document_title: Sistine Chapel ceiling

question_text: the medium of the artwork that decorates the sistine chapel ceiling is

question_tokens: the medium of the artwork that decorates the sistine chapel ceiling is

text: Sistine Chapel ceiling

text: Context and history[edit]

text: Pope Julius II was a "warrior pope" who in his papacy undertook an aggressive campaign for political control, to unite and empower Italy under the leadership of the Church. He invested in symbolism to display his temporal power, such as his procession, in the Classical manner, through a triumphal arch in a chariot after one of his many military victories. It was Julius who began the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in 1506, as the most potent symbol of the source of papal power.[4]

text: In the same year 1506, Pope Julius conceived a program to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.[5] The walls of the chapel had been decorated twenty years earlier. The lowest of three levels is painted to resemble draped hangings and was (and sometimes still is) hung on special occasions with the set of tapestries designed by Raphael. The middle level contains a complex scheme of frescoes illustrating the Life of Christ on the right side and the Life of Moses on the left side. It was carried out by some of the most renowned Renaissance painters: Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Pinturicchio, Signorelli and Cosimo Rosselli.[6] The upper level of the walls contains the windows, between which are painted pairs of illusionistic niches with representations of the first thirty-two popes.[7] A draft by Matteo d'Amelia indicates that the ceiling was painted blue like that of the Arena Chapel and decorated with gold stars, possibly representing the zodiacal constellations. It is probable that, because the chapel was the site of regular meetings and Masses of an elite body of officials known as the Papal Chapel who would observe the decorations and interpret their theological and temporal significance, it was Pope Julius' intention and expectation that the iconography of the ceiling was to be read with many layers of meaning.[8]

text: Michelangelo, who was not primarily a painter but a sculptor, was reluctant to take on the work. Also, he was occupied with a very large sculptural commission for the pope's own tomb. The pope was adamant, leaving Michelangelo no choice but to accept.[9] But a war with the French broke out, diverting the attention of the pope, and Michelangelo fled from Rome to continue sculpting. The tomb sculptures, however, were never to be finished because in 1508 the pope returned to Rome victorious and summoned Michelangelo to begin work on the ceiling. The contract was signed on 10 May 1508.[5]

text: The scheme proposed by the pope was for twelve large figures of the Apostles to occupy the pendentives.[10][11] However, Michelangelo negotiated for a grander, much more complex scheme and was finally permitted, in his own words, "to do as I liked".[12] His scheme for the ceiling eventually comprised some three hundred figures and took four years to execute, being completed and shown to the public on All Saints Day in 1512 after a preliminary showing and papal Mass on August 14, 1511.[5][9] It is unknown and is the subject of much speculation among art historians whether Michelangelo was really able to "do as he liked".[11] It has been suggested that the Augustinian friar and cardinal, Giles of Viterbo, was a consultant for the theological aspect of the work.[13] Many writers consider that Michelangelo had the intellect, the Biblical knowledge, and the powers of invention to have devised the scheme himself. This is supported by Ascanio Condivi's statement that Michelangelo read and reread the Old Testament while he was painting the ceiling, drawing his inspiration from the words of the scripture, rather than from the established traditions of sacral art.[14] A total of 343 figures were painted on the ceiling.

text: Method[edit]

text: To reach the chapel's ceiling, Michelangelo designed his own scaffold, a flat wooden platform on brackets built out from holes in the wall near the top of the windows, rather than being built up from the floor. Mancinelli speculates that this was in order to cut the cost of timber.[15] According to Michelangelo's pupil and biographer Ascanio Condivi, the brackets and frame that supported the steps and flooring were all put in place at the beginning of the work and a lightweight screen, possibly cloth, was suspended beneath them to catch plaster drips, dust, and splashes of paint.[16] Only half the building was scaffolded at a time and the platform was moved as the painting was done in stages.[15] The areas of the wall covered by the scaffolding still appear as unpainted areas across the bottom of the lunettes. The holes were re-used to hold scaffolding in the latest restoration.

text: Contrary to popular belief, he painted in a standing position, not lying on his back. According to Vasari, "The work was carried out in extremely uncomfortable conditions, from his having to work with his head tilted upwards".[9] Michelangelo described his physical discomfort in a humorous sonnet accompanied by a little sketch.

text: The painting technique employed was fresco, in which the paint is applied to damp plaster. Michelangelo had been an apprentice in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandaio, one of the most competent and prolific of Florentine fresco painters, at the time that the latter was employed on a fresco cycle at Santa Maria Novella and whose work was represented on the walls of the Sistine Chapel.[17] At the outset, the plaster, intonaco, began to grow mold because it was too wet. Michelangelo had to remove it and start again. He then tried a new formula created by one of his assistants, Jacopo l'Indaco, which resisted mold and entered the Italian building tradition.[16]

text: Because he was painting fresco, the plaster was laid in a new section every day, called a giornata. At the beginning of each session, the edges would be scraped away and a new area laid down.[15] The edges between giornate remain slightly visible; thus, they give a good idea of how the work progressed. It was customary for fresco painters to use a full-sized detailed drawing, a cartoon, to transfer a design onto a plaster surface—many frescoes show little holes made with a stiletto, outlining the figures. Here Michelangelo broke with convention; once confident the intonaco had been well applied, he drew directly onto the ceiling. His energetic sweeping outlines can be seen scraped into some of the surfaces,[nb 1] while on others a grid is evident, indicating that he enlarged directly onto the ceiling from a small drawing.

text: Michelangelo painted onto the damp plaster using a wash technique to apply broad areas of colour, then as the surface became drier, he revisited these areas with a more linear approach, adding shade and detail with a variety of brushes. For some textured surfaces, such as facial hair and woodgrain, he used a broad brush with bristles as sparse as a comb. He employed all the finest workshop methods and best innovations, combining them with a diversity of brushwork and breadth of skill far exceeding that of the meticulous Ghirlandaio.[nb 2]

text: The work commenced at the end of the building furthest from the altar, with the latest of the narrative scenes, and progressed towards the altar with the scenes of the Creation.[13] The first three scenes, from the story of Noah, contain a much larger number of small figures than the later panels. This is partly because of the subject matter, which deals with the fate of Humanity, but also because all the figures at that end of the ceiling, including the prophets and Ignudi, are smaller than in the central section.[18] As the scale got larger, Michelangelo's style became broader, the final narrative scene of God in the act of Creation was painted in a single day.[19]

text: The bright colours and broad, cleanly defined outlines make each subject easily visible from the floor. Despite the height of the ceiling, the proportions of the Creation of Adam are such that when standing beneath it, "it appears as if the viewer could simply raise a finger and meet those of God and Adam". Vasari tells us that the ceiling is "unfinished", that its unveiling occurred before it could be reworked with gold leaf and vivid blue lapis lazuli as was customary with frescoes and in order to better link the ceiling with the walls below it which were highlighted with a great deal of gold. But this never took place, in part because Michelangelo was reluctant to set up the scaffolding again, and probably also because the gold and particularly the intense blue would have distracted from his painterly conception.[9]

text: Some areas were, in fact, decorated with gold: the shields between the Ignudi and the columns between the Prophets and Sibyls. It seems very likely that the gilding of the shields was part of Michelangelo's original scheme, since they are painted to resemble a certain type of parade shield, a number of which still exist and are decorated in a similar style with gold.

text: Section reference.[9][15][16][20]

text: Michelangelo wrote a poem describing the arduous conditions under which he worked[21]

text: Content[edit]

text: The overt subject matter of the ceiling is the doctrine of humanity's need for Salvation as offered by God through Jesus. It is a visual metaphor of Humankind's need for a covenant with God. The Old Covenant of the Children of Israel through Moses and the New Covenant through Christ had already been represented around the walls of the chapel.[2] Some experts, including Benjamin Blech and Vatican art historian Enrico Bruschini, have also noted less overt subject matter, which they describe as being "concealed" and "forbidden."[22][23]

text: The main components of the design are nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, of which five smaller ones are each framed and supported by four naked youths or Ignudi. At either end, and beneath the scenes are the figures of twelve men and women who prophesied the birth of Jesus. On the crescent-shaped areas, or lunettes, above each of the chapel's windows are tablets listing the Ancestors of Christ and accompanying figures. Above them, in the triangular spandrels, a further eight groups of figures are shown, but these have not been identified with specific Biblical characters. The scheme is completed by four large corner pendentives, each illustrating a dramatic Biblical story.[18]

text: The narrative elements of the ceiling illustrate that God made the World as a perfect creation and put humanity into it, that humanity fell into disgrace and was punished by death and by separation from God. Humanity then sank further into sin and disgrace, and was punished by the Great Flood. Through a lineage of Ancestors – from Abraham to Joseph – God sent the saviour of humanity, Christ Jesus. The coming of the Saviour was prophesied by Prophets of Israel and Sibyls of the Classical world. The various components of the ceiling are linked to this Christian doctrine.[18] Traditionally, the Old Testament was perceived as a prefiguring of the New Testament. Many incidents and characters of the Old Testament were commonly understood as having a direct symbolic link to some particular aspect of the life of Jesus or to an important element of Christian doctrine or to a sacrament such as Baptism or the Eucharist. Jonah, for example, was readily recognisable by his attribute of the large fish and was commonly seen to symbolise Jesus' death and resurrection.[3]

text: While much of the symbolism of the ceiling dates from the early church, the ceiling also has elements that express the specifically Renaissance thinking that sought to reconcile Christian theology with the philosophy of Renaissance Humanism.[24] During the 15th century in Italy, and in Florence in particular, there was a strong interest in Classical literature and the philosophies of Plato, Socrates and other Classical writers. Michelangelo, as a young man, had spent time at the Humanist academy established by the Medici family in Florence. He was familiar with early Humanist-inspired sculptural works such as Donatello's bronze David and had himself responded by carving the enormous nude marble David, which was placed in the piazza near the Palazzo Vecchio, the home of Florence's council.[25] The Humanist vision of humanity was one in which people responded to other people, to social responsibility, and to God in a direct way, not through intermediaries, such as the Church.[26] This conflicted with the Church's emphasis. While the Church emphasized humanity as essentially sinful and flawed, Humanism emphasized humanity as potentially noble and beautiful.[nb 3] These two views were not necessarily irreconcilable to the Church, but only through a recognition that the unique way to achieve this "elevation of spirit, mind and body" was through the Church as the agent of God. To be outside the Church was to be beyond Salvation. In the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo presented both Catholic and Humanist elements in a way that does not appear visually conflicting. The inclusion of "non-biblical" figures such as the Sibyls or Ignudi is consistent with the rationalising of Humanist and Christian thought of the Renaissance. This rationalisation was to become a target of the Counter Reformation.

text: The iconography of the ceiling has had various interpretations in the past, some elements of which have been contradicted by modern scholarship.[nb 4] Others, such as the identity of the figures in the lunettes and spandrels, continue to defy interpretation.[27] Modern scholars have sought, as yet unsuccessfully, to determine a written source of the theological program of the ceiling and have questioned whether or not it was entirely devised by the artist himself, who was both an avid reader of the Bible and a genius.[28] Also of interest to some modern scholars is the question of how Michelangelo's own spiritual and psychological state is reflected in the iconography and the expression of the ceiling. One such speculation is that Michelangelo was tormented by conflict between homosexual desires and passionate Christian beliefs.[nb 5]

text: Michelangelo's scheme realised[edit]

text: Architectural scheme[edit]

text: Real[edit]

text: The Sistine Chapel is 40.9 metres long and 14 metres wide. The ceiling rises to 13.4 metres above the main floor of the chapel. The vault is of quite a complex design and it is unlikely that it was originally intended to have such elaborate decoration. Pier Matteo d'Amelia provided a plan for its decoration with the architectural elements picked out and the ceiling painted blue and dotted with gold stars, similar to that of the Arena Chapel decorated by Giotto at Padua.[29]

text: The chapel walls have three horizontal tiers with six windows in the upper tier down each side. There were also two windows at each end, but these have been closed up above the altar when Michelangelo's Last Judgement was painted, obliterating two lunettes. Between the windows are large pendentives which support the vault. Between the pendentives are triangularly shaped arches or spandrels cut into the vault above each window. Above the height of the pendentives, the ceiling slopes gently without much deviation from the horizontal.[29] This is the real architecture. Michelangelo has elaborated it with illusionary or fictive architecture.

text: Illusionary[edit]

text: The first element in the scheme of painted architecture is a definition of the real architectural elements by accentuating the lines where spandrels and pendentives intersect with the curving vault. Michelangelo painted these as decorative courses that look like sculpted stone moldings.[nb 6] These have two repeating motifs, a formula common in Classical architecture.[nb 7] Here, one motif is the acorn, the symbol of the family of both Pope Sixtus IV, who built the chapel, and Pope Julius II, who commissioned Michelangelo's work.[nb 8][30] The other motif is the scallop shell, one of the symbols of the Madonna, to whose assumption the chapel was dedicated in 1483.[nb 9][31] The crown of the wall then rises above the spandrels, to a strongly projecting painted cornice that runs right around the ceiling, separating the pictorial areas of the biblical scenes from the figures of Prophets, Sibyls, and Ancestors, who literally and figuratively support the narratives. Ten broad painted crossribs of travertine cross the ceiling and divide it into alternately wide and narrow pictorial spaces, a grid that gives all the figures their defined place.[32]

text: A great number of small figures are integrated with the painted architecture, their purpose apparently purely decorative. These include two faux marble putti below the cornice on each rib, each one a male and female pair; stone rams-heads are placed at the apex of each spandrel; copper-skinned nude figures in varying poses, hiding in the shadows, propped between the spandrels and the ribs like animated bookends; and more putti, both clothed and unclothed strike a variety of poses as they support the nameplates of the Prophets and Sibyls.[33] Above the cornice and to either side of the smaller scenes are an array of round shields, or medaillons. They are framed by a total of twenty more figures, the so-called Ignudi, which are not part of the architecture but sit on inlaid plinths, their feet planted convincingly on the fictive cornice. Pictorially, the Ignudi appear to occupy a space between the narrative spaces and the space of the chapel itself. (see below)

text: Pictorial scheme[edit]

text: Nine scenes from the Book of Genesis[edit]

text: Along the central section of the ceiling, Michelangelo depicted nine scenes from the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The pictures are organized into three groups of three alternating large and small panels.[34]

text: The first group shows God creating the Heavens and the Earth. The second group shows God creating the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, and their disobedience of God and consequent expulsion from the Garden of Eden where they have lived and where they walked with God. The third group of three pictures shows the plight of Humanity and in particular the family of Noah.

text: The pictures are not in strictly chronological order. If they are perceived as three groups, then the pictures in each of the three units inform upon each other, in the same way as was usual in Medieval paintings and stained glass.[35] The three sections of Creation, Downfall, and Fate of Humanity appear in reverse order, when read from the entrance of the chapel. However, each individual scene is painted to be viewed when looking toward the altar.[34] This is not easily apparent when viewing a reproduced image of the ceiling but becomes clear when the viewer looks upward at the vault. Paoletti and Radke suggest that this reversed progression symbolises a return to a state of grace.[34] However, the three sections are generally described in the order of Biblical chronology.

text: The scenes, from the altar toward the main door, are ordered as follows:

text:
The Separation of Light and Darkness
The Creation of the Sun, Moon and Earth
The Separation of Land and Water
The Creation of Adam
The Creation of Eve
The Temptation and Expulsion
The Sacrifice of Noah
The Great Flood
The Drunkenness of Noah

text: Creation[edit]

text: The three Creation pictures show scenes from the first chapter of Genesis, which relates that God created the Earth and all that is in it in six days, resting on the seventh day. In the first scene, the First Day of Creation, God creates light and separates light from darkness.[Fig 1] Chronologically, the next scene takes place in the third panel, in which, on the Second Day, God divides the waters from the heavens.[Fig 2] In the central panel, the largest of the three, there are two representations of God. On the Third Day, God creates the Earth and makes it sprout plants. On the Fourth Day, God puts the Sun and the Moon in place to govern the night and the day, the time and the seasons of the year.[Fig 3] According to Genesis, on the Fifth Day, God created the birds of the air and fish and creatures of the deep, but we are not shown this. Neither do we see God's creation of the creatures of the earth on the Sixth Day.[5][Src 1]

text: These three scenes, completed in the third stage of painting, are the most broadly conceived, the most broadly painted and the most dynamic of all the pictures. Of the first scene Vasari says "... Michelangelo depicted God dividing Light from Darkness, showing him in all his majesty as he rests self-sustained with arms outstretched, in a revelation of love and creative power."[9]

text: Adam and Eve[edit]

text: For the central section of the ceiling, Michelangelo has taken four episodes from the story of Adam and Eve as told in the first, second and third chapters of Genesis. In this sequence of three, two of the panels are large and one small.

text: In the first of the pictures, and one of the most widely recognised images in the history of painting, Michelangelo shows God reaching out to touch Adam, who, in the words of Vasari, is "a figure whose beauty, pose and contours are such that it seems to have been fashioned that very moment by the first and supreme creator rather than by the drawing and brush of a mortal man."[9] From beneath the sheltering arm of God, Eve looks out, a little apprehensively.[18] The "glory" of God, represented by a dark shaded area around him, has the same anatomical geometry as a human brain.

text: The central scene, of God creating Eve from the side of the sleeping Adam[Fig 4] has been taken in its composition directly from another Creation sequence, the relief panels that surround the door of the Basilica of San Petronio, Bologna by Jacopo della Quercia whose work Michelangelo had studied in his youth.[36][37]

text: In the final panel of this sequence Michelangelo combines two contrasting scenes into one panel,[Fig 5] that of Adam and Eve taking fruit from the forbidden tree, Eve trustingly taking it from the hand of the Serpent and Adam eagerly picking it for himself; and their banishment from the Garden of Eden, where they have lived in the company of God, to the world outside where they have to fend for themselves and experience death.[5][Src 2]

text: Story of Noah[edit]

text: As with the first sequence of pictures, the three panels concerning Noah, taken from the sixth to ninth chapters of Genesis are thematic rather than chronological. In the first scene is shown the sacrifice of a sheep.[Fig 6] Vasari, in writing about this scene mistakes it for the sacrifices by Cain and Abel, in which Abel's sacrifice was acceptable to God and Cain's was not. What this image almost certainly depicts is the sacrifice made by the family of Noah, after their safe deliverance from the Great Flood which destroyed the rest of Humankind.

text: The central, larger, scene shows the Great Flood.[Fig 7] The Ark in which Noah's family escaped floats at the rear of the picture while the rest of humanity tries frantically to scramble to some point of safety. This picture, which has a large number of figures, conforms the most closely to the format of the paintings that had been done around the walls.

text: The final scene is the story of Noah's drunkenness.[Fig 8] After the Flood, Noah tills the soil and grows vines. He is shown doing so, in the background of the picture. He becomes drunk and inadvertently exposes himself. His youngest son, Ham, brings his two brothers Shem and Japheth to see the sight but they discreetly cover their father with a cloak. Ham is later cursed by Noah and told that the descendants of Ham's son Canaan will serve Shem and Japheth's descendants forever. Taken together, these three pictures serve to show that Humankind had moved a long way from God's perfect creation. However, it is through Shem and his descendants, the Israelites, that Salvation will come to the world.[Src 3]

text: Since Michelangelo executed the nine Biblical scenes in reverse chronological order, some analyses of the frescoes of the vault commence with the Drunkenness of Noah. Tolnay's Neoplatonic interpretation sees the story of Noah at the beginning and the act of Creation by God as the conclusion of the process of deificatio and the return from physical to spiritual being.[38]

text: Shields[edit]

text: Adjacent to the smaller Biblical scenes and supported by the Ignudi are ten circular parade shields, sometimes described as being painted to resemble bronze. Known examples are actually of lacquered and gilt wood.[39] Each is decorated with a picture drawn from the Old Testament or the Book of Maccabees from the Apocrypha.

text: The subjects are the more gruesome or shameful of Biblical episodes, the only exception seeming to be that of Elijah being swept up to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire, leaving his mantel to fall on Elisha. However, Elijah's role as a prophet was one marked by accusation and warnings to repent, and the purpose of his translation into Heaven was traditionally seen as so that he might stand before God to condemn Israel for its sins.[Src 4] In four of the five most highly finished "medallions" the space is crowded with figures in violent action, similar to Michelangelo's cartoon for the Battle of Cascina.[nb 10]

text: The application of gold on the shields, in contrast to its absence on the rest of the ceiling, serves to link the ceiling to some extent with the frescoes around the walls. In the latter, gold leaf has been applied lavishly to many details and in some of the frescoes, notably those by Perugino, has been most expertly used not just to detail the robes but to highlight the folds by subtle graduation in the density of golden flecks. It is this technique that Michelangelo has picked up on and carried a step further, inspired also perhaps by the medallions that appear on a Roman triumphal arch in Botticelli's episode from the Life of Moses, showing the Punishment of the Rebels.

text: The medallions represent:

text:
Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac
The Destruction of the Statue of Baal
The worshippers of Baal being brutally slaughtered.
Uriah being beaten to death.[Fig 9]
Nathan the priest condemning King David for murder and adultery.
King David's traitorous son Absalom caught by his hair in a tree while trying to escape and beheaded by David's troops.
Joab sneaking up on Abner to murder him
Joram being hurled from a chariot onto his head.
Elijah being carried up to Heaven
On one medallion the subject is either obliterated or incomplete.[Fig 10]

text: Section references[5][40]

text: Twelve prophetic figures[edit]

text: On the five pendentives along each side and the two at either end, Michelangelo painted the largest figures on the ceiling: twelve people who prophesied or represented some aspect of the Coming of Christ. Of those twelve, seven were Prophets of Israel and were male. The remaining five were prophets of the Classical World, called Sibyls and were female. The prophet Jonah is placed above the altar and Zechariah at the further end. The other male and female figures alternate down each side, each being identified by an inscription on a painted marble panel supported by a putto.

text:
Jonah (IONAS) – above the altar[Fig 11]
Jeremiah (HIEREMIAS) [Fig 12]
Persian Sibyl (PERSICHA)[Fig 13]
Ezekiel (EZECHIEL)[Fig 14]
Erythraean Sibyl. (ERITHRAEA)[Fig 15]
Joel (IOEL)[Fig 16]
Zechariah (ZACHERIAS) – above the main door of the chapel[Fig 17]
Delphic Sibyl. (DELPHICA)[Fig 18]
Isaiah (ESAIAS)[Fig 19]
Cumaean Sibyl. (CVMAEA)[Fig 20]
Daniel (DANIEL)[Fig 21]
Libyan Sibyl (LIBICA)[Fig 22]

text: Prophets[edit]

text: The seven prophets of Israel chosen for depiction on the ceiling include the four so-called Major prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Of the remaining possibilities among the Twelve Minor Prophets, the three represented are Joel, Zechariah and Jonah. Although the prophets Joel and Zechariah are considered "minor" because of the comparatively small number of pages that their prophecy occupies in the Bible, each one produced prophesies of profound significance.

text: They are often quoted, Joel for his "Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your elderly shall dream dreams and your youth shall see visions".[Src 5] These words are significant for Michelangelo's decorative scheme, where women take their place among men and the youthful Daniel sits across from the brooding Jeremiah with his long white beard.

text: Zechariah prophesied, "Behold! Your King comes to you, humble and riding on a donkey".[Src 6][41] His place in the chapel is directly above the door through which the Pope is carried in procession on Palm Sunday, the day on which Jesus fulfilled the prophecy by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey and being proclaimed King.[42]

text: Jonah is of symbolic and prophetic significance, which was commonly perceived and had been represented in countless works of art including manuscripts and stained glass windows.[35] Through his reluctance to obey God, he was swallowed by a "mighty fish".[nb 11] He spent three days in its belly and was eventually spewed up on dry land where he went about God's business.[Src 7] Jonah was thus seen as presaging Jesus, who having died by crucifixion, spent part of three days in a tomb and was raised on the third day.[Src 8] So, on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Jonah, with the "great fish" beside him and his eyes turned towards God the Creator,[Fig 11] represents a "portent" of the Passion[43] and Resurrection of Christ.[41] The Jonah figure placed right over the altar activated the Passion motif. "When Perugino's altar painting was removed and ... Last Judgement fresco came to cover the altar wall",[43] after at least twenty five years Michelangelo depicted Christ just below Jonah: not only for his role as precursor of Christ, Christianity and Christocentrism, but also because his powerful torsion of the body, bent backwards from the bust to the eyes and with his forefingers that now point the glorious Jesus to the characters of the ceiling, assumes a function of link between the Old and New Testament.

text: In Vasari's description of the Prophets and Sibyls he is particularly high in his praise of the portrayal of Isaiah:[Fig 19] "Anyone who studies this figure, copied so faithfully from nature, the true mother of the art of painting, will find a beautifully composed work capable of teaching in full measure all the precepts to be followed by a good painter."[9]

text: Sibyls[edit]

text: The Sibyls were prophetic women who were resident at shrines or temples throughout the Classical World. The five depicted here are each said to have prophesied the birth of Christ. The Cumaean Sibyl, for example, is quoted by Virgil in his Fourth Eclogue as declaring that "a new progeny of Heaven" would bring about a return of the "Golden Age". This was interpreted as referring to Jesus.[44]

text: In Christian doctrine, Christ came not just to the Jews but also to the Gentiles. It was understood that, prior to the Birth of Christ, God prepared the world for his coming. To this purpose, God used Jews and Gentiles alike. Jesus would not have been born in Bethlehem (where it had been prophesied that his birth would take place),[Src 9] except for the fact that the pagan Roman Emperor Augustus decreed that there should be a census.[Src 10] Likewise, when Jesus was born, the announcement of his birth was made to rich and to poor, to mighty and to humble, to Jew and to Gentile. The Three Wise Men (the "Magi" of the Bible) who sought out the infant King with precious gifts were pagan foreigners.[Src 11]

text: In the Roman Catholic Church, where there was an increasing interest in the remains of the city's pagan past, where scholars turned from reading Medieval Church Latin to Classical Latin and the philosophies of the Classical world were studied along with the writings of St Augustine, the presence, in the Sistine Chapel of five pagan prophets is not surprising.[45]

text: It is not known why Michelangelo selected the five particular Sibyls that were depicted, given that, as with the Minor Prophets, there were ten or twelve possibilities. It is suggested by John O'Malley that the choice was made for a wide geographic coverage, with the Sibyls coming from Africa, Asia, Greece and Ionia.[44]

text: Vasari says of the Erythraean Sibyl[Fig 15] "Many aspects of this figure are of exceptional loveliness: the expression of her face, her headdress and the arrangement of her draperies: and her arms, which are bared, are as beautiful as the rest." [9]

text: Pendentives[edit]

text: In each corner of the chapel is a triangular pendentive filling the space between the walls and the arch of the vault and forming the spandrel above the windows nearest the corners. On these curving shapes Michelangelo has painted four scenes from Biblical stories that are associated with the salvation of Israel by four great male and female heroes of the Jews: Moses, Esther, David and Judith.[46]

text:
The Brazen Serpent
The Punishment of Haman
David and Goliath
Judith and Holofernes

text: The first two stories were both seen in Medieval- and Renaissance theology as prefiguring the Crucifixion of Jesus. In the story of the Brazen Serpent, the people of Israel become dissatisfied and grumble at God. As punishment they receive a plague of venonous snakes. God offers the people relief by instructing Moses to make a snake of brass and set it up on a pole, the sight of which gives miraculous healing.[Src 12] Michelangelo chooses a crowded composition, depicting a dramatic mass of suffering men, women, and writhing snakes, separated from redeemed worshipers by the snake before an epiphanic light.[Fig 23]

text: In the Book of Esther it is related that Haman, a public servant, plots to get Esther's husband, the King of Persia, to slay all the Jewish people in his land. The King, who is going over his books during a sleepless night, realises something is amiss. Esther, discovering the plot, denounces Haman, and her husband orders his execution on a scaffold he has built. The King's eunuchs promptly carry this out.[Src 13] Michelangelo shows Haman crucified with Esther looking at him from a doorway, the King giving orders in the background.[Fig 24]

text: The other two stories, those of David and Judith, were often linked in Renaissance art, particularly by Florentine artists as they demonstrated the overthrow of tyrants, a popular subject in the Republic. In this image, the shepherd boy, David, has brought down the towering Goliath with his sling, but the giant is alive and is trying to rise as David forces his head down to chop it off.[47][Fig 25]

text: The depiction of Judith and Holofernes has an equally gruesome detail. As Judith loads the enemy's head onto a basket carried by her maid and covers it with a cloth, she looks towards the tent,[47] apparently distracted by the limbs of the decapitated corpse flailing about.[Fig 26]

text: There are obvious connections in the design of the Slaying of Holofernes and the Slaying of Haman at the opposite end of the chapel. Although in the Holofernes picture the figures are smaller and the space less filled, both have the triangular space divided into two zones by a vertical wall, allowing us to see what is happening on both sides of it. There are actually three scenes in the Haman picture because as well as seeing Haman punished, we see him at the table with Esther and the King and get a view of the King on his bed.[47] Mordechai sits on the steps, making a link between the scenes.[48]

text: While the Slaying of Goliath is a relatively simple composition with the two protagonists centrally placed and the only other figures being dimly seen observers, the Brazen Serpent picture is crowded with figures and separate incidents as the various individuals who have been attacked by snakes struggle and die or turn toward the icon that will save them. This is the most Mannerist of Michelangelo's earlier compositions at the Sistine Chapel,[47] picking up the theme of human distress begun in the Great Flood scene and carrying it forward into the torment of lost souls in the Last Judgement, which was later painted below.

text: Ancestors of Christ[edit]

text: Subject[edit]

text: Between the large pendentives that support the vault are windows, six on each side of the chapel. There were two more windows in each end of the chapel, now closed, and those above the High Altar covered by the Last Judgement. Above each window is an arched shape, referred to as a lunette and above eight of the lunettes at the sides of the chapel are triangular spandrels filling the spaces between the side pendentives and the vault, the other eight lunettes each being below one of the corner pendentives.

text: Michelangelo was commissioned to paint these areas as part of the work on the ceiling. The structures form visual bridges between the walls and the ceiling, and the figures which are painted on them are midway in size (approximately 2 metres high) between the very large prophets and the much smaller figures of Popes which had been painted to either side of each window in the 15th century.[49] Michelangelo chose the Ancestors of Christ as the subject of these images,[50] thus portraying Jesus' physical lineage, while the papal portraits are his spiritual successors, according to Church doctrine.[51] (see gallery)

text: Centrally placed above each window is a faux marble tablet with a decorative frame. On each is painted the names of the male line by which Jesus, through his Earthly father, Joseph, is descended from Abraham, according to the Gospel of Matthew.[nb 12] However, the genealogy is now incomplete, since the two lunettes of the windows in the Altar wall were destroyed by Michelangelo when he returned to the Sistine Chapel in 1537 to paint The Last Judgment.[52] Only engravings, based on a drawing that has since been lost, remain of them.[Fig 27] The sequence of tablets seems a little erratic as one plaque has four names, most have three or two, and two plaques have only one. Moreover, the progression moves from one side of the building to the other, but not consistently, and the figures the lunettes contain do not coincide closely with the listed names. These figures vaguely suggest various family relationships; most lunettes contain one or more infants, and many depict a man and a woman, often sitting on opposing sides of the painted plaque that separates them. O'Malley describes them as "simply representative figures, almost ciphers".[50]

text: There is also an indeterminate relationship between the figures in the spandrels and the lunettes beneath them. Because of the constraints of the triangular shape, in each spandrel the figures are seated on the ground. In six of the eight spandrels the compositions resemble traditional depictions of the Flight into Egypt. Of the two remaining, one shows a woman with shears trimming the neck of a garment she is making while her toddler looks on.[Fig 28] The Biblical woman who is recorded as making a new garment for her child is Hannah, the mother of Samuel, whose child went to live in the temple, and indeed, the male figure in the background is wearing a distinctive hat that might suggest that of a priest.[Src 14] The other figure who differs from the rest is a young woman who sits staring out of the picture with prophetic intensity. Her open eyes have been closed in the restoration.[Fig 29]

text: Section References[5][15]

text: Treatment[edit]

text: Michelangelo's depiction of the Genealogy of Jesus departs from an artistic tradition for this topic that was common in medieval times, especially in stained-glass windows. This so-called Jesse Tree shows Jesse lying prone and a tree growing from his side with the ancestors on each branch, in a visual treatment of a biblical verse.[Src 15]

text: The figures in the lunettes appear to be families, but in every case they are families that are divided. The figures in them are physically divided by the name tablet but they are also divided by a range of human emotions that turn them outward or in on themselves and sometimes towards their partner with jealousy, suspicion, rage or simply boredom. In them Michelangelo has portrayed the anger and unhappiness of the human condition, painting "the daily round of merely domestic life as if it were a curse".[53] In their constraining niches, the ancestors "sit, squat and wait".[54] Of the fourteen lunettes, the two that were probably painted first, the families of Eleazar and Mathan and of Jacob and Joseph are the most detailed. They become progressively broader towards the altar end, one of the last being painted in only two days.[nb 14]

text: The Eleazar and Mathan picture contains two figures with a wealth of costume detail that is not present in any other lunette. [Fig 30] The female to the left has had as much care taken with her clothing as any of the Sibyls. Her skirt is turned back showing her linen petticoat and the garter that holds up her mauve stockings and cuts into the flesh. She has a reticule and her dress is laced up under the arms. On the other side of the tablet sits the only male figure among those on the lunettes who is intrinsically beautiful. This blonde young man, elegantly dressed in white shirt and pale green hose, with no jerkin but a red cloak, postures with an insipid and vain gesture, in contrast to the Ignudi which he closely resembles.

text: Prior to restoration, of all the paintings in the Sistine Chapel, the lunettes and spandrels were the dirtiest.[55] Added to this, there has always been a problem of poor daytime visibility of the panels nearest the windows because of halination.[nb 15] Consequently, they were the least well known of all Michelangelo's publicly accessible works. The recent restoration has made these masterly studies of human nature and inventive depiction of the human form known once more.

text: Section References[3][15]

text: Ignudi[edit]

text: (For images, see gallery)

text: The Ignudi[nb 16] are the 20 athletic, nude males that Michelangelo painted as supporting figures at each corner of the five smaller narrative scenes that run along the centre of the ceiling. The figures hold or are draped with or lean on a variety of items which include pink ribbons, green bolsters and enormous garlands of acorns.[nb 8]

text: The Ignudi, although all seated, are less physically constrained than the Ancestors of Christ. While the pairs of the monochrome male and female figures above the spandrels are mirrors of each other, these Ignudi are all different. In the earliest paintings, they are paired, their poses being similar but with variation. These variations become greater with each pair until the postures of the final four bear no relation to each other whatsoever.

text: The meaning of these figures has never been clear. They are certainly in keeping with the Humanist acceptance of the classical Greek view that "the man is the measure of all things".[56] But Michelangelo knew the Bible well.[11] He would have been well aware of the fact that although seraphim and cherubim are described as being winged creatures, they are described as looking like men.[Src 16] When Michelangelo later painted the altar wall of the chapel, he included a great number of angels, particularly in the lunettes which are decorated with scenes of angels carrying the symbols of the Passion. Other angels are employed sounding the trumpets which call forth the dead, displaying books in which the names of the saved and the damned are written and casting sinners down to Hell. In all, the Last Judgement contains more than forty angels, all closely resembling the Ignudi. It is reasonable to conclude that the Ignudi represent angels.[11][57] If the Ignudi are indeed angels, they are the ever-present attendants and messengers of God, impassively watching and waiting on the fate of Humankind.

text: Their painting demonstrates, more than any other figures on the ceiling, Michelangelo's mastery of anatomy and foreshortening and his enormous powers of invention.[nb 17] In their reflection of classical antiquity they resonate with Pope Julius' aspirations to lead Italy towards a new 'age of gold'; at the same time, they staked Michelangelo's claim to greatness.[58] However, a number of critics were angered by their presence and nudity, including Pope Adrian VI who wanted the ceiling stripped.

text: Stylistic analysis and artistic legacy[edit]

text: Michelangelo was the artistic heir to the great 15th-century sculptors and painters of Florence. He learned his trade first under the direction of a masterly fresco painter, Domenico Ghirlandaio, known for two great fresco cycles in the Sassetti Chapel and Tornabuoni Chapel, and for his contribution to the cycle of paintings on the walls of the Sistine Chapel. As a student Michelangelo studied and drew from the works of the two most renowned Florentine fresco painters of the early Renaissance, Giotto and Masaccio.[59] Masaccio's figures of Adam and Eve being expelled from the Garden of Eden had a profound effect on the depiction of the nude in general, and in particular on the use of the nude figure to convey human emotion.[Fig 31] Helen Gardner says that in the hands of Michelangelo "the body is simply the manifestation of the soul, or of a state of mind and character".[59]

text: Michelangelo was also almost certainly influenced by the paintings of Luca Signorelli[59] whose paintings, particularly the Death and Resurrection Cycle in Orvieto Cathedral contain a great number of nudes and inventive figurative compositions.[Fig 32] In Bologna, Michelangelo saw the relief sculptures of Jacopo della Quercia around the doors of the cathedral. In Michelangelo's depiction of the Creation of Eve the whole composition, the form of the figures and the relatively conservative concept of the relationship between Eve and her Creator adheres closely to Jacopo's design.[13] Other panels on the ceiling, most particularly the iconic Creation of Adam show "... unprecedented invention".[13]

text: The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was to have a profound effect upon other artists, even before it was completed. Vasari, in his Life of Raphael, tells us that Bramante, who had the keys to the chapel, let Raphael in to examine the paintings in Michelangelo's absence. On seeing Michelangelo's prophets, Raphael went back to the picture of the Prophet Isaiah that he was painting on a column in the Church of Sant'Agostino and, according to Vasari, although it was finished, he scraped it off the wall and repainted it in a much more powerful manner, in imitation of Michelangelo.[9] John O'Malley points out that even earlier than the Isaiah is Raphael's inclusion of the figure of Heraclitus in the School of Athens, a brooding figure similar to Michelangelo's Jeremiah, but with the countenace of Michelangelo himself, and leaning on a block of marble.[60][Fig 33]

text: There was hardly a design element on the ceiling that was not subsequently imitated: the fictive architecture, the muscular anatomy, the foreshortening, the dynamic motion, the luminous colouration, the haunting expressions of the figures in the lunettes, the abundance of putti. Gabriele Bartz and Eberhard König have said of the Ignudi, "There is no image that has had a more lasting effect on following generations than this. Henceforth similar figures disported themselves in innumerable decorative works, be they painted, formed in stucco or even sculpted."[61]

text: Within Michelangelo's own work, the chapel ceiling led to the later and more Mannerist painting of the Last Judgement in which the crowded compositions gave full rein to his inventiveness in painting contorted and foreshortened figures expressing despair or jubilation. Among the artists in whose work can be seen the direct influence of Michelangelo are Pontormo, Andrea del Sarto, Correggio, Tintoretto, Annibale Carracci, Paolo Veronese and El Greco.

text: In January 2007, it was claimed that as many as 10,000 visitors passed through the Vatican Museums in a day and that the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is the biggest attraction. The Vatican, anxious at the possibility that the newly restored frescoes will suffer damage, announced plans to reduce visiting hours and raise the price in an attempt to discourage visitors.[62]

text: Five hundred years earlier Vasari had said "The whole world came running when the vault was revealed, and the sight of it was enough to reduce them to stunned silence."[9]

text: Restoration[edit]

text: The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel were restored between June 1980 and December 1999, with preliminary tests taking place in 1979.

text: The first stage of restoration, the work upon Michelangelo's lunettes, was achieved in October 1984. The work then proceeded on the ceiling, completed December 1989 and from there to the Last Judgement. The restoration was unveiled by Pope John Paul II on 8 April 1994. The restoration team comprised Gianluigi Colalucci, Maurizio Rossi, Piergiorgio Bonetti, Bruno Baratti and others. The final stage was the restoration of the wall frescoes by Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Perugino and others, This was unveiled on 11 December 1999.[63]

text: The colours, which now appear so fresh and spring-like with pale pink, apple green, vivid yellow and sky blue against a background of warm pearly grey, were so discoloured by candle smoke as to make the pictures seem almost monochrome. The restoration has removed the filter of grime to reveal the colours again.[63] However, the restoration was met with both praise and criticism. Critics assert that much original work by Michelangelo – in particular pentimenti, highlights and shadows, and other detailing painted a secco – was lost in the removal of various accretions.[64]

text: Quotations[edit]

text: Vasari

text: Johann Wolfgang Goethe

text: Waldemar Januszczak The art critic and television producer Waldemar Januszczak wrote that when the Sistine Chapel ceiling was recently cleaned, he "was able to persuade the man at the Vatican who was in charge of Japanese TV access to let me climb the scaffold while the cleaning was in progress."

text: Gabriele Bartz and Eberhard König

text: Pope John Paul II


document_title: The Following (season 1)

question_text: when do they get joey back in the following

root

text: The Following (season 1)

text: Plot[edit]

text: The first season centers on former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) and his attempts to recapture serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) following the latter's escape from prison. Hardy soon discovers that the charismatic Carroll has surrounded himself with a group of like-minded individuals (whom he met while teaching and while in prison), and turned them into a cult of fanatical killers. When Carroll's son Joey (Kyle Catlett) is abducted by his father's followers, the FBI discovers that it is the first step in a wider plan for Carroll to escape custody, humiliate Hardy, and be reunited with his ex-wife Claire (Natalie Zea).

tag: p

text: Cast[edit]

text: Main cast[edit]

text:
Kevin Bacon as Ryan Hardy, a former FBI agent, recalled to assist the FBI once Carroll escapes and his cult begins to develop (15 episodes)
Jeananne Goossen as Jennifer Mason, an FBI Agent who is soon replaced by Debra Parker (1 episode)
Natalie Zea as Claire Matthews, Joe Carroll's ex-wife, who also had a relationship with Ryan Hardy (13 episodes)
Annie Parisse as Debra Parker, head of the investigation on Carroll and his cult (14 episodes)
Shawn Ashmore as Mike Weston, a young FBI agent (12 episodes)
Valorie Curry as Emma Hill, a follower and romantic partner of Joe Carroll (15 episodes)
Nico Tortorella as Jacob Wells, one of Carroll's followers and romantic interest of both Emma and Paul (12 episodes)
Adan Canto as Paul Torres, one of Carroll's followers, working closely with Jacob and Emma (8 episodes)
Kyle Catlett as Joey Matthews, Joe Carroll and Claire Matthews' son (12 episodes)
Maggie Grace as Sarah Fuller, the last victim of Joe Carroll before he is captured (1 episode)
James Purefoy as Joe Carroll, a former professor turned serial killer and cult leader (15 episodes)

tag: ul

text: Recurring[edit]

text:
Chinasa Ogbuagu as Deirdre Mitchell, an FBI agent, specializing in following and tracking cult information on the computer (12 episodes)
John Lafayette as Scott Turner, head of the Marshal's detail participating in the investigation of Carroll's cult (7 episodes)
Warren Kole as Roderick, Carroll's friend and second in command of the cult (6 episodes)
Jennifer Ferrin as Molly, one of Carroll's followers, planted to develop a romantic relationship with Ryan Hardy (5 episodes)
Mike Colter as Nick Donovan, an FBI agent who assumes command of the FBI team following Carroll's second escape from prison (5 episodes)
Li Jun Li as Megan Leeds, hostage of Paul, Jacob, and Emma (4 episodes)
Tom Lipinski as Charlie Mead, an ex-militant and member of Carroll's cult assigned to stalk Claire Matthews in the years following Carroll's incarceration (4 episodes)
Billy Brown as Agent Troy Riley, an FBI agent who initially assisted Hardy in the days following Carroll's escape from prison (3 episodes)
Steve Monroe as Jordy Raines, a local cop and follower of Carroll (3 episodes)
Michael Drayer as Rick Kester, follower of Carroll (3 episodes)
Annika Boras as Louise Sinclair, follower of Carroll and love interest of Roderick (3 episodes)
Renée Elise Goldsberry as Olivia Warren, Carroll's attorney (3 episodes)
Christopher Denham as Vince McKinley, follower of Carroll (3 episodes)
Virginia Kull as Maggie Kester, follower of Carroll (2 episodes)
Arian Moayed as David, follower of Carroll (2 episodes)

text: Episodes[edit]

text:
No. in
series
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original air date
Production
code
U.S. viewers
(million)

1
1
"Pilot"
Marcos Siega
Kevin Williamson
January 21, 2013 (2013-01-21)
296815
10.42[1]

Infamous serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) escapes from prison and Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon), a retired F.B.I. agent responsible for capturing Joe, is pulled back into the field to assist the manhunt. The police secure both Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea), Joe's ex-wife and mother of his son Joey (Kyle Catlett) with whom Ryan had an affair, and Sarah Fuller (Maggie Grace), the only one of Joe's victims to survive. Assisted by FBI agents Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) and Jennifer Mason (Jeananne Goossen), Hardy attempts to track down a prison guard who helped Joe escape and is now being taught how to be a serial killer. When a young woman commits suicide in front of Hardy at Joe's request, saying the same last words as Edgar Allan Poe, Hardy begins to suspect that Joe has used the Internet to create a following of disciples he uses to carry out his plans. Sarah is kidnapped by two such followers (men posing as gay neighbors) and is tortured and killed by Joe. Hardy is too late to save her, but Joe allows himself to be taken back into custody, where he tells Hardy that this is only the beginning. Denise, Joey's live-in nanny who is completely trusted by Claire, is revealed to be another of Joe's followers with her real name being Emma Hill (Valorie Curry), and abducts Joey, who still believes Denise to be his nanny, meeting up with the two men who kidnapped Sarah.

2
2
"Chapter Two"
Marcos Siega
Kevin Williamson
January 28, 2013 (2013-01-28)
2J7402
10.10[2]

Special Agent Debra Parker (Annie Parisse), an expert on alternative religions, joins the case, replacing Agent Mason, as the hunt for Joe's son intensifies. Joe's prison guard protégé Jordy (Steve Monroe) makes his first kill, slaughtering three college girls in their sorority house. Claire tries to discover Joey's whereabouts from Joe, but the interview only serves to reveal her prior relationship with Hardy to everyone. Joey's nanny-turned-kidnapper Emma Hill, having convinced him that he's on an adventure, takes him to an isolated house, along with Sarah Fuller's "gay" neighbors Paul Torres (Adan Canto) and Jacob Wells (Nico Tortorella). Tensions begin to rise between the three as Paul, having pretended to be Jacob's lover for years, is now jealous of the intimate relationship between Jacob and Emma. Hardy is attacked by a Poe masked man while investigating Emma's old residence. Jordy attacks Claire in her home, but Hardy wounds him and he is arrested. Parker delivers a book of Poe's works to Joe in prison, which results in a short but noticeable unspoken communication between the two of them. The next day, the man in the Poe mask lights a seemingly random civilian on fire in a crowd.

3
3
"The Poet's Fire"
Liz Friedlander
Adam Armus & Kay Foster
February 4, 2013 (2013-02-04)
2J7403
9.01[3]

Ryan Hardy and his team obtain video footage of the immolation incident and he recognizes the victim (Todd Faulkner) as a literary critic who gave Joe Carroll's book a scathing review. Emma, Paul and Jacob continue to keep Joey at the house, but Paul confronts Emma about her relationship with Jacob, and she cuts his arm. He leaves the house and picks up a convenience store worker, Megan (Li Jun Li), later knocking her out to kidnap and hold her hostage at the house. Rick Kester (Michael Drayer), who is responsible for killing Faulkner, is also uncovered as another of Joe's followers. His wife, Maggie (Virginia Kull) is found by Hardy and his team and brought in for questioning. She claims to be separated from Kester because he was abusive, having stabbed her on a previous occasion. Kester kills the dean at the college where Joe worked as revenge for his having denied Joe tenure. Maggie returns home under protection by FBI agent Reilly. Meanwhile, special Agent Parker interviews Jordy to try to discover Joey's whereabouts. Jordy says that he does not know where Joey is but that Kester's wife does because she helped plan the abduction, revealing Maggie to be involved. While at Maggie's home, her phone receives a text message from Kester. Agent Reilly reads the message to Maggie out loud that says "now", and she fatally stabs him. Kester arrives, ready to flee with Maggie. Hardy shoots him but Maggie escapes. Jordy, upset because he revealed important information to the FBI, kills himself by swallowing and choking himself on his own bandages. Claire receives a disturbing video of Joey being goaded into killing small animals by Jacob.

4
4
"Mad Love"
Henry Bronchtein
Story by: Andrew Wilder and Kevin Williamson
Teleplay by: Kevin Williamson
February 11, 2013 (2013-02-11)
2J7404
8.79[4]

Emma sees Paul's captive, Megan, as a threat and instructs Paul to kill the woman. Paul hands the knife over to Jacob and threatens Jacob with his menacing secret. Maggie is disclosed by Joe as his follower. Joey locates the phone Emma used to leave a voice mail for Maggie. In a brief conversation with Emma about Jacob, Paul reveals to her that Jacob has been lying to them, and has never actually killed. Ryan Hardy and his team see Maggie in a surveillance footage stabbing a victim in a parking lot after buying puzzling utilities. Hardy receives a call from his sister, Jenny (Susan Misner) and Maggie interrupts the conversation, stating that she has abducted Jenny and wants to trade her for Hardy. Jacob is confronted by Emma, leading him to confess his lies; she orders him to kill Megan as a redemption. Megan, however, pleads for her life and Jacob, unable to kill her, cuts her bonds, telling her to escape. Special Agent Parker gets curious with Hardy's sudden caller, and sends FBI agent, Mike Weston, to go after Hardy. He agrees to help Hardy rescue his sister. Hardy arrives at Jenny's restaurant, and blindfolds himself under Maggie's instruction. Maggie tortures Hardy by putting magnets on top of his body, intending to disturb his pacemaker's functionality. Megan fails to escape and is caught and tied up once again by Emma and Paul. Agent Weston kills Maggie with a single shot to the chest. Jacob finds Megan in the house again and joins Paul and Emma in the shower.

5
5
"The Siege"
Phil Abraham
Rebecca Dameron
February 18, 2013 (2013-02-18)
2J7405
8.39[5]

Joey gets his hands on the hidden phone, while Emma, Paul and Jacob leisure in the bedroom. He manages to have an informative conversation with Claire, before Paul pulls him away from the phone. Caroll's attorney, Olivia Warren (Renee Elise Goldsberry) is seen in the department, while Paul continues to convince Jacob to kill Megan. Warren addresses Caroll's "The Following" allegation by quoting Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" in her press conference that triggers a follower to start his mission. Special Agent Parker deputizes Hardy. Emma reveals one of the followers, Charlie Mead (Tom Lipinski). Warren meets Claire and informs her of Caroll's instruction in order for her to see Joey. Joey escapes from the house and stumbles upon a nearby male neighbor, who leads him to his house after Joey requests to borrow his house phone. Emma finds Joey and convinces him that she will lend him her phone if he comes along with her. The neighbors notify the police. After being told by Emma, Paul breaks into the neighbor's house with a hoe and kills them. Hardy rushes to the location with a police officer. Claire escapes from an FBI agent, Marshall Turner (John Lafayette) who is watching her having lunch with her friend. Emma locks Joey in the bedroom, and finds a man sent by Charlie, Hank Flynn (Josh Segarra), who is to move them out of the house. Hardy arrives at the neighbor's home, only to find that they are both murdered. He tracks the nearby path and sees Jacob and Paul. Hank fatally shoots the police officer, and Hardy later kills Hank. Claire arrives at the location instructed by Warren and follows Charlie. But before Hardy can save Joey, Paul points a gun to his head.

6
6
"The Fall"
Marcos Siega
Shintaro Shimosawa
February 25, 2013 (2013-02-25)
2J7406
8.58[6]

While being held captive with Megan, Hardy is able to cause dissension among Emma, Paul and Jacob. Emma sneaks Joey away while Paul and Jacob scuffle with Hardy; Paul is stabbed by Hardy, who takes the opportunity to help Megan escape. Emma is caught by Weston, who is shot by a local policewoman later revealed to be working with the mysterious "Roderick". Paul and Jacob are able to escape with the help of other Followers disguised as FBI agents. Faced with this turn of events, Hardy, Parker and Weston begin to question their assumptions about the case and realize that The Following is much bigger than a cell of three individuals. Meanwhile, Charlie holds Claire at a remote warehouse, where he mentions that Joe wants her to survive and reveals an attraction for her after years of surveilling her. Turner eventually finds Claire and takes her home, where she is upset that Emma escaped with Joey. It is also revealed that Agent Parker grew up in a cult with her parents, leading to her expert knowledge of the subject.

7
7
"Let Me Go"
Nick Gomez
Seamus Kevin Fahey
March 4, 2013 (2013-03-04)
2J7407
8.81[7]

Carroll's lawyer, Olivia Warren, is able to arrange his transfer to another jail. The FBI are wary of the transfer and monitor every step, save for the actual exit of the van. Frustrated, Hardy begins to suspect that Carroll either has Followers inside the system, or that he is coercing someone to do his bidding. His suspicions are confirmed when Weston realizes the tape of the prisoner loading bay has been doctored. They quickly identify the prison warden as the likely culprit, learning that his daughter has disappeared without explanation. Hardy relays his suspicions to Parker, who has the transport van pull over. She and the Marshals responsible for the transfer discover Carroll is not in the van. When confronted, the warden admits Carroll's people coerced him, but he has no knowledge of where Carroll is. Carroll was assisted in his escape by Olivia Warren, whom he forces to call Hardy. He strangles her while Hardy listens. Hardy and Weston arrive on the scene and pursue Carroll through a building where Carroll reveals he has planned all of this for "years" before escaping. With help from a Follower, Carroll arrives at a mansion where dozens of more followers appear to greet him. Then Carroll sees Joey as an older child for the first time.

8
8
"Welcome Home"
Joshua Butler
Amanda Kate Shuman
March 11, 2013 (2013-03-11)
2J7408
8.15[8]

Distracted by the search for Joey and unable to find any leads in Carroll's escape, the FBI lose faith in Hardy's ability to catch him and his followers and usher in a new agent to oversee the investigation. As Hardy and Parker become frustrated with having to play office politics whilst conducting a manhunt, Carroll's plans escalate even further as he puts its next stage into action. Carroll selects Agent Weston to be the victim and has his followers abduct him. With Weston in their captivity, the followers begin torturing and interrogating the young agent for Claire's whereabouts, to which he insists he does not know, by beating him with fists and metal poles before stabbing him in the stomach and leaving him for dead. With Ryan arriving in time to call an ambulance, he learns that now bedridden Weston not only knows Claire's location, but is the only one who does. Upon returning home, Charlie allows Joe to kill him in penance for failing him, while Joe and Emma later end up sleeping together after Emma seduces him.

9
9
"Love Hurts"
Marcos Siega & Adam Davidson
Adam Armus & Kay Foster
March 18, 2013 (2013-03-18)
2J7409
8.34[9]

Carroll reaches out to Hardy with an unusual request, and despite the threat of swift and violent retribution if his demands are not met, Hardy realizes that he might be holding onto a bigger bargaining chip than first thought. Joe sends followers Amanda Porter and Louise on a mission to kill women named Claire Matthews in an effort to force Joe's ex out of hiding. After two of three remaining Claires are killed, Amanda tracks the third one down at the same time Ryan does. After killing Louise, Ryan gets into a confrontation with Amanda, who tells Ryan he needs to be punished for sleeping with Joe's wife. Ryan admits he did so because he loves Claire and tempts Amanda to kill him; Ryan disarms her and has her arrested.

10
10
"Guilt"
Joshua Butler
Kevin Williamson & Shintaro Shimosawa
March 25, 2013 (2013-03-25)
2J7410
6.66[10]

Knowing that it is only a matter of time before Carroll finds her, Hardy must outsmart a group of followers and move Claire to a safe place. Jacob and Emma are reunited, but the meeting turns sour. Roderick goes after Claire, along with two military followers, Ryan and Claire manage to escape and go to Ryan's friend Tyson's home. Tyson reveals to Claire that after Ryan and her ended their relationship, he introduced Ryan to a friend named Molly, though they did not last very long as Ryan was only serious about Claire. Ryan notices that Claire has been tracked by Roderick as they prepare for his arrival. Emma and Jacob try to work things out, but with Jacob seeing Paul's ghost everywhere, Jacob tells Emma that she's dead to him. Tyson manages to take down one follower, but is shot by another. Claire willingly gives herself up to Roderick, but not before she and Ryan reaffirm their love for each other. Ryan then receives a call from Joe who informs Ryan his story is not done yet. At Joe's home, he is visited by Molly, who is revealed to be a follower, assigned to watch over Ryan.

11
11
"Whips and Regret"
Marcos Siega
Kevin Williamson & Rebecca Dameron
April 1, 2013 (2013-04-01)
2J7411
6.57[11]

Claire is abducted by Carroll's followers, but Hardy and Parker refuse to let her go without a fight. Meanwhile, the FBI look inward, investigating the connection between one of their own safehouses and a crime committed by a member of Carroll's cult. They find a lead to a bunker, to which they find out that it's a boot camp of followers and are forced to kill the followers in training. Claire is forced to have dinner with Joe. She asks to see her son but Joe refuses, which causes Claire to storm off. Joe is informed by Roderick of losing the bunker, which causes Joe to snap at Roderick to not make orders anymore. Joe eventually lets Claire reunite with her son. Joe later talks with Molly and has data on Ryan given to him. A flashback reveals Molly joining Joe on the condition she be the one to kill Ryan when the time is right. Back with Ryan, he is greeted by Molly, who is revealed to be his next door neighbor.

12
12
"The Curse"
David Von Ancken
Seamus Kevin Fahey & Amanda Kate Shuman
April 8, 2013 (2013-04-08)
2J7412
6.30[12]

Hardy, Parker, and Weston seek out a militia leader with ties to Carroll's cult. Meanwhile, Joe has hit a roadblock with his book as he struggles to understand what motivates Hardy, and takes Jacob and Vincent to kill the militia leader before he can talk. While Claire tries to escape with Joey, they are blocked by various followers and Roderick puts an ankle monitor on her. Afterwards, Claire discovers Joe's book and is reunited with Emma, which turns sour and results in the two physically fighting. Mike is held hostage by Joe while Debra is held by Jacob. Joe questions what motivated Ryan into saving people and discovers it was because of his father's death. The duo escape and return home, only for it to turn sour for Joe as he discovers Claire having read his book and expresses her disdain of it. Ryan and the FBI are then greeted by the local Sheriff, Tim Nelson (Roderick).

13
13
"Havenport"
Nicole Kassell
David Wilcox & Vincent Angell
April 15, 2013 (2013-04-15)
2J7413
6.36[13]

After being recognized at a police station by Weston, Roderick is forced to go on the run, and his disagreements with Joe come to a head when he abducts Joey as "insurance" against Carroll and the FBI. Roderick is caught by Ryan and says he'll give up Joey if he gets his freedom. Ryan releases him, but Roderick is killed by Joe's followers for his betrayal, and Joey is rescued by Hardy and Weston after a standoff with Jacob. Claire takes advantage of Joe's affections of her and seduces him before stabbing him. Overcome with pain and frustration, Carroll calls Hardy and informs him that he plans to kill Claire, finally accepting he'll never get her to love him again.

14
14
"The End is Near"
Joshua Butler
Adam Armus & Kay Foster
April 22, 2013 (2013-04-22)
2J7414
7.04[14]

Frustrated with his writing, drinking heavily and taking numerous medications and bleeding from his open wound, Joe becomes increasingly unstable, and his erratic behavior destroys morale among his followers, especially Jacob. As Hardy and the FBI launch a raid on their compound, the cult retaliates with an attack on an evacuation center in Havenport, giving Joe the chance to get away safely. With Hardy distracted at the evacuation center, cult members capture Parker and bury her alive. Emma and Jacob recapture Claire, and with their help, Joe escapes with Claire on a boat. Jacob expresses a desire to leave his cult life behind, but Emma kills him before he can do so.

15
15
"The Final Chapter"
Marcos Siega
Kevin Williamson
April 29, 2013 (2013-04-29)
2J7415
7.82[15]

An angry and injured Joe Carroll escapes with Claire to a secluded island lighthouse. While investigating Parker's whereabouts, the FBI are attacked by a sniper, who Hardy and Weston capture and torture. The two finally discover Parker's location, but they arrive too late and find Parker has suffocated. Enraged at Alex for mocking Debra's death, Hardy shoots him in cold blood. Hardy discovers Carroll's unfinished manuscript in her coffin, which leads him to a location where Emma drugs and captures him. He wakes up in the lighthouse, and his confrontation with Carroll comes to blows. Their fight takes them to a boathouse where a rogue gunshot ignites tanks of gasoline; Hardy manages to escape as the building explodes with Carroll trapped inside. The FBI believes Carroll is dead, and Hardy takes Claire back to his apartment where Molly stabs both of them.

tag: table

text: Ratings[edit]

text:
DVR Ratings for season 1 of The Following

Episode No.
Title
Original air date
DVR
18–49
DVR viewers
(millions)
Total
18–49
Total
viewers

1
"Pilot"
000000002013-01-21-0000January 21, 2013
1.9
4.68
5.1
15.10[16]

2
"Chapter Two"
000000002013-01-28-0000January 28, 2013
1.8
4.11
5.1
14.21[17]

3
"The Poet's Fire"
000000002013-02-04-0000February 4, 2013
1.8
4.21
4.7
13.22[18]

4
"Mad Love"
000000002013-02-11-0000February 11, 2013
1.7
3.73
4.1
11.53[19]

5
"The Siege"
000000002013-02-18-0000February 18, 2013
1.6
3.73
4.5
12.12[20]

6
"The Fall"
000000002013-02-25-0000February 25, 2013
1.5
3.67
4.3
12.25[21]

7
"Let Me Go"
000000002013-03-04-0000March 4, 2013
1.7
3.79
4.5
12.60[22]

8
"Welcome Home"
000000002013-03-11-0000March 11, 2013
1.7
3.85
4.4
12.01[23]

9
"Love Hurts"
000000002013-03-18-0000March 18, 2013
1.7
3.95
4.2
11.29[24]

10
"Guilt"
000000002013-03-25-0000March 25, 2013
1.6
3.72
3.9
10.38[25]

11
"Whips and Regret"
000000002013-04-01-0000April 1, 2013
1.7
3.79
3.9
10.36[26]

12
"The Curse"
000000002013-04-08-0000April 8, 2013
1.7
4.04
3.9
10.34[27]

13
"Havenport"
000000002013-04-15-0000April 15, 2013
1.7
3.95
3.8
10.33[28]

14
"The End is Near"
000000002013-04-22-0000April 22, 2013
1.8
3.92
4.2
10.97[29]

15
"The Final Chapter"
000000002013-04-29-0000April 29, 2013
1.4
3.50
4.1
11.32[30]