Artist: Michelangelo- Sistine Chapel
between 1511 and 1512
Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Amon were kings of Judah during a period of Assyrian domination and religious upheaval. Hezekiah is remembered for his reforms and his resistance to the Assyrian threat. His son Manasseh reversed many of those reforms, while Amon continued practices condemned by the biblical writers. Michelangelo included these generations among the ancestors of Christ, showing the continuation of the Davidic family through both faithful and troubled reigns.
Matthew 1:9-10 places Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Amon in the genealogy of Jesus. Hezekiah trusted the Lord during the Assyrian invasion, when Jerusalem was threatened by Sennacherib (2 Kings 18-19). Manasseh promoted idolatry and other practices condemned in Scripture, although 2 Chronicles 33 also records his later repentance. Amon followed his father's earlier wrongdoing and was assassinated after a short reign. Their inclusion in the genealogy demonstrates that the promised Davidic line continued despite the serious failures of individual kings.
Michelangelo does not portray these ancestors as recognizable kings with crowns or royal insignia. Instead, the figures belong to his larger series of ordinary human groups, expressing the passage of generations through posture, gesture, and physical presence. The curved lunette and central inscription provide the setting. The contrast between the quiet figures and the dramatic history associated with their names gives the painting a distinctive place in the ancestral sequence.
