Creative suffering and platonic love Michelangelo Buonarroti: Several fascinating pages from the life of a genius. Is it true that Michelangelo left secret messages on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Let's start with the fact that Michelangelo was framed: charge

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 did not leave behind any offspring on earth, but only soulless stone statues. Although there was an extraordinary woman in the life of the great genius - a muse and lover.

Bringing creative projects to life, the master could spend years in the 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, which he performed, mourning and suffering, as if not of his own free 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 boy’s psychological state, which explained his isolation, irritability and unsociability.

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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 artistic craft.
And he had no choice but to send his son to study with the master Domenico Ghirlandaio.

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Already in 1490, they began to talk about the exceptional talent of the still very young Michelangelo Buonarroti, and he was only 15 years old at that time. And two years later, the beginning sculptor already had the marble reliefs “Madonna of the Stairs” and “Battle of the Centaurs” to his credit.

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Michelangelo's statues, like titans preserving their stone nature, have always been distinguished by their solidity and at the same time grace. The sculptor himself claimed that “A good sculpture is one that can be rolled down a mountain and not a single part will break off.”

The only masterpiece of a genius with his autograph

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He made this signature in a fit of anger at temple visitors 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 the age of 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 scenes of the Old Testament: from the Creation of the World to the Flood.

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At the end of the work, the master was practically blind from the fact that the poisonous paint constantly dripped into his eyes while working, and its fumes completely undermined the health of the great master.

“After four tortured years of making 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 I had become.”.

The artist's personal life is shrouded in secrets and speculation.

There have always been many rumors surrounding the personal life of the famous sculptor.
Biographers stated that due to the fact that Michelangelo was deprived of maternal love, he did not have relationships with women.

But he was credited with various close relationships with his sitters. To support the version of homosexuality, Michelangelo said only the fact that he had never been married. He himself explained it as follows: “Art is jealous,” said Michelangelo, “and demands the whole person. I have a wife to whom everything belongs, 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 nudity, and his love sonnets, dedicated primarily to men, clearly contain homoerotic motifs.

The first mentions of a romantic nature will appear only when Michelangelo is already over fifty. Having met a young man named Tommaso de'Cavalieri, the master dedicated 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, that these two people were connected by deep friendship and spiritual closeness until the master’s death. It was Tomasso who sat at the bedside of his dying friend until his last breath.

When the artist was already approaching 60, fate brought him together with a talented poetess named Vittoria Colonna, the granddaughter of the Duke of Urbana and the widow of the famous commander Marquis of 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 mental state of a lonely genius.

For ten years until her death, they constantly communicated, exchanged poems, and carried on correspondence, which became a real monument to the historical era.

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Her death was a great loss for the artist, who until the end of his days regretted that he had kissed only the hand of his beautiful beloved, and he so wanted to kiss her on the mouth, but he "не смел осквернить своим смрадным прикосновением её прекрасные и свежие черты". !}

He dedicated a posthumous sonnet to his beloved woman, which became the last in his poetic work.

Death of a Genius

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Michelangelo was revered by fans during his lifetime and enjoyed enormous popularity, which many of his colleagues did not have.

Thus, the crowning achievement of the brilliant Renaissance master, transformed from a 5-meter block of damaged marble into a masterpiece, glorified him throughout the world and is still considered one of the most famous and perfect works of art.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has amazed 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 began this ambitious project at the age of 33, in 1508. The chapel was opened to the public in 1512. The ceiling was difficult for him 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. Raising my arms and head up for hours on end resulted in terrible headaches and muscle spasms.

The spread of fungus across the ceiling meant 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 prevent the fungus from spreading again.

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 his own scaffolding, on which it would be 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 famous sculptor at that time, whose works (David and Pieta) were striking in their beauty and realism. At the request of Pope Julius II, he had to take up the painting of the chapel, but the artist insisted on reserving the right to choose the subjects.

Result of 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 the hellish conditions and the 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 fresco, 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 at its peak, 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's why speculation that one of history's greatest artists managed to hide secret symbols in his most famous work is fascinating 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 pope’s last name was Rovere, translated from Italian as oak.

Symbols of Judaism

Acorns were not the only piece of hidden symbolism that Michelangelo included in his work.

In the depiction of the Fall and expulsion from Paradise, there is no infamous apple tree in the Garden of Eden. In its place stands 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 critics, the artist was thus trying to send a message to the church that Christianity had strayed too far from its Jewish roots.

Image of God

However, Michelangelo himself greatly 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. Before Michelangelo, Western art depicted God either as a hand or as a source of light, but did not take on a clear physical form.

Michelangelo went against the accepted principles and depicted 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 at the image of God and the angels surrounding him. In 1990, physician Frank Lynn Meshberger discovered that hidden within the image of God and his retinue was an image of the human brain. According to art historians, this suggests that God gave Adam not only life, but also reason.

The image of God and his retinue is so complex that not only its outlines are shaped like a brain, but also individual elements of the fresco (for example, the angel’s leg) almost exactly repeat the outlines of parts of the brain (pituitary gland).

Another brain

A 2010 study of the murals revealed another image of the brain, this time hidden in the mural "Separation of Light from Darkness." Under the high raised chin of God, on his neck, 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 had been actively studying anatomy on corpses since the age of 15, could not have accidentally depicted 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 in addition to the brain, the artist depicted other internal organs.

Not without the feminine principle. A ram skull, which is depicted eight times on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, closely resembles female reproductive organs, researchers say.

In addition, on the frescoes there are several times triangular shapes depicted with the point down, which has long symbolized the “sacred feminine principle.” This was a popular motif in classical Greco-Roman art. However, this attitude threatened the patriarchy of the Catholic Church.

Unusually for all Western art of the time, women are given a central role in many of the scenes depicted on the chapel ceiling. Considering that the ceiling depicts exclusively scenes from the Old Testament, where the Virgin Mary and Child were not present, such attention to women is truly unexpected.

Today one can only guess whether the hidden symbols were an attempt to deceive the church, remind it of its roots, or pay homage to science, reason and the feminine principle. 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?

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Even if you've never looked at the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel, at least 1 of the 9 frescoes is familiar to you (especially if you've owned a Nokia feature phone): hands 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 in it a meaning that changes the understanding of the 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 one of sleep.

Let's start with the fact that Michelangelo was set up: he was assigned a job that he should not have been able to handle.

Before you begin to decipher one of the most famous frescoes, it is worth getting 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 sculptures. So the collaboration 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 artist’s ill-wishers decided to leave Michelangelo without work and informed the pope that building a tomb during his lifetime was a dubious undertaking and could lead to disaster. The task was postponed, but the envious people did not calm down. They pointed out to Julius II the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and hinted that it needed updating, advising that Buonarroti entrust this task. As planned, Michelangelo, who had no experience in painting, was supposed to fail the order and leave Rome humiliated. But the artist was not so simple: he himself chose the materials, designed the scaffolding and began to work.

The frescoes on the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel evoke amazement even today, and it is difficult to believe that a person is capable of creating such things. The master really had a hard time: after 4 years of painting the ceiling, Michelangelo developed arthritis, scoliosis and an ear infection due to the paint that got on his face. And the church turned out to be a capricious customer: dad forgot to pay for the materials on time, but at the same time he constantly urged the artist and interfered in the process with the demand to correct the colors to make it look richer.

When the work was finished, Julius II was satisfied, and the frescoes with scenes from Genesis made church visitors speechless. The fourth painting, entitled “The Creation of Adam,” received the greatest popularity.

Version No. 1: Michelangelo encrypted the human brain in the fresco

“And God created man in His own image,” says Genesis 1:27. U Michelangelo there was his own interpretation of this phrase, and, according to the popular version, the artist depicted Adam and God in the same fresco placed another important participant in the creation of an intelligent being- human brain. Buonarroti seems to be hinting that a person is capable of looking complete (like Adam in the fresco), but he will not be able to approach the Creator without the ability to think. Or, what 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 already runs counter to religious ideology.

We remind you that the year was 1511 and for speaking about the origin of man from the point of view of science you could lose not only your job, but also your life. The artist was also famous for his interest in anatomy and was involved in autopsies. And not only did Buonarroti confess his love for his hobby, but he also did it on the ceiling of the church in the Vatican.

Since the artist knew the human structure in detail, nothing stopped him from applying anatomy in his works:

1. Many scientists have noted the similarity of the outlines of God's cloak with the contours of human brain.
2. Side crack Silvio- This is a very deep groove that separates the temporal and parietal lobes.
3. The lowest angel, who holds God, with its outlines resembles brain stem.
4. Responsible for the endocrine system pituitary, and in the fresco he is depicted as the foot of an angel.
5. Right Hand of God passes through the prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of human intelligence, imagination and creativity.
6. Female silhouette under the hand of God shapes supramarginal gyrus.
7. The angel, who is at the feet of the Creator, forms the outlines angular gyrus.
8. Flowing scarf - vertebral arteries, which have a sinuous shape.
9. Angel's Bent Knee - optic chiasm where the fibers of the optic nerves partially intersect.
10. 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.