Vol 2, No 5
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THE SISTINE CHAPEL
The Sistine Chapel was built between 1475 and 1483 and measures 40.93 meters long and 13.41 meters wide. The Temple of Solomon as described in the Old Testament has these exact measurements. Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to repaint the ceiling. He painted it between 1508 and 1512.
Dr. Frank Meshberger of St John's Medical Center in
Anderson, Indiana is a neurologist who has studied this panel extensively.
He feels God is clearly not "breathing" life into Adam.
Adam's eyes are open and his body appears to be alive.
Adam does not look like the dead Christ in the pieta.
Dr. Meshberger feels God is giving Adam intellect thus separating
man from animals.
He points out the fact that God appears as the human brain in cross section.
We know Michelangelo did dissections of cadavers and had an intimate
knowledge of human anatomy.
Did he know that our intellect comes from our brain?
Is God placing a soul in Adam?
Note that Adam is naked and God is clothed. Why?
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Michelangelo was to paint the Twelve Apostles and a few ornaments on
the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which had been decorated by
fifteenth-century artists as a starry sky.
He had always insisted that he was a sculptor.
Now, he had to learn the art of fresco painting,
and practice it on a vault while lying on his back.
The entire ceiling is divided into many panels of which nine are
large bays. These bays contain the story of Genesis from the
Separation of Light from Darkness to the Drunkenness of Noah.
Michelangelo did not provide these names; they were bestowed later.
Today, the most famous one has been named "Creation of Adam".
For 500 years, it has been said to depict God breathing life into man
as described in Genesis.