Sunday

Biagio da Cesena - The man who pissed off Michelangelo (Nudity in Art)


To return to the Last Judgement: Michelangelo had already finished more than three~fourths of the work when Pope Paul went to see it. On this occasion Biagio da Cesena, the master of ceremonies and a very high-minded person, happened to be with the Pope in the chapel and was asked what he thought of the painting. He answered that it was most disgraceful that in so sacred a place there should have been depicted all those nude figures, exposing themselves so shamefully, and that it was no work for a papal chapel but rather for the public baths and taverns. Angered by this comment, Michelangelo determined he would have his revenge; and as soon as Biagio had left he drew his portrait frorn memory in the figure of Minos, shown with a great serpent curled around his legs, among a heap of devils in hell; nor for all his pleading with the Pope and Michelangelo could Biagio have the figure removed, and it was left, to record the incident, as it is today. - Vasari's "Lives of The Artists" (Translated by George Bull, Penguin; Middlesex, England: 1965; p. 379)

Note how Biagio is depicted with the ears of a donkey and how the snake is about to bite his penis. Don't piss off artists. They can take revenge in many different ways.