Artist: Michelangelo- Sistine Chapel
between 1511 and 1512
Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Joram were successive kings of Judah during the divided monarchy. Their reigns reveal both religious reform and serious compromise within the Davidic dynasty. Michelangelo included their names among the ancestors of Jesus, placing this troubled royal history within the larger story of the generations leading to Christ.
Matthew 1:7-8 identifies Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Joram as successive ancestors of Jesus. Asa opposed idolatry and encouraged renewed worship of the Lord (2 Chronicles 14-15). Jehoshaphat also promoted religious reform, although his alliances with the northern kingdom created difficulties (2 Chronicles 17-20). Joram departed from the example of these earlier kings and followed the practices associated with the house of Ahab (2 Chronicles 21). Their contrasting lives illustrate the mixture of faithfulness and failure found within the royal ancestry of Jesus.
Michelangelo presents the ancestral generations through figures whose gestures and relationships suggest the ordinary conditions of family life. The painting does not attempt to distinguish the three kings through crowns or recognizable royal attributes. Instead, the names inscribed above the window establish their place in biblical history. The restrained composition forms part of the visual transition from the human generations below to the prophets and Genesis scenes above.
