Confused Soul

Michelangelo used to live in Bologna in those days; the pub at the corner of the lane was his favorite haunt. He used to take his bottle and sit outside. One fine day, there was a peanuts vendor sitting across the road. Everytime the vendor weighted peanuts, a few always rolled out of his basket and fell on the ground. Each time a small poor naked boy standing nearby would pick them up, put one nut in his mouth and the rest back in the basket, and then wait for the next customer. The peanuts vendor also used to give him a peanut for his help. Michelangelo was noticing this event and he bought peanuts multiple times just to watch that performance. Finally, Michelangelo used the boy as the model for the naked baby Jesus for the statue of the ‘Madonna of Brujis’.

In his end days, Michelangelo was supposed to complete ‘The Last Supper’. But he drew a blank whenever he tried to imagine one face - the face of Judas he thirteenth disciple of Jesus, who had betrayed his saviour to the Romans for thirty pieces of silver. He had helped to crucify him.

Michelangelo spent days and days making sketches. He searched through his old drawings and worked on them, but no face satisfied him.

And then suddenly, one day he found Judas in a small, dirty pub in Rome. His eyes had unnatural glitter, he was restless and he spat again and again. His body had already begun to sag with age. He spoke so fast that words seemed to fall out of his mouth like coins from a torn pocket. He had gone to Michelangelo to beg for a dinar, but had ended up sharing a bottle with him. When Michelangelo came out of the pub, he saw the man ask someone else for two dinars.

Michelangelo made a deal with the man and took him to the chapel. He told him what he wanted. He wanted him to model for Judas. That would make the man immortal. Michelangelo lifted up the drapes to show him the walls and the ceiling. The man looked at everything with awe. He asked for a large sum of money in exchange for his consent. Angelo agreed to pay him. Then the man asked for an advance which Michelangelo gave. The man came regularly for a few days. Angelo used to call him to the Chapel for sittings. One day, as the man was looking through some old sketches, he asked Michelangelo about the sketches of the child he had made in Bologna.

"I used to live in Bologna years ago. I used this face to paint Jesus as a child."

"Do you remember his name?"

"Yes ... Marsoleni."

That man smiled. He rolled up his sleeve and showed him a name tattooed on his arm: Marsoleni.

"I am the same Jesus, whom you are now painting as Judas."