Scientists have discovered the secret of Michelangelo's creativity in his old years. Michelangelo's Secret Message Starring - Dentist

Almost 500 years after Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a young medical student Franz Meschberger was preparing for exams at the anatomical theater of the Indianapolis Medical Institute, and for the time being did not realize how close he was to deciphering a message from one of the greatest artists in the world. ...

Usually he dissected the same corpse, giving off a sugary and unpleasant smell of formalin, a scent 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 the drawings of the renowned medical aids illustrator Frank Netter. Meshberger approached the assignment very responsibly, having made several drawings before dissecting the brain, compared them with Netter's illustrations, and then made another series of drawings himself. After spending three hours of hard work, as he always did when he worked in the anatomical theater, he realized that he needed to take a break and change his occupation.

Almost immediately, the student immersed himself in a book on Michelangelo and, turning the pages, stumbled upon a 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 her arm) stretching out his hand to Adam. Adam, on the other hand, leans back, also pulls his hand towards God with a careless gesture.

Meshberger's head, overflowing with images of the human brain, was tuned to see what no one had previously been able to see.

“I was immediately struck by the shape of the outline that surrounded God and the angels,” he recalls. "It was exactly the same as the subject I have been working on all day!"
Without a doubt, this shape resembled a cross-section of the human brain. “I got a feeling of déjà-vu,” says Meshberger and admits that the moment he opened, goosebumps ran through his body.

The first thing that caught his attention was the floor of the green tunic, which is a vertebral artery spiraling up towards the pons. "Then I noticed the extended leg at the base of the picture. I saw in it the front and back of the pituitary gland. The angel's leg was not five, but two-fingered. Then I discerned a shape resembling an arterial groove and a lateral fissure of the cerebrum separating the frontal and parietal lobes. ...
The symbolism of this image is obvious: Adam receives a gift from the Lord of God. But this is not a gift of life, because it already lives. H. W. Janson, in his book Fundamentals of Art History, notes that “(Creation) is not a simulation of the body of Adam, but rather the transmission of the divine breath to him - the soul.
Since the mind is the receptacle of the soul, the message is hidden inside the circuits of the brain: God gives Adam a mind. “And reason is God,” adds Dr. Meshberger.

Dr. Meshberger almost forgot about his find. He became an obstetrician-gynecologist, opened his own practice and helped deliver over 3,000 babies before going back to discovering and assembling all the elements into an acceptable theory.
But from time to time, in between times he sometimes asked his friends and acquaintances: "Do you know that there is a secret message in Michelangelo's fresco?" Three years ago, when he made sure that no one had heard of his theory, his interest in it revived. "I wanted to know if my observation was a well-known interpretation of the image or something new."
He continued, in his spare time, research into the life of Michelangelo and the result made him think. Born in 1475, the artist, who was called "the divine Michelangelo" when he sculpted Pieta in 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 him the glory of a genius. In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned him, a sculptor by 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. Meschberger's enthusiasm grew as research continued. He never met a mention of the outline of a human brain on the fresco. He began to study the image even more closely and the idea came to him to superimpose a slide of fresco on a transparent drawing of a human brain, made by Frank Netter. The result was amazing. "The drawings were almost identical," he says, adding in a low, measured, almost graveyard tone: "I just felt creepy."
It was obvious that the fresco hid much more than Dr. Meschberger thought. "Overlapping slides led me to understand: the back of one of the angels corresponds to the pontus, and the lower leg and thigh corresponds to the spine." But that is not all. The right two-fingered leg of the angel bent at the knee (while the legs of God and other characters were with five fingers) was a section of the optic chiasm, the thigh was the optic nerve, and the leg itself was the optic tract.
These indisputable facts were clearly not coincidence. And the whole work of Michelangelo is imbued with symbolism that pinches the soul. Experts know that his works are fraught with countless mysteries that have not been clarified to this day. They may remain that way forever. But is the assumption that in the outlines of the brain Adam receives the gift of reason from God is compatible with the life philosophy of Michelangelo himself?
Obviously yes.

Born in the heyday of the Renaissance, the artist adhered to the philosophy of Neoplatonism and, as noted by Dr. Meschberger, the followers of this trend of thought believed, among other things, that "the divine part received by man from the Creator is the mind." Michelangelo has repeatedly stated this 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 in anatomy? Those who dispute Dr. Meschberger's theory doubt that the master possessed 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 abbot of the Florentine church, 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 the civil authorities. Far from human eyes, Michelangelo could thus calmly dissect the brain and study it.
“Macroscopic anatomy,” says Dr. Meschberger, “consists of removing the entire brain from the cranium in order to observe it. And, as soon as you think that this organ is the seat of the mind, then to depict this function you will draw the brain.
The frescoes are painted on fresh plaster, which absorbs water, in which the pigments are suspended. 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 believe Michelangelo did just that,” says Dr. Meschberger. "His sketch was a brain outline, inside which he placed images of people, God and angels."
There is no doubt that the artist was inspired, and many of his contemporaries considered him a divine creation. He could create with deep penetration into the spheres not only artistic and philosophical, but also scientific. He possessed the art of investing in his works a more or less explicitly rich symbolism and he did this always with an impeccable technique of performance.
In the Sistine Chapel, he created scenes of enormous complexity, working in a technique about which he openly said that he did not like it.
450 years after his death, experts are still puzzling over deciphering all the symbols that he introduced into this fresco.
This time, the curtain was lifted over the secret message contained in the most famous scene of the painting of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel has amazed visitors for over five hundred years. Every year, this 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 given to him with difficulty and, according to Michelangelo himself, no money would have been enough to pay for his hellish torments and sacrifices, which he was forced to make.

He painted all the frescoes while standing, and not lying on his back, as many believe. Holding up the arms and head for hours on end caused terrible headaches and muscle cramps.

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 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 forests for himself, on which it was convenient to work on the painting of 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 their 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 retaining the right to choose 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 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 the incredibly accurate anatomy have inspired generations of artists and scientists. The fresco "Creation of Adam", in which the fingers of God and Adam almost touch, is one of the most recognizable and copied works of art in the history of mankind.

Hidden symbols

Although in 1508 there was a heyday of the high Renaissance in the courtyard, the church was still distinguished by extreme severity, did not like and in every possible way suppressed the attempts of great minds to spread too progressive ideas.

This is why the suggestion 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 surname was Rovere, translated from Italian - oak.

Symbols of Judaism

Acorns weren't 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 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 strayed too far from its Jewish roots.

Image of God

However, Michelangelo himself strongly departed from Judaism at the moment when he decided to portray God.

Christianity is the only Abrahamic religion that allows people to create the image of God. Before Michelangelo, in Western art, God was portrayed either as a hand or as a source of light, but did not take on 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 "Creation of Adam", namely the image of God and the angels around him. In 1990, physician Frank Lynn Meschberger discovered that the image of the human brain is hidden in the image of God and his retinue. According to art critics, 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 resemble the brain in shape, but also individual elements of the fresco (for example, the leg of an angel) almost exactly repeat the outlines of the 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 Separating Light from Darkness fresco. Under the raised chin of God, on his neck, part of the human brain is clearly traced, namely the trunk, part of the temporal lobe and the medulla oblongata.

According to them, Michelangelo, who has been actively studying anatomy on corpses 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 in addition to the brain, the artist depicted other internal organs.

Not without the feminine principle. The ram's skull, which is depicted eight times on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, is very similar to the female reproductive organs, the researchers said.

In addition, on the frescoes, several times there are triangular shapes depicted with a point downward, 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.

It is atypical for all Western art of that time that in many of the 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 and the 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, remind her of the 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 discerned?

MOSCOW, 4 Feb - 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 interfere with his creativity 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 painters and sculptors of the Renaissance and of humanity as a whole - for 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.

One of the main secrets of Michelangelo was that, according to Davide Lazari from the University of Florence (Italy), how a great artist worked in his old years, if, according to the recollections of his nephew Lionardo Simoni, he suffered from serious problems with joint mobility. what most biographers of Buonarroti consider to be a consequence of the development of gout.

Lazzeri and his colleagues questioned this and thoroughly studied what the hands of the master 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 memories of relatives and friends.

Scientists have figured out how the "apostolic blessing" gesture originatedThe famous Catholic gesture of blessing - the sign of the cross overshadowing the faithful, performed with a half-open hand with a folded little finger and ring finger, arose due to the fact that the Apostle Peter suffered from damage to the ulnar nerve.

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 what the maestro's left hand looked like on them. According to them, Buonarroti did experience severe joint pain, but the reason for 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 in the vicinity of these bones of visible signs of inflammation, 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 at least another 15 years after the painting of these portraits, the question arises, how did he manage to fight the disease? According to Lazzeri and his colleagues, Michelangelo both helped and hindered his desire to work constantly - all the time working through pain, the artist slowed down the destruction of the joints and adapted to the constant limitation in their mobility.

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 be in Paradise after death, because he did not leave behind his offspring on earth, but only soulless stone statues. Although there was an extraordinary woman in the life of a great genius - a muse and beloved.

Bringing creative projects to life, the master could spend years in quarries, where he chose suitable blocks of marble and paved roads for their transportation. Michelangelo tried to do everything with his own hands, he was an engineer, and a laborer, and a stonemason.

The life path of the great Buonarroti was full of amazing labor exploits, which he performed, grieving and suffering, as if not of his own free will, but forced by his genius. And with a sharp and extremely strong character, he had a will harder than granite itself.

Mika'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 explains his isolation, irritability and unsociability.

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/219410677.jpg "alt =" (! LANG: Italian painting by 12-year-old Michelangelo: earliest work." title="Italian painting by 12-year-old Michelangelo: earliest work." border="0" vspace="5">!}

Having reached the age of 13, Mike told his own father, who wanted to give his son a decent financial education, that he intends 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 =" (! LANG: 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 very young Michelangelo Buonarroti, and he was at that time only 15 years old. And two years later, the novice sculptor already had marble reliefs "Madonna at the Stairs" and "Battle of the Centaurs".

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">!}

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 sculpture that can be rolled down a mountain is good, and not a single part will break off from it."

The only masterpiece of a genius with his autograph

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0010.jpg "alt =" (! LANG: Fragment.

He made this signature in a fit of anger at the visitors to the temple, who attributed his creation to another sculptor. And a little later, the master repented of his attack of pride and never again signed any of his works.

4-year 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 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 doing 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, shrouded in secrets and speculation.

There have always been many rumors around the famous sculptor's personal life.
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 support of the version of homosexuality, Michelangelo said only the fact that he was never married. He himself explained it as follows: “Art is jealous,” Michelangelo said, “and requires the whole person. I have a spouse who owns everything, and my children are my works. "

Some researchers believed that Michelangelo avoided physical sex altogether, whether with women or with men. Others considered him bisexual. However, as an artist, he preferred male nudity to female, and in his love sonnets, dedicated mainly to men, homoerotic motives are clearly present.

The first mentions of a romantic character will appear only when Michelangelo is already over fifty. Having met a young man named Tommaso de'Cavalieri, the master devotes numerous love poems to him. But this fact is not reliable evidence of their intimate relationship, since disclosing 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 to be careful.

But one thing is certain, that these two people were connected by deep friendship and spiritual closeness until the death of the master. It was Tomasso who sat at the bedside of his dying friend until his last breath.

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 military leader, the 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 state of mind of a lonely genius.

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

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0029.jpg "alt =" (! LANG: Michelangelo at the coffin of Vittoria Colonna kissing the hand of the deceased. Author: Francesco Jacovacci." title="Michelangelo at the coffin 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 had only kissed 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

https://static.kulturologia.ru/files/u21941/buanarotti-0006.jpg "alt =" (! LANG: Tomb of Buonarotti in Florence." title="Tomb of Buonarotti in Florence." border="0" vspace="5">!}

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

Thus, the crown of creativity of the genius master of the Renaissance - transformed from a 5-meter block of spoiled marble into a masterpiece, glorified him all over the world and is still considered one of the most famous and perfect works of art.