Michelangelo's Judas

One of my favorite short stories is Michelangelo by Gulzar. Originally written in Hindi, it was later translated into English. The story describes the painting of the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican City by the great Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor - Michelangelo. Between 1508 and 1512, under the patronage of Pope Julius II, Michelangelo frescoed 12,000 square feet of the chapel ceiling. To this day, the work remains one of the crowning achievements of the Renaissance period.


Michelangelo, however, preferred sculpting to painting. "Colors lose their distinctiveness when used with other colours. They change. Marble doesn't change." He, unlike other artists of the day, did not conjure up faces in his mind. And that is why he was constantly in search of models, models for baby Jesus, for the Maggi, for Gabriel, for each of the disciples. As a child in Bolgna, his birthplace, he frequently accompanied his alcoholic father to the local pub, to have peanuts outside. While weighing the peanuts, a few always rolled out of the basket and fell on the ground and a small naked boy standing nearby would pick them up, put one nut in his mouth and the rest back in the basket, and then wait for the next customer. Michelangelo used to buy peanuts just to watch that performance. He used the boy as the model for the naked baby Jesus in the statue of the Madonna of Brujis. He wanted his works to be true to the spirit. He spent hours reciting the Bible, trying to hear the voices of the characters, so that he could imagine their faces. For Mother Mary he had used the painting of his own mother, who suffered a lot due to poverty and a drunkard husband. One evening, under the dim light of the lantern, as she was busy preparing dinner, he painted her face, glowing like gold in the light of the fire.


Due to his insistence on immaculate portrayal, the Sistine Chapel was taking a long time to come up, and the Pope, who had hired him personally, was under fire for preferring a novice over some other well known painters. Finally, most of the Chapel was completed, except one painting which required the face of Judas. Michelangelo tried his best, but neither could he imagine Judas nor find a model in Rome who would suit his purpose. For how would that person look, he thought, who betrayed Christ for a few pieces of sliver? He got his answer at a dingy pub in Rome. "His eyes had unnatural glitter, he was restless and he spat again and again. His body had already begun to sag with age. He spoke so fast that words seemed to fall out of his mouth like coins from a torn pocket. He had gone to Michelangelo to beg for a dinar, but had ended up sharing a bottle with him. When Michelangelo came out of the pub, he saw the man ask someone else for two dinars."


Michelangelo had found his Judas. He struck a deal with the man to model for his paintings. The man came everyday to the Chapel. One day as he was looking at some of Michelangelo's paintings, his eyes stuck at one particular painting of baby Jesus. He asked Michelangelo about the painting. Michelangelo replied that he had made that sketch long ago in Bologna, where he came from. 


"Do you remember his name?"


"Yes...Marsoleni."


The man smiled, rolled up his sleeve and showed a name tattooed on his arm: "Marsoleni".


"I am the same baby Jesus," he said, "whom now you are painting as Judas."