Two damned souls fighting, after Michelangelo's 'The Last Judgment' fresco in the Sistine Chapel
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 1/4 × 6 9/16 in. (15.9 × 16.7 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.570.235
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the turbulent chaos of Michelangelo Buonarroti's monumental *The Last Judgment* fresco1536–1541) on the Sistine Chapel wall, damned souls writhe in eternal torment. This dynamic 1580 engraving by Cherubino Alberti (also known as Zaccaria Mattia) captures a gripping detail: two muscular male nudes locked in ferocious combat, their bodies twisted in agony amid the apocalypse. Alberti, a skilled Italian engraver from the late Renaissance, faithfully reproduces Michelangelo's powerful forms, emphasizing the raw emotion and anatomical precision that define the master's High Renaissance style tra...
About the Artist
Cherubino Alberti (Zaccaria Mattia)|Michelangelo Buonarroti · 1553–1615
Cherubino Alberti (1553–1615), also known by his birth name Zaccaria Mattia, was an Italian engraver and painter active in Rome during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Born in Borgo San Sepolcro in Tuscany, he came from an artistically inclined family and received training that equipped him for work in both painting and the reproductive graphic arts. It was as a printmaker, however,...