The female figures are
especially beautiful in this picture, and again we have a foretaste of
that wonderful modelling of the flank and thigh seen to perfection in the
tombs at San Lorenzo. The weird sea and sky, the ark and the dead tree,
show what Michael Angelo could do when he liked, in departments of art
other than the human figure. The individual figures in the Deluge are
difficult to see on account of the smallness of scale in this part of the
vault. It must have been after seeing them from the floor of the chapel,
by removing some of the boards of his scaffolding, that Michael Angelo
determined to alter the scale in the remaining compositions. In no other
way can we account for the change in the size of the Athletes, at any
rate. The difference of scale between those surrounding the Sin of Ham
over the large door, and those surrounding the separation of Light from
Darkness over the High Altar, must be almost two feet. The increase is
gradual along the ceiling. Similarly the Sybilla Delphica is very much
smaller than the Sybilla Lybica, and the Prophet Joel than the Prophet
Jeremiah. The last composition of this series--a small one--represents the
Sin of Ham, and was the first painted. The vat and the wine jug are
wonderful still-life, reminding us of Bassano.
[Image #29]
THE FLOOD
A DETAIL, SISTINE CHAPEL, ROME
(_Reproduced by permission from a photograph by Sig.
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