Le Prophète Zacharie

When Michelangelo started the Sistine ceiling in 1508 for Pope Julius II, he gave the prophet Zechariah the single best seat in the room, right over the main door. Walk into the chapel and Zechariah is the first of the great seers you pass beneath, and from the altar at the far end he sits square in the Pope's line of sight during Mass. Zechariah had foretold a king entering Jerusalem in humility, which suited a doorway meant for solemn processions. There is a small joke hidden in that place of honour: one of the two boys reading over the prophet's shoulder is making a rude hand sign, the old Italian fig, tucked just behind his back. It was among the earliest passages Michelangelo painted, before he loosened his figures into the huge twisting bodies overhead.