The Prophet Ezekiel, from the “Six Seers on the Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel”

Description

Giorgio Ghisi was the most important Italian engraver of his generation. As a reproductive engraver, he translated the work of others into the medium of engraving, often at the behest of a publisher. This majestic print of the Prophet Ezekiel is from a series reproducing six of the twelve Seers (seven Prophets and five Sibyls) of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) between 1508 and 1512. The date of 1540 included on one of two inscriptions in the lower left (on the ledge on which a woman is seated) is false, and seems to have been added by the publisher to make it appear that these were the first prints made after Michelangelo’s Sistine ceiling.
The Seers are shown in pendentives—curved, triangular sections of the lower portions of the ceiling. To render Michelangelo’s powerful, muscular figures, with their impression of leaning forward in space, Ghisi employed dense, parallel lines that create deep shadows along the contours of the forms, with dots of varying sizes and densities to suggest lighter shading. He thus created weighty bodies, whose three-dimensional forms are clearly legible.
Gallery label copy by Annette Dixon, Curator