¡¡¡¡ For many art historians, writers and commentators, Michelangelo¡¯s Last
Judgement is the crowning achievement of the Renaissance.This is no small claim
as the Renaissance was an astoundingly fertile era, when in a staggering burst
of creativity, humanist artists, sculptors and architects rediscovered and gave
new meaning to painting, the depiction of the figure and the construction of
buildings of timeless beauty.
¡¡¡¡ In 1533 Michelangelo was invited by Pope Clement VII to paint a Last Judgement of the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.However, Clement VII died before work could begin and it was his successor Paul III that confirmed the commission in 1535. The work was eventually unveiled in 1541. The Last Judgement is the Christian doctrine of the apocalypse and the Second Coming of Christ.
¡¡¡¡ When Michelangelo¡¯s Last Judgement was unveiled in 1541, the crowds who came to view it were struck dumb by the ¡°terribilit¨¤¡± of the work.£± When Pope Paul III saw the painting, he is reported to have broken into prayer at the sight ¡°Lord, charge me not with my sins when Thou shalt come on the Day of Judgement.¡±2 Michelangelo himself is reported to have attested to the painting the words of Dante: ¡°The dead seemed dead, and the living seemed alive.¡±3
¡¡¡¡ How then could any later artist hope to make any work based on this sublime masterpiece that could add in any way to its power and its glory? Who would have the temerity to try?
¡¡¡¡ In The Last Judgement in Cyberspace, Beijing artist Miao Xiaochun has created a three dimensional model of Michelangelo¡¯s painting and has populated it with digital versions of all four hundred figures that play a part in the unfolding drama. The technology that he employs has been used in