Frescoes by Michelangelo for the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican were commissioned by Pope Julius II, started in 1508 and completed in 1512. On the lower part of the vault are the prophets and the sibyls. Daniel is at the end nearest the altar. Kugler refers to them as being
among the most wonderful forms that modern art has called into life... Their forms and movements, indicated by the grand lines and masses of the drapery, are majestic and dignified. We see in them beings who, while they feel and bear the sorrows of a corrupt and sinful world, are majestic and dignified.( Kugler, ed. Eastlake, Handbook of the History of Painting, Part One, The Italian Schools, First Edition, p. 207)
Daniel is the one figure not mentioned by Kugler, and it is Daniel 's vest button to which Ruskin draws attention.
Michelangelo Buonarroti 1475-1564
Daniel 1508-12
Pigment on wet plaster, 13.7x39m
Collection: Sisitene Chapel ceiling, Vatican, Rome
For a reproduction of this artistic work, please consult: Gombrich, E. H., The Story of Art, (Phaidon, 1995), p.309