want any unpleasantness at this stage."
a. Whose opinion was this?
= This is the opinion of Pope Julius.
b. What problem was he thinking of?
= He was thinking of the time when Michelangelo was carving the Crucifixion - in wood - for the Church of the Holy Spirit and he had come excitedly to Julius, saying he had found just the right model. The model was a dead man! The Pope remembered ruefully how the funeral had been held up for twelve hours.
c. What was the work that is being referred to here?
= The work that is being referred to here was to paint frescoes of important events from the Bible on the walls and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Now they were nearly done. Only 'The Last Judgement' remained unfinished.
3. "The sight fascinated Angelo."
a. Where was Michelangelo sitting?
= Michelangelo was sitting on a bench outside the eatery at the corner of their street in Bologna.
b. What was the sight that fascinated Michelangelo?
= At that eatery in Bologna, a vendor was selling peanuts nearby. Every time, the vendor weighed them out, a few would fall to the ground. A naked rag-dressed child would move across the street, pick the nuts and give them to the vendor, quietly one into his mouth - one peanut for every time he helped the peanut seller. Then he would wait for the next customer to come. This sight fascinated Michelangelo.
c. What influence did the sight have on Michelangelo?
= The child influenced him very much. He drew many sketches of the child. Many years later, while carving the Madonna of Bruges, he had used those sketches to make the little Jesus, small and naked.
4. "Why do you love stone so much? Why not canvas and colours?"
a. Who spoke these lines?
= Pope Julius spoke these lines.
b. What was Michelangelo's response to the questions given above?
= In answer to the question given above, Michelangelo replied the colours merge. They lose their identity and mix with others, unlike marble.
c. Where exactly did Michelangelo's genius fail him?
= Michelangelo's genius fail him each time it came to the face of Judas. His was an impossible face to conceive.
Read, reflect and write
5. What work had Michelangelo been assigned by the Pope?
= Michelangelo had been assigned by the Pope to paint frescos of important events from the Bible on the walls and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Now they were nearly done. Only 'The Last Judgement' remained unfinished.
6. Why did Pope Julius prefer Michelangelo to Bramante?
= According to the Pope, Bramante was a great painter too. Unlike Michelangelo, he proudly proclaimed that he conjured faces from his imagination. But Bramante's faces looked as though they had emerged from a common mould. According to the Medici, all Bramante's characters bore a strong family resemblance. Pope Julius had no choice but to dismiss Bramante and approach Michelangelo.
7. Why do you think Pope Julius gave Michelangelo so much time to find 'his Judas'? Do you think Michelangelo deserved the duration of time he was given by the Pope?
= It had been four years Michelangelo was trying to find face for 'his Judas'. He had been in Florence and Rome. Yet, he could manage nothing. Pope Julius was trying to insist Michelangelo to do fast. Yet he kept his patience as Michelangelo did his magic in the previous works. He is a perfectionist. He takes time and does miracle. I think this is the reason Pope Julius gave Michelangelo so much time to find 'his Judas'.
Michelangelo tries to figure out the faces of the characters of the Bible from the verses of the same. He used to repeat and mumble the verses of the Bible. He could hear the voices of the characters of the Bible. He figured out the face of Gabriel from the verses of the Old Testament. It is obvious that Michelangelo deserves the duration of time he was given by the Pope.
8. What, according to you, is the central idea of the story?
= According to me, the central idea of the story is art and artist. Excellence and integrity to work of the artists come together in their art. This has been elaborately depicted by some events of the brilliant artist of all time - Michelangelo.
Pope Julius had commissioned Michelangelo for a special task: to paint frescoes of important events from the Bible on the walls and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. They were nearly done. Only 'The Last Judgement' remained unfinished.
Michelangelo tries to figure out the faces of the characters of the Bible from the verses of the same. He used to repeat and mumble the verses of the Bible. He could hear the voices of the characters of the Bible. He figured out the face of Gabriel from the verses of the Old Testament.
Michelangelo found the face of Mary in his mother. He found the face of little Jesus in the little boy at the eatery at the corner of the street in Bologna. He found 'his Judas' in an eatery in Rome after the search of four years. He ended up being astonished after discovering that the man of Judas is the same child whose face had been used for little Jesus.
9. Marsolini had gone from being the radiant child whose face Michelangelo had given to Baby Jesus, to the beady-eyed man fit to be painted as Judas. What do you think could have been the circumstances that had caused this change in him?
= Judas Iscariot was a disciple and one of the original Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin in the Garden of Gethsemane by kissing him to reveal his identity in the darkness to the crowd who had come to arrest him.
Here we can see the same moral decline in Marsolini. Marsolini had gone from being the radiant child whose face Michelangelo had given to Baby Jesus, to the beady-eyed man fit to be painted as Judas.
I think this is the responsibility of the contemporary society which may had failed to provide Marsolini proper facilities to lead a gentle life. He had remained the same to procure his food from the street eateries in an inappropriate way - both in his childhood and youth. On the other hand, Marsolini himself can not avoid his own responsibilities to make himself a good human being. He might have worked hard, might have hold more patience and endurance to prove himself as a kind and gentle citizen of the society.
10. Extended Writing : Do you think Michelangelo was genius? Use examples from the text to support your answer.
= Michelangelo was the most brilliant artist of all times. Both excellence and integrity came together in his art work. He conjured faces of his art work from this very real world. Michelangelo had started painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He would lie for hours beneath the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, staring at it and muttering to himself.
In those lime-coated brick and mud walls, Angelo was searching for faces. The faces of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Judas. He could see their flesh and blood forms.
Michelangelo tries to figure out the faces of the characters of the Bible from the verses of the same. He used to repeat and mumble the verses of the Bible. He could hear the voices of the characters of the Bible. He figured out the face of Gabriel from the verses of the Old Testament.
The day he saw his mother carrying two pots of water strung from a bamboo stick on her shoulder. He had thought that the woman who had borne Christ in her womb would have been like his mother, just as thin and frail.
At that eatery in Bologna, a vendor was selling peanuts nearby. Every time, the vendor weighed them out, a few would fall to the ground. A naked rag-dressed child would move across the street, pick the nuts and give them to the vendor, quietly one into his mouth - one peanut for every time he helped the peanut seller. Then he would wait for the next customer to come.
The child influenced him very much. He drew many sketches of the child. Many years later, while carving the Madonna of Bruges, he had used those sketches to make the little Jesus, small and naked.
Then, one day Michelangelo found 'his Judas'. There he was in the small, dingy eatery in Rome. A man with unusually bright, beady eyes. The man was brimming with restless energy, spitting here and there. He was prematurely bald and when he talked, the words tumbled out fast like coins from a torn pocket. He was asking change for a florin from everyone and ended up sharing their food. The man was actually tricking people for food. He would ask someone for change for a florin as an excuse for sharing their food.
Thus, Michelangelo used to merge his perception from the verses of the Bible to the activities of the models of the real world and created his artistic miracles. Face is the mirror of the mind and activities of an individual. This fact is the major notable thing for finding faces for the paintings of Michelangelo. There is parallel kind of activities in the Bible characters and of those models he used for his paintings. He was really a genius.
About the Author :
Sampooran Singh Kalra (b. 1936) is better known by his pen name Gulzar. He is known for his poetry in Hindi-Urdu, Punjabi and other languages. He is an acclaimed lyricist for Hindi cinema, along with being an accomplished director. He has won recognition for his contribution to Indian literature as well as to Hindi cinema. Interestingly, before he became a reputed writer, Gulzar worked as a car mechanic.