Thursday, March 10, 2016

Baigio da Cesena as Minos, from Michelangelo's The Last Judgment (1536-1541)



Minos, judge of the Underworld by Michelangelo
Baigio da Cesena was the papal master of ceremonies (The Pope's M.C.!) who criticized Michelangelo's depictions of nude figures, saying that they would be more fitting for a "public tavern" than the Sistine Chapel. So Michelangelo painted him into the scene, with the ears of an ass and a viper biting his genitals, about to be cast into the Second Circle of Hell. When da Cesena protested, Pope Paul III (God bless him), said, "I have no jurisdiction over Hell."

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