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Ars Longa, Vita Brevis
when the Last Judgment was nearing completion
Pope Paul III brought Biagio da Cesena into the Sistine Chapel
and when Biagio saw St Blaise bent over St Catherine
in something of a sodomitic pose
(her naked breasts dangling over a portion of her breaking wheel)
he said it was “disgraceful that in so sacred a place
there should be depicted such vile nude figures—
it is rather more suited for a bathhouse or tavern”
(Pietro Aretino said it belonged in a brothel)
overhearing Biagio’s comment
Michelangelo painted the man’s portrait
in the figure of the ass-eared Minos surrounded by devils
on the damned side of the fresco near the shore of Styx
(his fat torso constricted by a serpent biting into his penis)
for years Biagio implored the Pope to remove it
“I have some little influence in Heaven” Paul would always tell him
“but I’m afraid I have none in Hell”
copyright 2012
David
Cravens |
