Did Michelangelo Have a Hidden Agenda?

Wall Street Journal ^ | NOVEMBER 14, 2008 | Cathryn Drake

[Lorianne]

Never mind the Da Vinci Code -- what about Michelangelo's secret messages? On the 500th anniversary of the artist's first climb up the ladder in 1508 to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, a new book claims he embedded subversive messages in his spectacular frescoes -- not only Jewish, Kabbalistic and pagan symbols but also insults directed at Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work, and references to his own sexuality.

First published in an English version in May by Harper One, "The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican," coauthored by Vatican docent Roy Doliner and Rabbi Benjamin Blech, is already in its second edition in Italy. It will be translated into 16 languages and released in the coming months in Spain, Portugal, France, Poland, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.

A religious Jew who has guided visitors through the Vatican for nearly a decade, Mr. Doliner says his book is neither fiction nor an attack on the Catholic Church, but rather an attempt to reveal the universal connections between Christianity and Judaism. He says Michelangelo's frescoes also convey the tumultuous rivalry between the rulers of Florence and the Roman church at the time of their painting.

Mr. Doliner believes that Michelangelo, whose unconventional education at the court of Lorenzo de Medici included the study of Judaic and Kabbalistic texts, meant the 1,100-square-meter ceiling of the chapel as a mystical message of universal love -- a bridge of understanding between the two faiths.

[Technocrat]

Every creative person plants easter eggs. The longer it takes, the more easter eggs get laid. Trust me :)

[Gumdrop]

These writers seem to me to be immature. They are behaving like HS Sophomores who conjure up dirty images in everything they see.

[smokingfrog]

interesting hypothesis

[TheBattman]

I think the REAL subversive message is in the author’s agenda... Notice hidden a bit there of the list of supposed messages... hints of his sexuality...

So now, Michelangelo was a homo...

Let me guess... is the author of this book also?

[johnnycap]

First, we all know that academics who sit on their a** all day posing as enlightened need a measure of sensationalism in their books in order to gain publicity. So, they try to write about the most sensationalistic thing they can. Case in point...John Boswell over at Yale.

Second, when you fill a ceiling and especially the altar piece with literally hundreds of images, everybody’s gonna see what they want to. Example, is Michelangelo’s face on the veil meant to mock Christ and Veronica or is it just a disguised self portrait. Wait 500 years and some other Jew who grew up in an Italian Catholic neighborhood in suburban Massachusetts will probably try to make a name for himself by writing some dumb book on the hidden prophecies contained in the Sgt. Pepper’s Album Cover.

Cheers!

[stripes1776]

Every creative person plants easter eggs. The longer it takes, the more easter eggs get laid. Trust me :)

Your message is extremely vague. But from your screen name, I assume that by easter eggs you mean the hidden surprises that some software programmers put in their code. Well, not all programmers put easter eggs in their code.

As for the word creative, this word is so overused in the English language, it is difficult to know exactly what the word means. As far as I can tell, the predominant meaning today of the word creative denotes someone who doesn't follow rules and just plays with spontaneous gestures. In other words, someone who worships chaos.

Michelangelo was not a creative person. He was a highly disciplined painter and sculptor who was also a genius. That makes him quite rare.

[piytar]

There is a list of goals for the communist subversion of America. One of them is to replace and/or discredit real art. This is just an attmept to do exactly that...

[Cheburashka]

But what that really means is that if an artist were to create a massive artwork which contained religiously subversive messages and insults to the Pope ... well ... let's just say that the ceiling would have been whitewashed. The messages would most definitely have been understood.

---

Definitely. Especially since almost every Pope since the chapel was dedicated has been elected right under this “subversive” artwork. This isn't hidden in a back room.

[stripes1776]

NOT Michelangelo, but definitely painted by a screaming queen:

The artist is Pietro Vannucci detto il Perugino. He painted St. Sebastian who had been martyred in the 4th century. This work is from the period 1490-1500 A.D. I would be slow to make hasty conclusions about the painter's preferences. This is the Renaissance. Renaissance artists painted the human body as they saw it before their eyes. This style was inspired by ancient Greek and Latin art. Years later there was a reaction against this style as being too sensuous. Of course, many Protestants and particularly Puritans judged it as evidence of the paganism of Catholicism. But many artists of this period painted the same subject of St. Sebastian in a similar style.

Here is Reubens painting the same subject about 100 years later:

And here is the modern artist Odilon Redon treating the same subject in pastels from about 1910:

Which style do you prefer?

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks BBell! One thing Michelangelo definitely did that scared the feces out of everyone at the time was, decades later, he painted The Last Judgement on the space over the Sistine altar (whatever had been there before, if anything, was destroyed or covered). The anecdote about that is, when the Pope first entered to view the finished work, he fell on his knees and begged forgiveness from God for his own transgressions. During the painting of this later fresco, Biagio da Cesena complained of the numerous nude figures (I couldn't remember the name, and would like to thank wikiwackypedia), so Michelangelo painted his likeness as Minos, donkey-eared official in Hell. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[SunkenCiv]

His surviving letters suggest he was bisexual in his interests, but of course, there’s no actual proof that he engaged in any kind of intercourse, so... :’)

[BGHater]

Off topic.

Sad how far Italy has fallen.

From a country that produced Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Dante and Marconi, they don't have any Universities in the top 150 of world universities.

[HowlinglyMind-BendingAbsurdity]

That's alright. If we can believe The New York Times, the McCain campaign was coding secret, subliminal Da Vinci Code-like messages in the Paris Hilton "celebrity" ad. Maybe Dan Brown, Tom Hanks, and Ron Howard could look into making a film about it?

[SunkenCiv]

Hmm, I think Marconi was actually from Serbia. Oh, and Tesla invented radio, and sued Marconi. :’)

But anyway point well taken. The Medici era in Florence produced (besides private banking that didn’t rely on Jewish lenders) Michelangelo, da Vinci, Machiavelli (all at nearly the same time), many others; earlier on, Florence produced Brunellesci (sp?) who Michelangelo studied in order to plan the great dome for the new St Peter’s in Rome.

But of course, at that time, Italy wasn’t a unified state. And, I think we’ve hit on the answer... ;’)

[Ken H]

B_ SU_E TO DR_ NK __RE OV_LT_NE.

[happygrl]

Those "breasts" look like implants.

Nothing real about that "woman."

[wolfcreek]

Then there's this....guy...errr whatever. Go figure.