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The Sistine Chapel
By Mr. Girard | July 8, 2008
People enjoy mysteries and codes and secrets. Witness the mania in delving behind the esoteric veils of such institutions of the Vatican, Opus Dei, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, et cetera, engendered by Dan Brown’s entertaining (but wildly inaccurate) novels The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons. Witness too the millenarian zeal to find contemporary analogues to the symbols narrated in the New Testament book of Revelation and the hunt for arcane portends of major historical events and the unseen future hidden in the pages of the Old Testament using the so-called Bible (or Torah) code.
One of the sights Team AZ will be experiencing in 2009 is the Sistine Chapel, which recently has been the subject of speculation about hidden messages in its presentation. Read “Was the Sistine Ceiling a Papal Insult?” and “Michelangelo ‘hid secret code in Sistine Chapel’” to understand claims about the artist who gave us, among others, iconic representations of the creation of man and the Christ’s final judgment.
The Creation of Adam is a panel on the Chapel ceiling and the Last Judgment is a giant fresco behind the Chapel altar. We’ll be standing underneath and in front of these and more art and history next year.
Dig Mark Harden’s Artchive entry on Michelangelo and see more of the artist’s work, then take the Sistine Chapel Virtual Reality Tour (bafflingly connected to a website for ballroom dance enthusiasts ).
Categories: Art, Europe, History |