King Hezekiah
Artist: Michelangelo- Sistine Chapel
1509
This spandrel is associated with the lunette naming Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Amon, kings of Judah during the period of Assyrian domination. Their reigns included religious reform, political danger, and serious departures from the worship of the Lord. Michelangelo included their generations within the ancestral cycle of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The figures in the spandrel represent the continuation of human families through the changing circumstances of Israel's history.
Hezekiah was remembered for his trust in God during the Assyrian threat to Jerusalem (2 Kings 18-19). His son Manasseh promoted idolatry and other practices condemned by Scripture, although Chronicles also records his later repentance (2 Chronicles 33). Amon continued the wrongdoing associated with his father's earlier reign. Matthew 1:9-10 includes these kings in the genealogy of Jesus. Their contrasting lives demonstrate that the Davidic family continued despite the failures of individual rulers. The spandrel represents the generations associated with this history, without requiring its figures to be identified as particular kings or family members.
The triangular spandrel provided Michelangelo with a restricted space in which to arrange a group of human figures. Their postures and relationships create a domestic scene rather than a display of royal authority. This treatment is especially striking beside the names of kings whose reigns involved warfare, political uncertainty, and religious conflict. Michelangelo emphasizes the human continuity beneath those events, allowing the ancestral figures to serve as a visual link between biblical history and ordinary family experience.