Creative Suffering and Platonic Love by Michelangelo Buonarroti: A Few Fascinating Pages from the Life of a Genius. Let's start with the fact that Michelangelo was framed: given a job he shouldn't have done
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Even if you've never looked at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, at least 1 out of 9 frescoes is familiar to you (especially if you've had a Nokia push-button phone): arms reaching out to each other have become a recognizable symbol all over the world. The author of this work is Michelangelo Buonarroti, who managed not only to create a real masterpiece, but also to encrypt a meaning in it that changes the idea of a famous biblical story.
website carefully studied the fresco "The Creation of Adam" and is in a hurry to reveal the artist's idea, which can deprive him of sleep.
Let's start with the fact that Michelangelo was framed: given a job he shouldn't have done
Before you start deciphering one of the most famous frescoes, you should get acquainted with the history of its creation and with the artist himself. Michelangelo Buonarroti is better known as a sculptor, and his statue of David eclipsed all ancient, Greek and Roman statues. So cooperation with the Pope (Julius II) began not with the order of frescoes, but with a personal tomb for the head of the Catholic Church. But the ill-wishers of the artist decided to leave Michelangelo without work and informed the pope that the construction of the tomb during his lifetime was a dubious undertaking and could bring trouble. The task was postponed, but the envious did not rest on this. They pointed Julius II to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and hinted that it required renovation, advising that Buonarroti be entrusted with this matter. As planned, Michelangelo, who had no experience in painting, had to fail the order and leave Rome humiliated. But the artist turned out to be not so simple: he himself chose the materials, designed the scaffolding and set to work.
The frescoes on the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel are amazing even today, and it is hard to believe that a person is capable of creating such a thing. The master really had a hard time: after 4 years of painting the ceiling, Michelangelo earned arthritis, scoliosis and an ear infection due to paint that got on his face. Yes, and the church turned out to be a capricious customer: dad forgot to pay for materials on time, but at the same time he constantly urged the artist and intervened in the process demanding to correct the colors to make it look richer.
When the work was completed, Julius II was pleased, and the frescoes with scenes from Genesis made church visitors speechless. The fourth painting called "The Creation of Adam" received the greatest popularity.
Version number 1: Michelangelo encrypted the human brain in a fresco
“And God created man in his own image,” says Genesis 1:27. At Michelangelo had its own interpretation of this phrase, and, according to the popular version, the artist is on the same fresco with Adam and God placed a third important participant in the creation of a rational being- the human brain. Buonarroti, as it were, hints that a person is able to look complete (like Adam on a fresco), but he will not be able to approach the Creator without the ability to think. Or, which sounds even more provocative, everything is created by man, and God is the fruit of his imagination (after all, this ability is the main difference between man and animal). And such a theory is already running counter to religious ideology.
We remind you that the year was 1511 and for the statement about the origin of man from the point of view of science, one could lose not only work, but also life. The artist was also famous for his interest in anatomy and was engaged in dissections. And not only did Buonarroti confess his love for his hobby, he also did it on the ceiling of the church in the Vatican.
Since the artist knew the structure of a person in detail, nothing prevented him from applying anatomy in his works:
- Many scientists have noted the similarity of the outlines of God's cloak with the contours of human brain.
- Lateral fissure Silvio- this is a very deep groove that separates the temporal and parietal lobes.
- The lowest angel, which holds God, with its outlines resembles brain stem.
- Responsible for the endocrine system pituitary, and in the fresco he is depicted as the foot of an angel.
- Right hand of God passes through the prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of the human mind, imagination and creativity.
- Female silhouette under the hand of God shape supramarginal gyrus.
- The angel, who is at the feet of the Creator, forms the contours angular gyrus.
- Waving scarf - vertebral arteries, which have a curvy shape.
- Bent knee of an angel optic chiasm where the fibers of the optic nerves partially intersect.
- Myself Creator is located on the site of the limbic system, which is the emotional center of the brain and the anatomical analogue of the soul.
MOSCOW, February 4 - RIA Novosti. Italian scientists analyzed the portraits of Michelangelo Buonarroti and concluded that he suffered from degenerative arthrosis of the hands, which, however, did not prevent him from creating due to the fact that his tendency to constantly work slowed down the destruction of bones, according to an article published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Michelangelo is rightfully considered one of the greatest artists and sculptors of the Renaissance and of all mankind in general - in 89 years of his life he created many of the greatest masterpieces, many of which, such as the Last Judgment fresco, the statues of David and the Dying Slave, determined the development of European culture for decades and centuries to come.
According to Davide Lazari from the University of Florence (Italy), one of the main secrets of Michelangelo remained that, according to Davide Lazari from the University of Florence (Italy), how the great artist worked in his advanced years, if, according to the memoirs of his nephew Lionardo Simoni, he suffered from serious problems with joint mobility, which most of Buonarroti's biographers consider to be the result of the development of gout.
Lazzeri and his colleagues doubted this and studied in detail what the master’s hands looked like in the last years before his death, and also re-analyzed all known sources about his life, including portraits of the artist, autobiographies of other contemporaries and memoirs of relatives and friends.
Thanks to the portraits made in different periods of Michelangelo's life - at 60, 65 and 70 years old - the authors of the article were able to reveal what the artist actually suffered by comparing how the maestro's left hand looked on them. According to them, Buonarroti really experienced severe joint pain, but the cause of their appearance was not gout, the accumulation of urea crystals, but degenerative arthrosis.
This is supported by special deformities in the joints of the thumb, metacarpal bones and a number of other elements of the hand, as well as the absence of visible signs of inflammation in the vicinity of these bones, which are usually associated with the development of gout. The destruction of these joints as a result of degenerative processes deprived Michelangelo of the ability to write, since his thumb actually stopped bending.
Considering that the great artist lived for at least another 15 years after painting these portraits, the question arises, how did he manage to fight the disease? According to Lazzeri and his colleagues, Michelangelo was both helped and hindered by his desire to constantly work - all the while working through pain, the artist slowed down the destruction of the joints and adapted to the constant limitation in their mobility.
The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has been impressing visitors for more than five hundred years. Every year, a great work of art attracts millions of tourists and occupies a special place not only in world art, but also in Christianity.
History of frescoes
Michelangelo Buonarroti started this grandiose project at the age of 33, in 1508. The chapel was opened to the public in 1512. The ceiling was given to him with difficulty and, according to Michelangelo himself, no money would be enough to pay for his hellish torment and the sacrifices that he was forced to make.
He painted all the frescoes while standing, and not lying on his back, as many believe. Raised up for many hours on end, the hands and head led to terrible headaches and muscle spasms.
The spread of the fungus on the ceiling led to the fact that the first layer of frescoes had to be completely removed. After the ceiling was dry again, Michelangelo prepared and applied the primer himself to avoid re-spreading of the fungus.
The chief architect of the Vatican, Donato Bramante, did not really like Michelangelo (probably because he patronized Raphael) and did not try to provide him with comfort, so Michelangelo had to design scaffolding for himself, on which it was convenient to work on painting the high ceilings of the chapel.
In addition, Michelangelo did not consider himself an artist, since he was already a well-known sculptor at that time, whose works (David and Pieta) were striking in beauty and realism. At the request of Pope Julius II, he had to take on the painting of the chapel, but the artist insisted on reserving the right to choose subjects.
The result of the work
As a result, Michelangelo, an aspiring artist, managed to create one of the greatest works of world art, which to this day intrigues and delights all connoisseurs of beauty.
Despite hellish conditions and an incredible amount of work (more than a thousand square meters), Michelangelo depicted nine scenes from the Old Testament, including more than three hundred human figures depicted in real size. These images and incredibly accurate anatomy have inspired generations of artists and scientists. The Creation of Adam mural, in which the fingers of God and Adam almost touch, is one of the most recognizable and copied works of art in human history.
Hidden symbols
Although in 1508 the high Renaissance was flourishing in the courtyard, the church was still extremely strict, did not like and in every possible way suppressed the attempts of great minds to spread too progressive ideas.
That is why the speculation that one of history's greatest artists managed to hide hidden symbols in his most famous work is exciting and intriguing in itself.
Not all symbols, however, were so secret. For example, in gratitude for the fact that Pope Julius II allowed Michelangelo to change the subjects of the frescoes, the artist depicted acorns on many of them.
What's the point? The fact is that the name of the pope was Rovere, translated from Italian - oak.
Symbolism of Judaism
Acorns were not the only part of the hidden symbolism that Michelangelo included in his work.
In the depiction of the Fall and Exile from Paradise, the Garden of Eden does not contain the infamous apple tree. In its place is a fig tree - a traditional element of the Jewish religion, not Christianity.
In fact, in many scenes from the Old Testament, Michelangelo actively uses Jewish symbolism. According to historians and art historians, the artist thus tried to send a kind of message to the church that Christianity had gone too far from its Jewish roots.
Image of God
However, Michelangelo himself strongly departed from Judaism at the moment when he decided to depict God.
Christianity is the only Abrahamic religion that allows people to create an image of God. Prior to Michelangelo, Western art depicted God as either a hand or a source of light, but did not take a clear physical form.
Michelangelo went against the accepted foundations and portrayed God in human form. It was this adult bearded man who became the typical image of God for the entire Christian world.
God is mind
Take a close look at the fresco "The Creation of Adam", namely the image of God and the angels surrounding him. In 1990, doctor Frank Lynn Meshberger discovered that the image of the human brain is hidden in the image of God and his retinue. According to art historians, this suggests that God gave Adam not only life, but also reason.
The depiction of God and his retinue is so complex that not only does its outline resemble the brain in shape, but individual elements of the fresco (for example, the leg of an angel) almost exactly repeat the outlines of the brain regions (pituitary gland).
Another brain
A study of the frescoes in 2010 uncovered another representation of the brain, this time hidden in the "Separation of Light from Darkness" mural. Under the highly raised chin of God, on his neck, a part of the human brain is clearly visible, namely the trunk, part of the temporal lobe and the medulla oblongata.
According to them, Michelangelo, who has been actively studying anatomy on cadavers since the age of 15, could not accidentally depict such a complex structure on the neck of God - a part of the body that is usually smooth.
Feminine
A Brazilian study published in the journal Clinical Anatomy in 2016 found that the artist depicted other internal organs in addition to the brain.
Not without the feminine. According to researchers, the ram's skull, which is depicted eight times on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, is very similar to the female reproductive organs.
In addition, on the frescoes there are several times triangular shapes depicted with the point down, which has long symbolized the “sacred feminine principle”. It was a popular motif in classical Greco-Roman art. However, this attitude threatened the patriarchy of the Catholic Church.
It is atypical for all Western art of that time that in many scenes depicted on the ceiling of the chapel, women are assigned a central role. Considering that the ceiling depicts only scenes from the Old Testament, where there was no Virgin Mary with a baby, such attention to women is really unexpected.
Today, one can only guess whether the hidden symbols were an attempt to circle the church around the finger, to remind her of her roots, or to bow to science, reason and the feminine. Or maybe these symbols have completely different meanings, or there are no symbols at all? Or maybe there are still many hidden messages that no one has yet seen?
The greatest master and thinker of the High Renaissance - Michelangelo Buonarroti, who lived a long and fruitful life, always thought that all his creations were not worthy of the Lord God. And he himself is not worthy to end up in Paradise after death, because he left no offspring on earth, but only soulless stone statues. Although there was an extraordinary woman in the life of a great genius - a muse and a lover.
Bringing creative projects to life, the master could spend years in quarries, where he selected suitable blocks of marble and laid roads for their transportation. Michelangelo tried to do everything with his own hands, he was an engineer, a laborer, and a stonemason.
The life path of the great Buonarroti was full of amazing labor feats that he performed, grieving and suffering, as if not by his own will, but forced by his genius. And distinguished by a sharp and extremely strong character, he had a will harder than granite itself.
Mike's childhood
In March 1475, the second son of five boys was born into the family of a poor nobleman. When Mika was 6 years old, his mother, exhausted by frequent pregnancies, died. And this tragedy left an indelible mark on the psychological state of the boy, which explained his isolation, irritability and unsociableness.https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/219410677.jpg" alt="Italian painting of 12-year-old Michelangelo: the earliest work." title="Italian painting of 12-year-old Michelangelo: the earliest work." border="0" vspace="5">!}
Having reached the age of 13, Mike told his father, who wanted to give his son a decent financial education, that he intended to study art.
And he had no choice but to send his son to study with the master Domenico Ghirlandaio.
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0024.jpg" alt=" Madonna at the stairs. (1491). Author: Michelangelo Buonarroti." title="Madonna at the stairs. (1491).
Already in 1490, they began to talk about the exceptional talent of the still very young Michelangelo Buonarroti, and at that time he was only 15 years old. And two years later, the novice sculptor already had marble reliefs “Madonna at the Stairs” and “Battle of the Centaurs” on the account of the novice sculptor.
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0022.jpg" alt="Statue of the prophet Moses, intended for one of the papal tombstones of the Vatican Cathedral." title="Statue of the prophet Moses, intended for one of the papal tombstones of the Vatican Cathedral." border="0" vspace="5">!}
The statues of Michelangelo, like titans, keeping their stone nature, have always been distinguished by solidity and at the same time elegance. The sculptor himself claimed that "Good is the sculpture that can be rolled down the mountain and not a single part of it will break off."
The only masterpiece of a genius with his autograph
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0010.jpg" alt="Fragment.
He made this signature in a fit of anger at the visitors of the temple, who attributed his creation to another sculptor. A little later, the master repented of his attack of pride and never signed any of his works again.
4 years of hard labor on the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel
At 33, Michelangelo will begin his titanic work on the greatest achievement in the field of painting - the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel. The painting with a total area of 600 square meters was taken from the plots of the Old Testament: from the moment of the Creation of the world to the Flood.https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0011.jpg" alt="Michelangelo Buonarroti." title="Michelangelo Buonarroti." border="0" vspace="5">!}
At the end of the work, the master was practically blind from the fact that poisonous paint constantly dripped into his eyes during work, and its fumes completely undermined the health of the great master.
“After four tortured years, having made over 400 life-size figures, I felt so old and tired. I was only 37, and all my friends no longer recognized the old man that I had become..
The personal life of the artist, shrouded in secrets and conjectures.
There have always been many rumors around the personal life of the famous sculptor.Biographers stated that due to the fact that Michelangelo was deprived of maternal love, he did not develop relationships with women.
But he was credited with various close relationships with his sitters. In confirmation of the version of Michelangelo's homosexuality, only the fact that he had never been married spoke. He himself explained it as follows: “Art is jealous,” said Michelangelo, “and demands the whole person. I have a wife to whom I belong, and my children are my creations.
Some researchers believed that Michelangelo generally avoided physical sex, whether with women or men. Others considered him bisexual. However, as an artist, he preferred male nudity to female, and in his love sonnets, dedicated mainly to men, there are clearly homoerotic motifs.
The first mention of a romantic character will appear only when Michelangelo is already over fifty. Having met a young man named Tommaso de'Cavalieri, the master dedicates numerous love poems to him. But this fact is not reliable evidence of their intimate relationship, since divulging this to the whole world through love poetry was dangerous at that time even for Michelangelo, who in his youth was twice subjected to homosexual blackmail and learned caution.
But one thing is certain for sure, that these two people were connected by deep friendship and spiritual closeness until the death of the master. It was Tomasso who, until his last breath, sat at the bedside of his dying friend.
When the artist was already under 60, fate brought him together with a talented poetess named Vittoria Colonna, the granddaughter of the Duke of Urban and the widow of the famous commander Marquis Pescaro. Only this 47-year-old woman, distinguished by a strong masculine character and possessing an extraordinary mind and innate tact, was able to fully understand the state of mind of a lonely genius.
For ten years until her death, they constantly communicated, exchanged poems, and corresponded, which became a real monument of the historical era.
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0029.jpg" alt=" Michelangelo at the tomb of Vittoria Colonna, kissing the hand of the deceased. Author: Francesco Jacovacci." title="Michelangelo at the tomb of Vittoria Colonna, kissing the hand of the deceased.
Her death was a heavy loss for the artist, who until the end of his days regretted that he kissed only the hand of his beautiful beloved, and he so wanted to kiss her on the lips, but he "не смел осквернить своим смрадным прикосновением её прекрасные и свежие черты". !}
He dedicated a posthumous sonnet to his beloved woman, which was the last in his poetic work.
Death of a genius
https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0006.jpg" alt=" Buonarotti's tomb in Florence." title="Tomb of Buonarotti in Florence." border="0" vspace="5">!}
Michelangelo, during his lifetime, was revered by fans and enjoyed immense popularity, which many of his colleagues did not have.
So, the crown of creativity of the brilliant master of the Renaissance - reincarnated from a 5-meter block of spoiled marble into a masterpiece, glorified him throughout the world and is still considered one of the most famous and perfect works of art.
Nearly 500 years after Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, young medical student Franz Meschberger was preparing for his exams at the Anatomy Theater of the Medical Institute in Indianapolis, and for the time being did not realize how close he was to deciphering a message from one of the world's greatest artists. .
Usually he dissected the same corpse, reeking of the cloying and unpleasant smell of formalin, an aroma very familiar to him, but that day he had a new subject for analysis - a fresh brain.
On the table in front of him were drawings by renowned medical aid illustrator Frank Netter. Meshberger approached the task very responsibly, making several drawings before he cut open the brain, compared them with Netter's illustrations, then made another series of drawings himself. After spending three hours of hard work, as he always did when he worked in an anatomical theater, he realized that he needed to take a break and change his occupation.
Almost immediately, the student was immersed in the Michelangelo book and as he turned the pages, he came across the three-page spread of The Creation of Adam, a scene adorning part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The fresco depicted a god (surrounded by angels and with the unborn Eve under his arm) holding out his hand to Adam. Adam, on the other hand, leans back, also stretches his hand to God with a casual gesture.
Meshberger's head, filled with images of the human brain, was primed to see what no one had been able to see before.
“I was immediately struck by the shape of the outline surrounding the god and the angels,” he recalls. "It was exactly the same as the item I've been working on all day!"
Without a doubt, this shape resembled a cross section of the human brain. “I was overcome by a feeling of déjà-vu,” Meschberger says, and admits that at the moment of opening, goosebumps ran through his body.
The first thing that caught his attention was the hem of the green tunic, which is a vertebral artery that spirals up towards the pons. “Then I drew attention to the elongated leg at the base of the picture. I saw in it the anterior and posterior parts of the pituitary gland. The angel’s leg was not five, but two-toed. .
The symbolism of this image is obvious: Adam receives a gift from the Lord God. But this is not the gift of life, because he already lives. H. W. Janson in his book “Fundamentals of Art History” notes that “(Creation) is not a modeling of the body of Adam, but rather the transfer of divine breath to him - the soul.
Since the receptacle of the soul is the mind, the message is hidden inside the contours of the brain: God gives Adam the mind. “And the mind is God,” adds Dr. Meshberger.
Dr. Meshberger almost forgot about his discovery. He became an OB/GYN, opened his practice and delivered over 3,000 babies before returning to discovery and putting all the elements together into an acceptable theory.
But from time to time he casually asked his friends and acquaintances: “Do you know that Michelangelo’s fresco contains a secret message?” Three years ago, when he became convinced that no one had heard of his theory, interest in it revived in him. “I wanted to know if my observation was a well-known interpretation of the image or something new.”
He continued, in his spare time, the study of the life of Michelangelo and the result made him think. Born in 1475, the artist, who was called the "divine Michelangelo" when he sculpted the Pieta of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, was 24 years old. This work made him instantly famous, and the sculpture of David, completed five years later, cemented his fame as a genius. In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned him, a sculptor by main vocation, to paint the entire vault of the Sistine Chapel with a total area of 1,768 square meters. The fact that the master, who had almost no experience in fresco painting, created a masterpiece in just four years speaks of the scale of his genius. The fresco depicts more than three hundred characters and many scenes, only one of which is "The Creation of Adam".
Dr. Meshberger's enthusiasm grew as the research continued. He did not find any mention anywhere that the fresco depicts the outline of the human brain. He began to study the image even more closely, and the idea occurred to him to superimpose a mural slide on the transparent drawing of the human brain, made by Frank Netter. The result was amazing. “The drawings matched almost exactly,” he says, adding in a low, measured, almost graveyard tone: “I just got creepy.”
It was obvious that the mural concealed much more than Dr. Meschberger thought. "The overlay of the slides led to what I understood: the back of one of the angels corresponds to the pons, and the lower leg and thigh correspond to the spine." But that is not all. The right two-toed leg of the angel bent at the knee (while the legs of God and other characters had five fingers) was a section of the optic chiasm, the thigh was the optic nerve, and the leg itself was the optic tract.
These undeniable facts were clearly no mere coincidence. Yes, and all the work of Michelangelo is imbued with symbolism that wrings the soul. Experts know that his works are fraught with countless mysteries that have not been clarified to this day. They may remain so forever. But is the assumption that in the outlines of the brain Adam receives the gift of reason from God with the philosophy of life of Michelangelo himself?
Obviously yes.
Born in the heyday of the Renaissance, the artist adhered to the philosophy of Neoplatonism and, as Dr. Meshberger notes, the followers of this current of thought believed, among other things, that "the divine part that man receives from the Creator is the mind." Michelangelo stated this more than once, both in his poems and in conversations with friends.
If his philosophy coincides with the meaning of the message of the fresco, then what about the knowledge of anatomy? Those who dispute the theory of Dr. Meshberger doubt that the master had such advanced anatomical knowledge. Without a doubt, his paintings and sculptures indicate that he knew the structure of the human body well, but one should not forget that the creator devoted a lot of time to dissecting human corpses. The rector of the Florentine church of Santo Spirito put at his disposal several premises for this purpose. At the time, such activities were illegal and punishable by death unless authorized by civil authority. Far from human eyes, Michelangelo could thus calmly dissect the brain and study it.
“Macroscopic anatomy,” explains Dr. Meshberger, “is to extract the entire brain from the skull in order to observe it. And, since you think that this organ is the seat of the mind, then you will draw the brain to depict this function.
Frescoes are painted on fresh gypsum, which absorbs water, in which the pigments are in suspension. The image thus becomes an integral part of the wall. The gypsum itself dries quickly, so a small surface is drawn at a time. In order to avoid costly mistakes, artists prepare detailed sketches on cardboard or paper and redraw them on a surface prepared for painting with paints.
“I think Michelangelo did just that,” says Dr. Meschberger. “His sketch was an outline of the brain, inside which he placed images of people, God and angels.”
There is no doubt that the artist was endowed with inspiration, and many of his contemporaries considered him the most divine creation. He could create with a deep penetration into the spheres not only artistic and philosophical, but also scientific. He had the art of putting rich symbolism into his works in a more or less explicit way, and he always did this with impeccable technique.
In the Sistine Chapel, he created scenes of great complexity, working in a technique about which he openly said that he did not like it.
450 years after his death, experts are still scratching their heads over deciphering all the symbols that he introduced into this fresco.
This time the veil was lifted over the secret message contained in the most famous scene of the painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
