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AUTHORS

Sara Penco is an art restorer, whose work includes the restoration of the frescoes by Filippino Lippi in the Chapel Carafa in Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, of some of the ceilings in the Chamber of Deputies of the Italian Parliament, restorations in the Villa Algardi, and in the interiors of Villa Pamphili, all in Rome.

She is the creator of the Smarticon method, a patented technique for classification, cataloguing, and tracking valuable assets, particularly works from the art world. She has contributed to the preservation of prestigious works and written several unpublished works for the academic world, that were subsequently the subject of further studies, exhibitions, and publications. Sara has participated in numerous national and international conferences focusing on the discovery of newly uncovered works and on innovative technologies for the preservation of Cultural Heritage.

Asia Graziano is an art historian specializing in cultural heritage and the visual arts. She was a docent at MAMbo (Museo d’Arte Moderna in Bologna, Italy) and at the Pinacoteca Civica Molajoli di Fabriano, her native city, leading tours of Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna and Child (the Benois Madonna) on loan to the city from the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg under a UNESCO sponsored programme. Asia also took part in the archaeological dig at Attidium, an ancient Roman site, beneath the city of Attiggio in the Marche region in Italy. She curated the Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (2019). Asia’s published titles are Il Quattrocento Artistico Fabrinese (Andrea Livi Editore, 2021) and Artemisia with essays by Claudio Strinati, Sheila Barker, and Gregory Buchakjian (Scripta Maneant, 2024). She is a frequent blogger on art, culture, and lifestyle sites.

Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Church History and Cultural Heritage at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome since 2009. She is a member of the Editorial Board of Women Church World, the monthly insert in the Osservatore Romano, the daily newspaper of the Vatican State. She is also a member of the Raphael Academy in Urbino and was on the scientific committee for the events and exhibitions held in 2020 commemorating the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death. Her research focuses on the analogy between artistic form and spiritual discernment, starting from the reading of sources and the aesthetic elaboration of inner and outer images in writings on spirituality and philosophy and in the works of modern and contemporary theologians.

DESCRIPTION

◆ The figure of Mary Magdalene is identified by art restorer Sara Penco in The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel for the first time, five centuries after Michelangelo painted it.

◆ Scripta Maneant is proud to present this 240-pages volume that reveals one of the most astonishing and pivotal discoveries in art in 500 years.

◆ For the first time, Mary Magdalene, possibly the most mysterious and controversial female figure in Christianity, has been identified standing next to Christ the Redeemer in Michelangelo’s fresco of The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

◆ This discovery is uncovered in this volume for the first time, in a global revelation of unprecedented new scholarship in the history of art.

◆ Sara Penco began her investigation from the perspective that a key figure was missing entirely in Michelangelo’s oeuvre. For centuries, Mary Magdalene had failed to be seen in the fresco. Mary Magdalene is closely connected to highly significant episodes in the life of Jesus. Sara Penco rightly wondered why such a central figure in the Biblical and Christian imagination could have been excluded in Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment.

◆ For the first time in the pages of this book, the scholar traces Mary Magdalene in the tangle of figures on the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel. Sara Penco’s persuasive analysis alters the message and characteristics of one of the most famous and well-known frescoes in the world, and highlights a new theological message brought by Michelangelo to millions of visitors across centuries.

◆ The author’s ground-breaking research alters forever the reading of the fresco and of Michelangelo’s own interpretation of biblical passages.

◆ The book is written by the restorer Sara Penco, and edited by art historian Asia Graziano, and includes a Preface by Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten, professor at the Gregorian University in Rome and a leading scholar on the theme of the role of women in the Church.

◆ The book reveals the fresco of The Last Judgement in every detail thanks to astonishing ultra-high gigapixel photography by Scripta Maneant, with a 1:1 ratio to the Chapel’s frescoes that allows readers to see the work of art as Michelangelo’s himself would have painted it from the scaffolding at the top of the Chapel.

◆ The book allows us to see in a most profound and intimate experience all the details of the fresco, a masterpiece that continues to unveil itself to our eyes and understanding, five centuries after its creation.

The new reading key of the Judgement Asia Graziano Michelangelo’s Magdalene? Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten

A JUDGEMENT OF HOPE

Sara Penco

The presence of Mary Magdalene beside Christ the Redeemer

The place that symbolises christianity

The Last Judgement

The iconological message

The man at the centre of everything

The message of hope

The two characters on the right edge of the wall

Hypothesis of identification of the figure of Mary Magdalene

The apostle of the apostles

The timeless charm of the most mysterious woman in the history of christianity

The yellow crocus dress and the capacity of discernment

The tension on the face of Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene: the model of righteousness and the intermediary between Christ and humanity

A scandalous Last Judgement

Mary Magdalene, a model of righteousness beyond slander and calumny

A window on the Garden of Eden

Sharing the cross as a source of hope

Necessity of the cross in God’s plan

The connection between the cross-bearer and the woman who kisses the cross. The group of Martyrs and that of Confessors

Who is the mighty cross-bearer?

Reasonings on the reiteration of Christ the Judge in Christ the Redeemer

The hermeneutics of the Judgement finds its roots in tradition

Why are Christ the Redeemer and Mary Magdalene relegated to the right edge of the wall?

Mary Magdalene and Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Judge, Christ the Redeemer and the Apollo Belvedere: beauty as a synonym of purity

The dual event: an imperative Christ the Judge and Jesus who became man

The dramatic nature of the Judgement and the search for the “positive aspect”

The historical context at the time of the planning of the Last Judgement: the Renaissance in Europe

An environment forged in the passage between Platonism and Neoplatonism: beauty as the highest expression in God and in transcendence

Friendship with the Marquise Vittoria Colonna. The Spirituals’ circle and the need to reform the Catholic Church

Vittoria Colonna and Mary Magdalene: two women firm in their love for Christ

A unique opportunity

The Sistine Chapel and Michelangelo in literature

Michelangelo: a model of a good christian

Observe, listen, comprehend: hermeneutics in art

The scientific method in support of the encoding of hermeneutics in art

The apostle of the apostles in Michelangelo’s fresco and in the words of Pope Francis

The Sistine Chapel: humanity is welcomed into the house of God

Acknowledgements

L’inedita chiave di lettura del Giudizio

Maria Maddalena, o Maria di Màgdala in riferimento al toponimo della nascita, è strettamente connessa agli episodi salienti della vita di Gesù: la crocifissione, la deposizione, la scoperta del sepolcro vuoto e la visione di Cristo risorto. Insieme a Maria, è la donna più presente nei testi sacri e tra le figure che hanno maggiormente affascinato, anche in ragione della sua travagliata esperienza di peccatrice redenta. Fonte imprescindibile per l’agiografia della santa è la Legenda Aurea di Jacopo da Varagine. Egli tramanda che vivesse nella prosperità, nata da una famiglia illustre, con ascendenze alla stirpe regia. Di incredibile bellezza, era circondata da ricchezze e si dedicava ai piaceri del corpo. Per questo fu soprannominata “la Peccatrice”, fino all’incontro con Gesù. Egli la liberò da sette demoni e la elesse sua procuratrice. La difese dalle accuse di quanti, come il fariseo, la definivano creatura immonda o, come Giuda, la chiamavano scialacquatrice. Lei gli dimostrò amore e fedeltà lavando con le sue stesse lacrime i suoi piedi, che terse coi capelli e unse con l’unguento. Fu proprio Maria Maddalena a fermarsi in prossimità della croce del Signore durante la Passione e a ungere il suo corpo. Così come fu l’unica a non lasciare il sepolcro di Gesù quando ormai tutti i discepoli si erano allontanati. Per prima apparve a Cristo dopo la Resurrezione, divenendo “l’Apostola degli Apostoli”. Come testimone oculare del Cristo risorto, fu infatti la prima a darne loro annuncio. Cristo nutriva dunque una speciale considerazione e misericordia per questa donna, che manifestava amore e devozione in Lui. L’autrice si domanda dunque, a ragione, come sia possibile che una figura così centrale del racconto biblico e dell’immaginario cristiano possa essere stata esclusa nella raffigurazione della Parusia. Da questa con

The new reading key of the Judgement

Sara Penco’s investigation starts from the insightful evidence of the absence of a key figure in the fresco of the Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. Before this illuminating research, Mary Magdalene was not unequivocally identified within Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Father Pfeiffer, with whom Penco establishes an essential dialectic, had already hypothesised the presence of Magdalene in the fresco, but it is the scholar, for the first time in these pages, who convincingly motivates her identification. We know very well that Buonarroti was a convinced Christian and we cannot ignore his documented relationship with the “Spirituals”, the group of reformers led by the English Cardinal Reginald Pole and the Marquise Vittoria Colonna, close friend of the artist.

Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala in reference to the toponym of her birth, is closely connected to the salient episodes of Jesus’ life: the crucifixion, the deposition, the discovery of the empty tomb and the vision of the risen Christ. Together with Mary, she is the most present woman in the sacred texts and among the figures who have fascinated the most, also because of her troubled experience as a redeemed sinner. An essential source for the hagiography of the saint is the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine. He narrates that she lived in prosperity, born to a distinguished family, with royal family lineage. Of incredible beauty, she was surrounded by wealth and dedicated herself to the pleasures of the body. For this reason, she was known as "the Sinner", until she met Jesus. He freed her from seven demons and appointed her his proxy. He defended her from the accusations of those who, like the Pharisee, called her an unclean creature or, like Judas, who called her a spendthrift. She showed him her love and faithfulness by washing his feet with her own tears, which she dried with her hair and anointed with ointment. It was Mary Magdalene who stopped near the cross of the Lord during the Passion and anointed his body. Just as she was the only one who did not leave the tomb of Jesus when all the disciples had already gone away. She was the first to appear to Christ after the Resurrection, becoming “the Apostle of the Apostles”. As an eyewitness of the risen Christ, she was in fact the first to announce it to them. Therefore, Christ fed a special consideration and mercy for this woman, who manifested love and devotion in Him.

The author therefore rightly asks herself how it is possible that such a central figure in the biblical narrative and in the Christian imagination

La Maddalena di Michelangelo?

Michelangelo’s Magdalene?

Con il Giudizio Universale , Sara Penco entra in un campo a lungo studiato e complesso. All’inizio, il suo testo parla del «cuore pulsante» dell’affresco: «(…) nella testimonianza biblica che Gesù sarà il giudice è contenuta la promessa che il Giudizio di Dio sul male e su ogni colpa sarà un Giudizio di Grazia». Come sappiamo, la composizione di Michelangelo fu controversa fin dall’inizio e avrebbe dovuto essere rimossa subito dopo il suo completamento: seicento persone nude in posizioni a volte molto oscene, le cui intimità sono state dipinte o addirittura reinterpretate nel Concilio Tridentino, non è solo un luogo di gioia. Come nessun altro tribunale, le domande rimangono senza risposta fino al cielo. I dubbi si leggono sui volti, come san Pietro a destra che porge le chiavi a Cristo con un’espressione di incertezza, o l’uomo con la barba che esprime l’orrore. Non è un luogo di pace. Così come l’affresco di Picasso Guerra e pace, entrambi sono pieni di paura e speranza allo stesso tempo. Ma l’inferno nel Giudizio michelangiolesco è vuoto, apre la vista della speranza per tutti e permea l’intero quadro con la sua promessa. Qui e in altre opere, Michelangelo ha sempre collegato il principio della speranza con quello della condanna, come unità di tensione. Georg Simmel lo descrive meravigliosamente nel suo libro sull’artista, rivelando il dualismo nell’uomo e anche nelle figure di Michelangelo. La speranza si trova probabilmente nello spazio stesso della tensione. Anche la questione se il Giudizio Universale non rappresenti una Resurrezione è controversa, ma in ogni caso la grazia è sempre al centro della sua opera. Questo è il punto di partenza dell’autrice Sara Penco. Il tema della grazia in Michelangelo è probabilmente paradigmatico. Non solo perché è ripetutamente affrontato nelle opere, negli scritti e nelle poesie, così come nella vita, ma anche perché il suo concetto di grazia si è evoluto nel corso della sua esistenza dal Neoplatonismo alla sua visione riformatrice con Vittoria Colonna al suo misticismo spirituale. Diventando sempre più profondo e creando così spazi di speranza molto diversi nella sua arte. Il filosofo di religione Romano Guardini arriva a utilizzare gli scritti di Michelangelo per mostrare l’arte come luogo di pentimento. Conversione non solo nel senso di una conversione=conversio, ma come metanoia, nel greco antico per un cambiamento di “pensiero” in senso lato, “cambiamento di

With the Last Judgement, Sara Penco enters into a long-studied and complex field.

At the beginning, her text speaks of the «beating heart» of the fresco: «(…) the biblical testimony that Jesus will be the judge contains the promise that God’s Judgement on evil and on every sin will be a Judgement of Grace». As is known, Michelangelo’s composition was controversial from the beginning and should have been removed soon after its completion: Six hundred naked people in some very obscene positions, whose intimacies were painted or even reinterpreted in the Council of Trent, is not only a place of joy. Unlike any other court, questions remain unanswered up to heaven. Doubts can be read on the faces, like Saint Peter on the right who holds out the keys to Christ with an expression of uncertainty, or the bearded man who expresses horror. It is not a place of peace. Like Picasso’s fresco War and Peace, both are full of fear and hope at the same time. But hell in Michelangelo’s Judgement is empty, it opens the view of hope for everyone, and permeates the entire painting with its promise.

Here and in other works, Michelangelo has always connected the principle of hope with the one of condemnation, as a unity of tension. Georg Simmel describes it beautifully in his book on Michelangelo, revealing the dualism in the man and also in Michelangelo’s figures. Hope can probably be found in the same space of tension. The question of whether the Last Judgement does not represent a resurrection is also controversial, but in any case, grace is always at the centre of his work. This is the starting point of the author Sara Penco.

The theme of grace in Michelangelo is probably paradigmatic. Not only because it is repeatedly addressed in his works, writings and poems, as well as in his life, but also because his concept of grace has evolved throughout his existence from Neoplatonism to his reforming vision with Vittoria Colonna to his spiritual mysticism. Becoming increasingly deeper and thus creating spaces of hope so different in his art. The philosopher of religion Romano Guardini will get to use Michelangelo’s writings to show art as a place of repentance. Conversion not only in the sense of a conversion=conversio, but as metanoia, from ancient Greek for a change of “thought” in a broad sense, “change of mind”, in order to lead to a change of attitude and behaviour. Guardini means a conversion in the sense of a change of mind,

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Giudizio Universale 1536-1541, affresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Cappella Sistina, Città del Vaticano.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Last Judgement 1536-1541, fresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Michelangelo Buonarroti,

Cristo Giudice e la Vergine. Dettaglio dal Giudizio Universale, 1536-1541, affresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Cappella Sistina, Città del Vaticano.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Christ the Judge and the Virgin Mary Detail from the Last Judgement 1536-1541, fresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Maria Maddalena. Dettaglio dal Giudizio Universale, 1536-1541, affresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Cappella Sistina, Città del Vaticano.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Mary Magdalene. Detail from the Last Judgement, 1536-1541, fresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

(A fronte)

Michelangelo Buonarroti, San Lorenzo Dettaglio dal Giudizio Universale 1536-1541, affresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Cappella Sistina, Città del Vaticano.

(Opposite)

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Saint Lawrence Detail from the Last Judgement 1536-1541, fresco,1370 × 1200 cm, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

(A pagina 174)

Michelangelo Buonarroti, Particolare della pelle. Dettaglio dal Giudizio Universale 1536-1541, affresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Cappella Sistina, Città del Vaticano.

(On page 174)

Michelangelo Buonarroti, The flayed skin. Detail from the Last Judgement, 1536-1541, fresco, 1370 × 1200 cm, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City.

(A pagina 179)

Daniele da Volterra, Autoritratto di Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1545, olio su tavola, 88,3 × 64 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

(On page 179)

Daniele from Volterra, Self-Portrait of Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1545, oil on panel, 88.3 × 64 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

“Has Mary Magdalene finally been found in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel?

Mary Magdalene, according to the gospels, was one of Christ’s loyal disciples who accompanied him as he spread his message.

Once portrayed as a repentant prostitute, she is now widely regarded as a saint by Catholic and other Christian faiths.

Ms Penco, who consulted various studies by scholars and theologians before conducting her own research, said the gospels often describe Mary Magdalene at the moment of Christ’s redemption and she was fundamental in how salvation could be achieved.”

— The Telegraph

“Mystery of Mary Magdalene’s whereabouts in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel resolved.”

— The Catholic Herald

“If she [Sara Penco] did indeed fill in this missing puzzle piece, she may have closed the book a mystery that’s eluded researchers for centuries.”

— The Times

“Now, nearly 500 years on, a researcher claims to have found a key biblical figure in the beautiful fresco, who until now was ‘missing’.

Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus Christ’s most dedicated followers, makes a subtle appearance in the painting… Allegedly a witness to Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, Mary Magdalene is depicted with blonde hair, kissing Jesus Christ’s cross, the expert says.”

— The Daily Mail

“ Then, there’s the shock yellow of the woman’s dress. The color was evocative of treachery, sin, and madness, characteristics that were commonly associated with Mary Magdalene — though sometimes she was portrayed in red, the color of resurrection. The point is not to condemn the woman, but to remind the viewer of their own imperfections. Redemption, we might observe, remains possible for those who draw close to Christ. It’s an example that Michelangelo, who fretted about his own sinfulness, believes we must keep in mind. The kicker? Mary Magdalene’s gaze is directed not towards Christ, but us the viewer.”

— ArtNet

L’indagine di Sara Penco muove dal perspicace riscontro dell’assenza di una figura chiave nell’affresco del Giudizio Universale in Cappella Sistina. Prima di questa illuminante ricerca, Maria Maddalena non era inequivocabilmente identificata all’interno del capolavoro di Michelangelo. Padre Pfeiffer, con cui la Penco istaura una dialettica imprescindibile, aveva già ipotizzato la presenza della Maddalena nell’affresco, ma è la studiosa, per la prima volta in queste pagine, a motivarne con convinzione l’identificazione. Maria Maddalena è strettamente connessa agli episodi salienti della vita di Gesù. L’autrice si domanda dunque, a ragione, come sia possibile che una figura così centrale del racconto biblico e dell’immaginario cristiano possa essere stata esclusa nella raffigurazione della Parusia. Da questa constatazione, nasce un’accurata riflessione sull’iconografia della santa e del Giudizio, in rapporto con i testi sacri e in relazione alla poetica e alla produzione di Michelangelo. Sara Penco rintraccia nel groviglio di figure sulla parete dietro l’altare della Cappella Sistina, Maria Maddalena, contribuendo a caratterizzare l’affresco - una delle opere più conosciute e apprezzate al mondo - di un inedito messaggio teologico. / Investigations by Sara Penco stems from the insightful finding of the absence of a key figure in the Sistine Chapel’s Last Judgement fresco. Prior to this illuminating research, Mary Magdalene was not unequivocally identified within Michelangelo’s masterpiece. Father Pfeiffer, with whom Penco establishes an inescapable dialectic, had already hypothesised the presence of Mary Magdalene in the fresco, but it is the scholar, for the first time in these pages, who convincingly justifies her identification. Mary Magdalene is closely connected to the salient episodes in the life of Jesus. The author rightly wonders, therefore, how it is possible that a figure so central to the biblical narrative and the Christian imagination could have been excluded from the depiction of the Parousia. This observation gives rise to an accurate reflection on the iconography of the saint and the Judgement, in relation to the sacred texts and in relation to Michelangelo’s poetics and production. Sara Penco traces Mary Magdalene in the tangle of figures on the wall behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel, contributing to characterise the fresco - one of the best known and most appreciated works in the world - with an unprecedented theological message.

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Maria Magdalene in Michelangelos Judgement_BLAD