Michelangelo's Prophet Jeremiah in the Sistine Chapel commissioned by Pope Julius II. Michelangelo's Prophet Jeremiah in the Sistine Chapel commissioned by Pope Julius II. Jeremias in Latin is HIEREMIAS. Jeremiah is represented as an energetic figure who amplifies in crescendo the psychic activity of the Prophets. The prophet Jeremiah shows desolation, oppressed by a painful awareness of dire omens and in his book he predicts that times of election and estrangement of the men of God will come, which however will be overcome with a new covenant, thus prophesying the coming of Christ, as well as the end times in a second coming. The elderly prophet leans his trunk forward and rests his chin on one hand with his elbow on his knee. His expression is somber, as is the tone of his wrinkled face and long beard and white hair, in which some have wanted to recognize a possible self-portrait by Michelangelo.